Can I just say.....

Can I just say I love my job?!?!?!?  I do.  I would take one good day like today to get me through the 30 days in between.  Today we had a fantastic celebration, which ended in the celebration of one of our teachers, Rick Stevens.  The kids and teachers enjoyed some of the students stories and after it was all over, a few teachers left him with one last parting gift by taking some of the posters and putting them on his vehicle.

After the stingray celebration I was able to visit another 3rd grade classroom to view a me museum.  In Kelly Czarnecki's class, students enjoyed learning more about each other through the student created displays.

And somewhere in the middle of those shenanigans, we were able to celebrate a birthday in the front office.

Like I said, I love my job and everyone there.  What a great way to spend a day!!!!!

What a fun idea!!

I had the absolute please of attending an all about me student museum in Tiffany Morra's classroom today.  Student brought in three objects that best described them and had them displayed around the classroom like a mini museum.  What a great way to continue to build that deep sense of community in a class.  If you haven't met Tiffany, she teaches third grade and is also one of our team leaders.  She is a great wealth of information when it comes to using running records to organize groups.  Here are some of the mini galleries I saw today:

On a side note Tiffany also had a gallery about herself set up....Did you know that Tiffany was a gymnast?  A serious gymnast?  Competitive?  I am so glad I went to her gallery today and learned this about her, how fun!!!!!

While in Tiffany's room, I had the opportunity to see some of the other work they had done to build community during the first ten days of school.  I found this neat super hero themed classroom activity...I know, I am back on the super hero saddle, but it was too cool not to mention.  

So basically they came up with their super secret identities, their super power and 3 ways they would be a superhero.  They also created their superhero emblem.  Tiffany's is up top, but I captured a few of the most legible kid examples as well:

I am so lucky that I get to be in a position where I can enjoy all of this hard work every day.  I LOVE my job so much!!!

We are starting to rock and roll

As we near the 10 day count, I am starting to see students engrossed in curriculum.  Things are starting to rock and roll.  And guess what????  The work we are doing at Sexton is incredible!   I am so excited by what I am seeing already.  When students have journals out on their desks, I have been sneaking a peak and I am already amazed at the processes being put into place with the journals from the beginning of the year.

So what are students working on in their journals?  Well in science I am already seeing some of Paige Keeley's science probes in the journals.  Students are responding with their own thinking and then working in pairs to validate their thinking or maybe question their misconceptions.

One classroom I have seen this in action was in Kelly Czarnecki's class.  Kelly is one of our third grade teachers.  She had the probe glued right into their science journal and was also starting a bar graph to keep track of where students started in terms of their original thoughts pertaining to the probe.

If you have never seen a science probe before, they are great to use before starting a science unit.  Students become very attached to one of the opinions and will often times defend it to the very end, which makes the unit even more exciting as the students continue to try and prove each other wrong by using their science experiences.  Here is one example from a student journal.

Once the students have had an opportunity to organize their thinking, Kelly surveys the students and creates a bar graph to display initial thinking (what a great way to incorporate some math into science)!

I am so excited about the work already happening at our school.  There is such a fantastic energy in every classroom.  I really can't wait to see more journals in the month of September.  Great Job Kelly!!!

Challenge Presented

As September nears, we are all eagerly awaiting for the green light to invite JiJi the penguin back to Sexton Elementary School for math madness.  Students have the opportunity to earn recognition for achieving certain benchmarks along the way and classes can earn the coveted JiJi Penguin Beach Ball to hang in their classroom. 

A JiJi Beach Ball!!!!!!!  WHAT?!?!?!?!  That sounds exciting.  In order to win a JiJi Beach Ball your class needs to be the class with the highest syllabus progress every month.  We award a Penguin to one Primary Class and one Intermediate Class every month. 

Don't get too excited though.  Buff Craig, our amazing second grade team leader is already staking claims on the first primary JiJi Beach Ball.  She already tried to steal JiJi right out of my office. 

So my friends the challenge has been presented.  JiJi is about to take over Sexton!!!

A Sports Themed Classroom

Have you had the opportunity to visit Leanne Lapointe's classroom?  She is one of our fabulous fourth grade teacher's and her classroom is themed in a sport's theme.  Her students really buy into her theme and the team mentality.  While I know in our busy days we barely have time to visit the members of our grade level team, let alone someone who may be on the other side of the school, so here is a bit of what her students experience: 

The backdrop to Leanne's classroom is a football field.  Students are always excited to spend time reading back in this area. 

I can't wait to see what the student's will be doing with this bulletin board as the year progresses. 

Leanne has a behavior management chart just like many of our classrooms do, hers is a football themed chart.

The last superhero themed classroom (for now).

So I can't promise that this will be my last set of superhero photos, but I am going to showcase some other awesome themes after today.  To round out some of the superhero classroom themes, I found Rachel Sabba's room, one of our fabulous second grade teachers, who is also in her first year teaching.  Sexton is so lucky to have Rachel join our family!!!  Here are some of the supehero details found in her classroom:

Superhero door

Superhero behavior management

Superhero Word Wall Theme. 

Tomorrow is Friday....thank goodness for Friday!!!  I will feature another classroom theme to round out the week.  

We continue to create a family....

We are continuing with the real work:  creating safe environments for our students to thrive and flourish.  Since I am on a superhero kick, today I am going to showcase some of the superhero mission statements I found around the building.  The kiddos are just thrilled to show off their superhero mission statements, or "rules" in some cases.  Here are a few that I have found on my travels: 

The first one is from Mrs. Sackett's third grade classroom.  Her students created their superhero identities, super hero names and all.  As Stingray Superheroes, they identified how they will be superhero learners.  Don't you love how they envision themselves with their secret identities and superhero masks? 

The second one is from 2nd grade.  Mrs. Jenkins has been so excited about the superhero theme from our pre-school back to school week with staff that she has rocked it out from the ceiling to the floor in her classroom.  The students identified themselves as superheroes, created their superhero identity, and then identified a rule/expectation that they wish to see in their classroom this school year. 

I am super excited to showcase all of these amazing treasures hidden in the classrooms of my school.  This is the first time I have started a blog and actually logged on two days in a row to post.  I may be on to something.

The First Two Days of School

As the year carries on from the first day to the tenth to the 100th, I find myself getting caught up in the pressures that accompany working in the field of education.  One of my personal challenges this year was to try and take the opportunity to enjoy the pure happiness of the first ten days of school.  The first ten days of school are a magical time in the field of education.  The real expectation throughout the school, from class to class is that the children are creating bonds within the classroom that will last and carry the class as they face the many challenges the 180 school days will bring.  From the administrative standpoint, I challenged myself to enjoy this time with the teachers and with the students and to find super (hero) examples of new families being born.

So there was where my quest started today.  Mission presented and mission accepted.

So how fun is the Hulk in the classroom library?  During preschool we had a superhero theme and our second grade team has enjoyed incorporating this with their students these first few days.  Great job to Becky Jenkins in 2nd grade.  What a creative way to lure kiddos to the classroom library!  Her kiddos are already over the moon exited about the superhero activities in store for them for the next week.  They want me to come back and visit as they complete more superhero challenges and I am anxious to see what their SUPER(hero) teacher has in store for them.