Back to School

School has begun. I moved rooms this year. I am back in an old building. I love it though. I have SPACE! I have windows. I have sunlight. I feel free from the building that reminds me a little of a locked facility with little sunlight and drab color. I have new tile. I have fresh white paint. I have matching TABLES again and bright blue chairs. 

For some reason the pictures loaded backward. Scroll down to see what I started with. Nothing. I still have no technology, but we are getting there. I hung the blinds and scrubbed the best I could. I have a FULL class this year. I love the group already. We are going to be able to do so much this year. Did I mention I have SPACE? I am so excited we can move around! 

I spent the entire month of July revamping my stuff. I consolidated. I created. I cleaned. I organized. I printed. I laminated. I am ready. I am so excited about ditching the textbooks and teaching the standards. I am thrilled to have the freedom to meet my students where they are and watch them grow. The ONLY textbooks in my room are our reading series, but that is as a supplement and I couldn't be happier. 

I hate being told what to teach, how to say it, and when to do it. We are finally out of the cookie cutter mold that made me forget my creativity. I have read blogs, watched periscopes, searched, read books, and I am so excited that I finally have that love for teaching back. I don't dread going to work. The focus is the 24 kids in my room. We have a set up for collaboration. We are getting set up for research through technology and I am excited to see how far we can go in the next few months. 

Since I started teaching, there have been so many shifts and implementations. We started with figure it out, here you go. We moved to this is what you will do when we say you will do it and the blue text will show you what to say. Fidelity was key to success. It didn't work. We switched gears and went to research when told. Through out the blue text. Spent tons of money on new black text. It didn't work. Now, I can finally teach. Our state superintendent is phenomenal and wants growth. Isn't that why we are there? To grow! AYP and No Child Left Behind are OVER! I couldn't be happier about it. The mess that tagged along with it made me dread going to a job that I once thought I loved. 

I can finally do what is best for my kids. I teach with enthusiasm. I can slow down. I can speed up. I can go back. I can skip ahead. It doesn't matter what so and so down the hall is doing. It doesn't matter what people three miles down the road are doing. The focus is on the 24 people in my room. 

Let's do this!