Monday, September 2, 2013

Changes in my classroom for 2013-2014

Last week was the first week of school with kids.

It had its positives and it had a few negatives.

Mostly positive was that I got to see my old students who I get to teach again. Due to the nature of my class, there is a possibility that I can teach many of my students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. This year I am seeing about 65% of the 6th graders I taught the year prior. That has some negatives as far as behavior, but it is really nice to know the names of all my kids in 4 of my 6 classes.

I also get to teach 14 of my 7th graders from last year--they are now 8th graders and the most awesome kids I could ever fathom to teach. Most of them are Gifted and Talented--and the few who aren't probably need to be referred. They are a bit chatty, but we also have the best discussions. They are 100% my guinea pigs, as they are first hour and I don't technically have a curriculum for them. I get to create what we are going to learn and I love it. We are starting blogs on Tuesday (via kidblogs.com) and I also rolled out genius hour to them last week. (If you don't know about genius hour, you should check it out:  http://www.geniushour.com/ ) They were so excited. One group wanted to improve on the airfoils they created last year. Another group wanted to make electricity out of lemons and light up a football field. Another group wants to make their own watercolors and recreate a masterpiece (or create their own)....tbd. I was pretty happy to see how excited they were. I hope to keep the momentum going.

I also have a twitter page for my class, @wmsgtt. I haven't taught my kids how to use twitter yet, but once I do--I am hoping I can convince several of them to sign up.

We also have some really fancy cupboards and bookshelves that were brought in for storage. It is really going to help alot when we start building playgrounds, wiring some electrical circuits, and building with the VEX kits.

I am pretty excited for the year. It is a bit challenging because I have 3 preps that are not doing anything close to each other. I am also still trying to get my knee stronger after my surgery--but I am hopeful in another month I should be good to go.



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