First Year Fridays #1

This is my second Friday of my first year of teaching...I'm exhausted. I'm drained. I'm loving it.

I gave my first spelling test today.  This week we made a treasure map as we talked about the compass rose and keys/legends on maps.  It was fun reading and learning about pirates while discussing maps.

An idea that me and my friend, Rachel, had about keeping track of where students are is working out great. It's a cookie sheet divided into 5 sections: In Class, Bathroom, Nurse, On an Errand, Out (absent/left early). Then I took mini craft sticks, cut a magnetic strips and stuck them on the sticks, and then wrote their names on them. I debated for a while between names and numbers, but since their second graders decided to use their names to be more personal.  It's been working out quite well.  I don't have to remind them too often to move their stick, they really enjoy doing it.

I've been using my document camera a lot, I've just been using transparency over the page, so I don't have to use up the math pages, etc. I'm glad that we got our document cameras and projectors right at the beginning of the year.  Tonight, Ben moved it to the front of my room and installed the software for it on my computer. Now I just need to play more with it, to figure out how to better use it with the software.