Happy Thoughts!

I am a optimist through and through.  There is not a silver lining I cannot find.  With that said, even with overwhelming days I stop to remind myself of the positives.  Today I certainly stopped a few times!  At the end of the day when we are lining up for Special area and I am filled with irritation as my class is so LOUD -I realize I can't have it all.  At least they all cleaned up (and from a science experiment at that!) had ROYALs on their desk and were in line, yes even in line.  If you HEARD the class you would not believe they were in any way orderly or half way ready, at least we were ready to go and in a line :)
  Even so I did talk with four or five of them as we headed out the door (quietly finally), and clearly was not optimistic in any way.  One of my boys apologized and I did tell him I forgave him but that he should really try harder tomorrow; Sister Marilyn stopped me and whispered "you should just be happy he apologized" So TRUE!

Room/Class Managment

Having rearranged my students' desk after Christmas TWICE already, I began searching for a solution that would suit everyone's needs.  I found a picture on a teacher's wonderful site- http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/ she had a lot of pics to look at (which help, somehow the tiny squares I've drawn on paper never look the same with actual desks)  I think this will work much better because I can see everyone and everyone will be able to see me too! :) The flow of the room seems good still so I am so excited! AND I still have extra desks in the back by the Word Wall for "Work on Writing" and "Word Work"  Can't wait to see how it works Tuesday.

Daily Happenings

Just got back from Mass-Fr. Kurby ROCKS!  The children have never been so tuned in to the Mass!  Everyone loved him, we're so excited to have him here with us-looking forward to more Masses like today.

Report Cards

Report Cards go home today, but the quarter ended the last week before Christmas Vacation, so I'm hoping that parents and students haven't forgotten their most recent test grades that went home before the break.  This quarter as I printed the averages out, I was very pleased that the grades seem to have truly reflected the students' work.  Many have either not been turning in "calender questions" or participating and writing their D.O.L. in the mornings, and those students' Language grades were lower.  Last quarter there were none on "Principal's Honor Roll" this quarter we had three, and others who haven't received AB Honor Roll did!  So.....feelin' good about these report cards! :)

First Week Back

So far so good, even with just coming back from Christmas vacation my class has been getting a lot accomplished, and I seem to be on top things myself :)
I found a really great website on the Chinese zodiac for kids, we're going to graph our zodiac animals tomorrow and finish writing our characteristics for each too.  Hopefully things will go so well I'll be able to let them do some origami or paper lanterns!
Anyone interested in the website I found, here's the link:
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_new_year.htm

New Year, New Blog to add!

So here I go, creating a new blog (I've visited so many others I just had to have one myself!).  I have no idea how these other teachers do it-find the time to create not just blogs but creative handouts and what not.  I try, but my husband is not too fond of the time it takes away from family time.  After a year and a half in second grade under my belt now, I think I may be able to pull this off ! :)