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11 January 2009

Lazy blogger

That would be me. Vacation was relaxing and full of resting, but I still wasn't ready to get back to the city and start work. It took me like 3 days to even open my suitcase... oops.

The first week back wasn't horrendous, like I was expecting. For some reason the past week was plagued with absences, and I only had 4 students for 3 of the 5 days, so that definitely made the week easier. I got a new U shaped table for my class so I was able to move my bean shaped one over to where my SmartBoard is. Sounds silly but it was SO exciting. The U shape is better than the bean shape because you can actually physically reach the kids. Not as much work space, but proximity is definitely my #1 priority. One of my lower-functioning students doesn't have any skills yet for whole or small group instruction and has been sitting at a separate desk instead of the table with everyone else. However I'm slowly trying to incorporate him into more small and whole group instruction activities so he has the opportunities to learn those skills, and the U shape will definitely be a huge help in that.

I also (finally) got a literacy curriculum! 4 months into the school year... but better late than never, right? My school has given me "Fundations" by the Wilson program, does anyone have experience with it? It seems to be pretty comprehensive, we'll see how it works out. The other 1st grade teacher at my school is also just getting familiar with the program, so hopefully we can collaborate on some things. Ideally, I'd like to split our two classes into two different literacy groups and have her take one group and I take another. Then we can switch groups every month or something. Maybe won't happen this year but it's definitely a goal for next year.

Well it's already Monday morning (12:04 am)... oops again. Better get some sleep to kick off the week. Happy Monday everyone!

1 comment:

Angela Watson said...

Yes, it does sound silly, but a U-table is INFINITELY better than a bean table. That little bit of extra table taken out in the middle make s a world of difference in how easily you can reach students. At least physically. ;-)