Getting Started

Where to begin? That was the question I asked myself when I was handed the keys to my first classroom last month. I was fortunate enough to get a job at the school where I did my student teaching. I was doubly fortunate to get to teach third grade. That means I get to teach some of the same students I had last year during student teaching. I am already comfortable with the faculty and school policies. This turned out to be my perfect world. Now here I was standing in "my" classroom. Now what? The furniture is everywhere. Shelves are filled with "stuff". I don't even know where to begin. School is still two months away, but I am working at my other job all summer. I am going to have to get started and pace myself. 

The wall of shelves after I sorted and organized some things.
It's still not quite finished.

    

First things first, I plan. I need ideas. The school's theme this year is Peace, Love, and Learning. I googled phrases for bulletin boards. I googled clipart. I even googled fancy fonts. After all of that googling, I decided that I should probably think about what sort of things I wanted to do for classroom management. I want to make sure my classroom is a community. I want the students to be independent. Pinterest to the rescue. I got lots of great ideas there. How did teachers ever teach without the internet? I'll share the wonderful ideas I used and adapted as I put them into effect. I hope most of the techniques succeed, but I am sure there will be lots of trial, error, and adaptation going on along the way.