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All About Me Back to School Activity
If you are tired of your usual back to school poster or writing assignment, then check out this craft activity. Engage them from day one with this craft activity where students make a 'mini-me' and fill in a book cover about themselves!
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Staying Focused on Workdays
Going back to school, even when we are at our most enthusiastic, can be tough after a long vacation. Especially when we have a list of tasks we have to complete. And when we haven’t seen our co-workers all summer and we need to catch up. And when our administrators and districts give us professional development classes when we just want to put up the alphabet posters in our room. It can be overwhelming when you enter your classroom on that first workday with chairs stacked against the wall and empty bulletin boards begging for life. Here are three tips to keep you at your most productive and to respect…
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Keeping Your Bulletin Board Headings Straight
It’s definitely back to school season – I have seen so many beautiful bulletin boards in the Bulletin Board FB group! I have been working in Mr. B’s classroom for a couple of days helping him to set up his kindergarten room for the new year, and he is not particularly interested in classroom decor so I have had free reign. His only caveats were not to do anything with shiplap, cacti, llamas or any thing too cutesy. He wanted bold and bright, so we went with pirates! (You can check out our favorite pirate books in this post). One thing that I have had to deal with over the…
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How to have a B.R.I.G.H.T. Back to School Season
It’s here! Summer is over and we are back in school. For some it is a first job, a new career after working so hard in college and the first time having their OWN students and their own classroom. Such an exciting and overwhelming time! For others, it is a change of school, a different grade level, or a change of direction. That is equally nerve-racking and exhilarating. And many others are in the same school, the same grade with the same teacher co-workers, ready to nurture and grow a whole new group of students. Having a B.R.I.G.H.T beginning back to school season is a simple way of remembering 6…
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Getting the Most out of Meet and Greet Night
When I began teaching in the States I dreaded ‘Meet and Greet’ night. I had never experienced it in the UK and wasn’t sure what to expect. That first night was a mess. I appeared disorganized and spent too long with some parents and barely met others. Some people went home with important paperwork, others didn’t. I couldn’t put any names to faces and I worried that parents thought I was incompetent. (Full disclosure: I probably was). But what doesn’t break you makes you stronger, and by Year 2 I had upped my game and knew a little more about what I needed to do. If you are about to…
