It's Opening Day!

Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but I have been a busy teacher/mom/wife/PERFORMER!! It has been a crazy month and a half, but Shrek! The Musical opens tonight! Your children have been so amazing as I have been rehearsing and while my patience could be wearing thin, they have kept me going with their amazing-ness! I can't wait for them to see the show on Monday. On that note, thank you for being so understanding at Open House! Obviously, I was not there. :/ If you need answers to anything not covered or clarification on something, just ask! We are well into our study of communities, and I hope that you have been able to glean from your student at least a little bit of what has been going on in class. We are planning a new city, learning how other communities around the world are similar to and different from our own, discovering what cities need in order to stay organized...in other words, we are learning a LOT. This morning, we had a visitor from the City Development department and learned even more about what goes into building something new. The students were even issued building permits for their contribution to Electric City. Be on the lookout tonight for more about that! In Math, students are exploring problem solving strategies. A few things have come home for practice. You will probably notice that, more than likely, we are not learning math in exactly the same way you (and me, too!) learned Math. It is much more focused on number sense and the development of thinking strategies. If you ever need support for math at home, please let me know! Small group reading is going, and I am constantly making adjustments. At home, please make sure your student is reading and completing their bookwork. It shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. If they are reading a picture book, have them read it to you in the car on the way to your evening's activities! :) It is difficult to have an appropriate discussion if students only touch the book in class. Lastly, I have absolutely LOVED your feedback in the student Newsbooks. I have been able to provide additional support and reflect on my practices simply through what your student writes and how you respond. I hope you are enjoying them, too. Thank you, thank you for you positive support through the first month of the school year. I feel that we are off to an incredible start, and I hope you do, too!

After only 8 days...

Wow! I can't believe everything we have accomplished in a week and a half of school! We are well into our first Math investigation. Be sure to ask your students about using math tools, the games they play in math, and math workshop in second grade. In reading, we are diligently working to finish start of the school year assessments so we can accurately move students forward in their reading. We have started reader's workshop and learned how to rotate through stations while I am working with a student or small group. The new writing program is off and running! I am learning a lot this year as well, and am excited to see how I improve as a writing teacher while my students improve as a writer. Ask your student about "letting their story grow" and telling it across their fingers. Remind them to think of ideas to record in their idea file, and that those ideas can come from anywhere! We have introduced the first I.B. theme of the year, How We Organize Ourselves. Students should be able to start telling you what it means to be part of a community, both locally and globally. The first project letter came home today (Wednesday), and I can't WAIT to get this project started. I already have photos from a few really awesome places, thanks to my friends. I used FaceBook to network with my well-traveled friends- you can do the same in addition to the mailed letter. This is the first time for this particular project in second grade. It came about in our reflection on last year's community unit. We really want to emphasize the internationally-minded aspect of I.B., and hope that this project will be a great start. For all of the truly wonderful things, we have had a few bumps in the road. Most of them will fade as students adjust to second grade and move away from being first graders. However, please talk with your students about listening the first time, asking friends for help first, and taking care of themselves rather than making sure everyone else is doing the right thing. :) This has been THE best start to a school year. This year is going to be great!

Getting ready for a new school year

I am a terrible blogger. Now that I have that out in the open, I can also tell you that I really, really, want to be better. I would seriously love it if I had one (very kind) classroom parent who would sort of be my "blogger cop" and just gently remind me with a sweet text message to post something on the blog. :) Speaking of text messaging, I do have a really cool new way to stay in touch with parents through texting! It's an app called Remind 101 and I would love it if ALL of this year's families would join our classlist. All you have to do is text @bechtel to (205) 409-4702. I can send group and individual texts with important information and you can text me as well! Please know that this is a text only number and is not a live phone number. I'm so excited to give this a try, especially for those days that I might need to very quickly reach everyone. Sign up!