First Day in the Jungle...of Hope!

Hi all! Today was the first day of school for me and my new Kinders and even though it was only a half day I am EXHAUSTED! I think it is probably because I spent last night tossing and turning and having the requisite teacher dream. You know, the one where you show up late for the first day with nothing prepared and the principal asking you why you are wearing your pajamas and bathrobe?

Despite a restless night and fast-paced day, I think our first day went really well. It was certainly over in a flash! I was able to teach using WBT methods for the first time live. It was exciting to watch them remembering to say "Yes" when I said "Class" and playing along with the Scoreboard. Inside I was thinking, "Oh my goodness, this is actually working just  like the book/website/training videos say(s)."

Here's the only problem I ran into with Whole Brain Teaching today...ME! A few times during the day I caught myself using "SSSSH" instead of the Class/Yes. And when I remembered and did use Class/Yes, it worked so much better. Old habits really do die hard!

You know what was great too? I had several girls who were very shy and whose moms had told me they didn't like to participate who were right there with the rest of the class and even volunteering answers. I am so thrilled!

If you haven't already checked out the Whole Brain Teaching website, what are you waiting for? Click here to start putting the joy and fun back into your teaching day and to start helping your students learn their way.

Here are some more pictures of my room. Note that I took these before last night when I did my last minute tidy up. These are mainly for my mom who is in Kenya right now. Mom, if you see this - I missed calling you today - love you!

 I hung the word wall flip charts over my rather unsightly book shelves to create more storage.

 Here's my library. I organized it with wonderful free labels from Kindergarten Works. She is SO AWESOME! The tables to the left are for my science and social studies free explore tables and I now have a bulletin board hanging there (because I finally got my white board). You can see the labeled storage bins below.

 These are my classroom cubbies. I used the duct tape idea to cover up the chipped paint and the big binder clips (from Pinterest) are there for names. The bottom row of cubbies hold workbooks/materials for the year (there are more now by the way).

 On the other side of the cubbies you can see my loft and puppet theater. The homemaking area is under the loft. I used the blue pocket chart there to hold pictures of our families. We hung them up there today.

Here's my math meeting board. We will be recording our math meeting data in our calendar binders every day too. 

Here's a view of my room from the front door. Again, this was taken a few weeks ago so please excuse the mess on the tables. I have some more pics from the first day of school that I will (I hope) get uploaded tomorrow!

Mrs. Armstrong