First day of school

Since I looped with my class- this was the easiest day every! Here is a little bit about our first day of school. 


Morning: 
Arrived to school and put up all the materials
Reading of Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School
Writing "Our Promise to Each Other" and signing it


Afternoon- I wanted to get students started in the routine as soon as possible. 


Interactive Read-Aloud: First Day Jitters


Class book- I had everyone draw a picture of themselves and write two sentences related to them. Then I read the sentences and had students guess who it was. 


Getting to Know each other- passed around a ball and had students tell names, favorite food, color, sing their favorite song, etc. 


Literacy Workstation- Established routines and expectations


Storytelling for writing workshop- I had a few students tell stories about things that happened this summer. 

Great book- Work Hard.Be Nice.

I am currently reading a great book- Work Hard. Be Nice. 
This book chronicles the story of two teachers  (Levin and Feinberg)who created a program to help disadvantaged students succeed. There are some great quotes that I really loved from this book. The  program that they created was founded by following some simple "rules" or mottos.


"There are  no shortcuts" - they learned this from Rafe Esquith ( a former Disney teacher of the year). Accomplishing great things requires hard work. They taught their students that there are not shortcuts. In fact, part of their program required student to come early and stay late and to come to school on Saturdays. 


"Work hard. Be nice" -  students in their classes had two hours of homework every night. They were required to call their teacher at home if they were having any problems with homework. 


4 principles for success: 
More time for instruction
High quality teaching
parental support
administrative support


One of my favorite "strategies" that these teachers used were parental involvement. These two teachers did not wait for parents to come to school. They went to their students' homes to meet parents and to discuss any problems. Although these two teachers later started a charter school (I'm not a big fan ), they began with big dreams and the desire for their students to succeed. I highly recommend this book. 

Introduction

My name is Sanjuana. I am a first grade teacher and primary literacy coordinator in Dalton, GA. I love my job! I enjoy spending time with my wonderful family and friends. I am also a Ph.D student at GA state. I am pursuing a a degree in teaching and learning with a concentration in language and literacy. So... I am very busy, but I love my life!