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Ahhhhh.
My oldest daughter landed a job (hooray!) and will work next week, but this week is all about small errands, friends, reading and rest for the three of us. My husband is happy to head off to work - he can't deal with too much unstructured time.
Since I've had more time to relax, I've spent more time on Twitter (I'm @ReadSoMuch) with my Personal Learning Network. When people ask how that works, I tell them it's all about who you follow, and what you are looking for.
I'm looking for lots of ideas for my resource room and school reading community...
- read alouds
- organizational tips (!)
- ways to engage kids (and teachers) in reading
- how not to be overwhelmed by the Common Core State Standards
Now that I've had more time to research and dig into many tweets and blog posts, my mind is bursting with ideas. The challenge I have is organizing (!) these ideas and figuring out how to best implement them.
Some of my plans for the beginning of the school year:
- Bring my books from home (labeled with levels and organized (mostly!) into book boxes) and reboot my classroom library
- Ask teachers to share pictures of themselves from elementary school along with a book cover of their favorite read - this will share our "reading lives" (even if we were reluctant readers) with our students
- Use Evernote instead of a planner (but I will miss writing with my colorful pens!) to keep track of team meetings
- Journal many times during the week to empty my brain of stress and great ideas I want to capture
I'm happy to have plans, but I'm not stressing myself about any of them. My plan is to avoid the back-to-school nightmares and ease into my 13th year of teaching.
It is the time to start ramping up our teacher minds. Sounds like you have done plenty of brain work already and are ready to put that work into action. I love doing that this time of year and also being able to take the day off if I choose because I don't "have" to be working. Enjoy and avoid those nightmares!
ReplyDeleteI have started to have the teacher dreams again which signals to me that it is time to start doing some planning. I still have about a month, but this is always the time when I get started making my lists for the beginning of the school year. Enjoy your last two weeks of relaxation. It sounds like you have a great set of plans--love the idea of sharing teacher's reading lives in this way.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a plan and the beginning of being organized. Deep breathes and stay stress free (at least for the next two weeks!)
ReplyDeleteLove your idea number four - journaling. It is something I love to do, too, to alleviate stress, and something that seems I do less frequently once the school year is underway. Here's hoping you meet your goal!
ReplyDeleteSo fun to see your thinking here. I'm still trying to figure out Twitter. Maybe I should check out @ReadSoMuch. I'm hoping to avoid the back-to-school nightmares too (although I had one in the middle of summer already).
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