Loving It

Sorry I haven't posted anything for awhile. I have been battling some respiratory crud, and haven't been sleeping restfully, so I am exhausted. I am having a great time during the day, however. I love my class! It is a wonderful mix of twenty-one students. It is one of the smallest I have ever had. I have a few special ed students in this inclusion classroom, but also have many of my students working at or above grade level. I have two or three that read and do math above the eighth grade level. The review materials we must cover is so far beneath them. I am going to pretest the next twenty math lessons with a benchmark test, and see if we can jump them ahead.

Both reading classes are reading The Best School Year Ever, one of my favorite reads. (In spite of my health, this has started off as one of my best school years ever.) This story ties in with Bucket Fillers as it talks about "Compliments for Classmates" and finding good in everyone, including the notorious Herdmans. I am a bit overwhelmed because of all the changes I am trying to implement with the Daily 5 and CAFE being just a small piece of the change. I am loving teaching math again. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. I think I will have a huge learning curve with adding common core, as we have some gaps to fill in our current curriculum. I am using some Teachers pay Teachers purchases and Pinterest finds to help, and will be adding in more technology.

Hope your year is off to a great start, and you are loving it as much as I am.