Anyway...now it is summer and I am happy to say that I am enjoying time at home with my family and friends. I am still looking at blogs and doing some summer reading for school and of course thinking about this coming school year.
Here is what is happening at my school:
- We are going from 25 students to 30+ kids in our classrooms
- Our students are only in school for 3 hours and 20 minutes
- We are having yet another new Principal (yet to be hired)
- Not sure if we will be AM/PM and sharing classrooms or getting our own rooms and staggering the day with early and late start
- Starting RTI (if the new Principal wants us to)
- Using Aims Web as the universal screener (again if the New Principal wants that)
- Having 2 new teachers on our K Team of 4 (this past year we had 4 new teachers who were sadly laid off) These 2 new teachers for this year are coming from other grades at our school
I guess that really isn't a lot of new things, but it all feels very "up in the air" for me. I am waiting anxiously to see if I will have my own room or if I will be sharing. That will make a difference on how I arrange my room and set things up.
Do any of you have your own classroom and stagger the start times so you can have smaller groups at either end of the day? If so, how do you like that schedule? Do you feel it is helpful for your students? I would really appreciate any feedback you have.
I hope you are all enjoying your summer and are getting recharged. I will be attending the Vegas "I Teach K!" conference for the first time. Just for 2 days, but I am really excited! I am so happy that the blogger meet-up is on the night I am there. It will be so fun! I hope to learn a lot of new stuff and add some to my blog!
16 comments:
WOW!! We have been doing RTI for a couple of years. We have done it differently each year. I think we are going to meet this summer and come up with a plan on how we can do it differently again. Glad you took a break for yourself!!
Robynn
BusyBees
I am so glad to see you back! I'd been wondering where your blog went! LOL I know how crazy the end of the year can get!! We are starting "Early Bird/Late Bird" schedule for the first time this year. We have 3 1/2 Kinder classes (one is a K/1 combo) and we all have our own classrooms. Not sure how the schedule will work out, but I do look forward to having just 1/2 of the kids at the beginning and the end of the day. We are going from 22 to 30 per class... I am quite anxious about the increased class size, but maybe the split schedule will help. Enjoy your summer!
I just moved from 18 years in first grade to Kindergarten last year and loved it. We too have 30+ students in our classroom and 30 first graders was hard! I am in my own room and I split my day. My AMers come from 8:20-11:40 and My PMers come from 10:00-12:20 and I LOVE it. I only have all 30 for about 1 1/2 hours and we do centers, calendar, library, computers, etc. during this time. It makes for a long day but it is sooo worth it. I had a chance to go back to first grade next year but chose to stay in K because of the schedule and only having 16 or less for most of the day.
Welcome back! As soon as Target puts out the school supplies--mmm, around July 5?--summer feels "done". I've been milking it for all it's worth!
I teach full day K. I hate to hear the high numbers in kindergarten (in any grade). But I know you will make it work.
Have SO MUCH FUN in Vegas!!!
ReadWriteSing
Good Lord in heaven! You really DO have a lot of stuff up in the air!!! I guess at a certain point you just have to leave it up to God and just let Jesus take the wheel.
I'll be looking forward to chatting with you again in Las Vegas!!!!
See you soon,
Heidi Butkus
http://heidisongs.blogspot.com
Thank you all for such helpful comments!
Robynn: I'll be talking to you more about RTI for sure!
Ilovetotchkinder: Looks like you have a great planstarted. I hope that's what I get to do!!!
Keep in touch and we can go through this together!
KraftyKathy: Thank you so much for your encouraging words. That is exactly what I hope to do!
Chrissy: Hi there! Glad to be back!
Heidi: I can't wait to see you in Vegas my friend! Yes, I have brought all of this to the Lord and know that He is in this with me.
We just posted FREE Pete the Cat activities for starting the year!
The Kindergarten Goonies XOXO
www.kindergartengoonies.blogspot.com
Welcome back to blog. your blog is interesting to read because you are writing about your class room,kids, school and your family. It remember my school life now. Thanks a lot.
We have full day Kindergarten, I cannot imagine fitting RTI in with half day or this staggered day... I would do RTI if you can squeeze it in. We met with our TIER 3 daily and many of them surpassed our TIER 2s... so it definitely is worth it.
Hi Cindy,
I shared a room with a partner for fifteen years.
We loved being together and it worked out to be a great partnership since our skills are very different. We saw 31 kids in the morning and 31 in the afternoon. I would be glad to tell you all about this when I see you at the conference!!!!!
email me your cell number so I can hug you and spend some time with you.
Fran
We jumped up from 20 kids to 30 just this last year and we had them all-day. It was extremely difficult with that many! This next year our principal is letting us try out the split day schedule as well. Early birds will go 8-12:30 and late birds 9:30-2:00. I'm looking forward to having a small group during literacy time!
I just awarded you two awards. Come by and claim them at It's a Jungle Out There !!! :)
We implemented the early bird/late owl schedule this past year and had incredible success. Just loved the staggered start with students.
8:15 - 8:45 math concepts
8:45-9:25 small group literacy
9:25-9:40 exploration
9:40-10:00 transition/recess
10:00-10:40 Whole group - calendar, songs, poems, core language lessons - literacy centers
10:45-11:15 ELD
11:10-11:20 Handwriting
11:20-11:35 dismissal early birds - transition
Repeat morning.
We changed quite a bit our schedule to meet the needs of students - really fine tuning.
I have given you an award! Stop by my blog to check it out!
Wow! 30 kindergarteners?!? I teach full day kindergarten in a small school where 18 students is a big kinder class. Two years ago I only had 14 kids! (I'll have 18 this fall.) Good luck!
Linda
kindergartendoodles.blogspot.com
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