First Day and pictures!!

Today was an AWESOME first day. I have some of the cutest little firsties!!! Though my back was absolutely killing and I had to sit most of the time, though I sat in the front of the room and stayed with the kids, I felt awful that I had to sit :(. I wish this surgery nonsense would hurry and go away!

I never had the chance to upload pictures so here are the pictures from my classroom. 1 of the photos are from when my room was half way organized (even though it looks completely awful) and the rest are of ALMOST complete. I still have a few things to clean up, but for the most part it's done.

Click here to see the rest of the photos on my picasa.

Now for some adorable stories from the day! At my school our students are split up by gender. In the Jewish Orthodox religious it is inappropriate to put males and females together when they are learning or praying. There is reason why but I honestly am not sure 100% what it is. I just work there :p lol. So I have my girls in the morning and my boys in the afternoon. For our getting to know each other project we did a project where students answered a few questions about themselves and made a person to look like them. One of the questions was "I like to ________." One of my adorable little ones wrote something I couldn't read so I asked her to read it to me. She said "I like to feed turkey monsters." I said "Turkey Monsters? What are those?" She says "You know Ms. R, those ducks that we feed bread to!" SO CUTE! Then in the afternoon I had my boys and of course they had to be cute, too! I look very young and often get told that I don't seem my age. My parents often question my age because they don't believe I am old enough to teach. Anyhow, one of my students today, while they were doing work, jumps up from his seat and says "Ms. R, you look like a child!" I couldn't help but laugh, but I did have to tell him jumping up was inappropriate and if he wanted to tell me something he had to raise his hand. 
So day one of my first year opening my own classroom ever is DONE and it was an AWESOME day. Not nearly as bad as people say :p haha.

Don't forget to check out other pics of awesome teacher's classrooms at TBA!

Meet the teacher Monday!

Yay for meeting teachers JUST LIKE ME!!

something about me...

I am 23 years old. I graduated from FAU in December 2010. I've always wanted to be a teacher. In second grade my teacher, Miss Stepanek, asked all of us what we wanted to be, I said teacher and made that come true. I live in South Florida though I was born in Ohio and spent the first half of my short life up there. Over the summer I had back surgery because I had a pars fracture in my lower back. The doctor was concerned about my healing because the surgery was far more complicated than expected. I had back surgery in 2005 also for Scoliosis. Thankfull my healing is going well and even though I am not completely healed yet, today was the first day for teachers and I made it!

how long/short I've been teaching...

I started working on March 1st, this year so Im a new teacher. I took over a class for a teacher that was let go because she was absent too often due to illness. They liked me enough to ask me to come back this year, haha! I teach at a private Jewish school in first grade and it's quite the culture shock because I am not nearly as religious as my students. 

you might not know I...

I was a HORRIBLE student in school. I was a major behavior problem, was suspended multiple times and nearly didnt graduate high school because my gpa was low and I had no motivation to do work. I was put in honors English because I had great Reading scores but because I refused to pay attention, I failed and was put in remediation. Despite my hate for school as a child, I love teaching and wouldn't change my profession for all the money in the world.

I'm really looking forward to...

My first full year as a teacher!! woohoo!! Im looking forward to everything I am going to learn as a new teacher and expanding my knowledge and skill.

I should really work on...

Procrastination. I wait until last minute for everything and I learned last year that its a huge mistake to put anything off. I should live by the quote "Why wait until tomorrow when you can do it today?" 

I simply *cannot* live without...

Skinny markers, notecards, sticky notes, labels, binders, pencils, construction paper andddd my cellphone, internet and car, lol. 

You've now learned about me because of the awesome blog:Blog Hoppin'!

  

First day back...

Today I went back to school for a New Teacher meeting, even though I'm technically not new. The meeting was fine, no big deal, I went to my room after to see ALL my furniture was on the carpet and they cleaned my nasty tile! WOOHOO! Then I start looking through boxes that I have no idea where they came from and I've got new books OH YAH!!! I have science and social studies books! I didn't have that last year! WOOOO!
Now for a little tearjerker... I went to Michael's to pick up some last minute things and I started talking to the cashier. He was giving me my teacher discount when he said "I used to be a teacher." I asked him why he's working at Michael's if he was once a teacher and he told me he got into a really bad car accident that gave him extreme brain damage and he can no longer be a teacher. He seemed fairly young, maybe late 20s early 30s. It was really sad to hear. He said after his accident they expected him to be a vegetable because of the severity of his brain damage. After all of that he finished with "but at least I wake up and open my eyes every day." It was so touching that he could turn such an unfortunate event into something so positive. He was a nice guy and I feel bad for him, but it's nice to know he doesn't feel bad for himself. He's happy he gets up, he has a job (though not his dream job of course) and he can stand on his own two feet, open his mouth and speak, use his hands, and open his eyes in the morning. What an inspiration.

Crayon Wreath!

Thanks to all of the wonderful bloggers that I found through Teaching Blog Addicts, I saw this project and fell in love with it. I made it yesterday and absolutely ADORE it! I've been having so much fun finding new things to do to make my classroom awesome. The only problem I have is some people think it looks like a Christmas wreath and I work in a Jewish School so I don't want any parents to get angry. Hopefully that won't be the case.
I start work tomorrow (Friday) and I'm nervous!! I have so many things in my mind that I need to do but I don't know how I am going to do it all. I have a lot of ideas for decorating but I can't stand on tables like I usually do, haha. I am excited to get back into school and start my year!

Classroom Helpers, Blogging, Venturing... OH MY!

First, I worked on my classroom helper board and though it doesn't look like what it looked like in my head (last minute changes) I'm happy with it. Problem is, I can't think of what to call it! I thought "Fishing for Helpers", "Gold(fish) Helpers", "Waves of Good Help" (even though there are no waves), "School of Helpers" or "School of Workers"... but as fair as some of them are I feel like I could come up with better. Any ideas? (Some of the ideas above were posted as recommendations by friends on Facebook so I can't take all the credit).
Second, Hi, my name is Shana and I am a blogging addict. Holy crap, I've been spending the majority of my waking hours reading other teacher blogs. I've become instantly obsessed! Maybe it's because I'm stuck in bed, maybe it's cause I'm bored, I think it's just because I am extremely excited to finally be a teacher. I've always wanted to be a teacher, since I could remember, so this is like a dream come true. I'm sure some of you other teachers understand where I am coming from. Remember playing teacher with your dolls? Anyone? I did!
And finally, I've found a venture to pursue and I'm kind of excited! Okay, kind of is DEFINITELY an understatement. I saw another blogger post her store for a bag/accessory shop that I really liked looking at. I could definitely use some extra money so I think I am going to make this small investment and work on starting my own business. First year teaching and starting my own SMALL business all in one year? Hey, I can do it!

Yep, Shana Nicole Teaches, for sure!

Day 1: Dear Diary...

If massively overwhelmed had a definition in the dictionary, my name would be the example. Today is the 7th, I go back to school the 22nd. I am going to see a doctor on Monday the 8th to to give me some shots to make the pain go away. I see my surgeon again on the 15th to start physical therapy. After the surgery I had just a little over a month ago, there's this miserable pain on my left side that puts tears in my eyes every time I turn, sit, stand, lay, walk, and move my left leg. I'm terrified I won't be ready to go back to work on the 22nd because of this pain which would be really bad. This is my first year as a teacher starting from the beginning. Last year even though I took over the first grade class in March, I don't look at that as any part of my first year because it was so disorganized and such a mess that I look at as more of a long term subbing job. Now I'm walking into this room with my ideas and only my ideas that have to be enforced. I'm excited, but again, overwhelmed. I have tons of ideas and I plan on implementing most, if not all, of my ideas, but they're like a big jumble in my head. I have a couple ideas for behavior management, classroom setup, a few different lessons, but where do I start? All I know for sure is my classroom is going to be FISHY THEMED! Can you tell I'm excited for that?