9:30 a.m.

At 9:30 this morning, all of the first graders at my school were in the cafeteria. Laughing their little butts off at seeing my teammates and me dressed in our pjs and taking a picture.

They went off to each of our classrooms and did their final winter station activity. Mine came back and we worked for a bit on writing letters persuading the Grinch to smile. Some of the reasons they came up with? "Christmas is awesome." "being happy is better than being sad" "it's important to be nice."

We wrapped up the day by drinking hot cocoa, finding a comfy spot and watching The Polar Express. I passed out candy canes and even though I was losing patience with how rowdy they were, I still smiled and gave them great big hugs and wished them a good break.

I write this, because at 9:30 a.m,. at another elementary school far away from mine, these fun events were not the case. It makes me cry when I think of how someone went and killed innocent children. Innocent children that just want to be loved. That had their WHOLE lives ahead of them. That were probably excited that Christmas is getting closer and Santa will soon be here.

So just like many of you, I too am sending prayers to Newtown, CT. But I'm also sending prayers to each one of my students tonight. Prayers that their parents hold them tight and give them hugs and kisses and that they stay safe over break. And when I see them again on Janaury 2nd, I will give each one the biggest hug and tell them how I happy I am to see them.

Woo! It's Friday!

Oh thank goodness, this week is finally over! It's been super long but great.

1. Survived my first week back in first grade and at a new school. Completely forgot how chatty firsties can be!

Source: someecards.com via Nancy on Pinterest

2. Survived Open House. My ELL parents were grateful for my mom and my non ELL parents seemed comfortable with the fact that their child is part of this class.

Source: someecards.com via Nilda on Pinterest

3. My two year anniversary was this week. Will be celebrating it tomorrow at the Melting Pot!

4. Will be helping out new freshman at my alma mater tomorrow. Love the good ol FC!

5. My school picture turned out great!

Hope you had a good week too! Hopefully I'll relax this weekend. Linking up Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog.

Heat pad is my bff...

HIMYM is one of my absolute favorite show. I'm watching "The Sexless Innkeeper" and it's making me laugh really hard. Which is a good and a bad thing. Good: helps me relax. Bad: aggravates my pulled back muscle.

Yep, I pulled my back on the first day of school. I leaned down to one of my kiddos and when I stood back PAIN CENTRAL. Even my students were like "Ms. Albino, you ok?" Thanks to J, I do have an amazing heating pad to use. J just keeps racking up the awesome boyfriend points. (Tomorrow is our two year anniversary! CRAAAAZZZZY!)

Besides the pulled muscle and the torrential downpour at dismissal, today was pretty fantastic. My ESOL parents were really happy to have a teacher who could understand them, and my non ESOL parents were pretty kick butt themselves. I met everyone's parents. THAT'S NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE! I have 19 kids, 11 boys and 8 girls. Had to bust out my mean teacher voice a few times, but overall I think it will be a really fun group.

Hopefully tomorrow goes just as well. At least I'll have more than 20 minutes to prepare! If the rest of this week goes as smoothly then I'll be able to enjoy my weekend. :)

Have a great week everyone!

Whew... I'm alive I promise!

I'm exhausted and I haven't even had a group of students yet. As I've said before, I am at a new school this year. My first grade team is comprised of seven people: myself, two teachers who have been at my new school for awhile, and three teachers who have only taught first grade, and one brand new teacher. My team is great! But it's been overwhelming making sure I help all the new teachers as well as get ready for my own brand new experience of teaching mostly English language learners.

I know I made the right choice, but earlier today I broke down, thinking to myself that if I had just stayed at my old school life would be easier. I'd know what to expect come Monday. but I know in my heart I made the right choice. I knew it when I saw both my principal AND assistant principal moving boxes and cleaning up the rookie teacher's classroom. That kind of support is invaluable. Change is hard people!

So here are pictures of my new classroom:

I need to take my own advice. I'm as ready as I can be, so I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon/night watching some Pretty Little Liars, baking some brownies, and making sure my outfit's in place for tomorrow.

Sorry, I've fallen off the face of the planet! I hope to get into more of a routine once the first week is over. I hope everyone had fabulous weekends!

Dinosaurs, turtles, and space oh my!

First day of pre-planning done. And because of today, I've decided to institute a law. A school law. The law is that all first day of pre-planning must take place at a cool science museum.

Around these parts, the first day of pre-planning is full of BORING meetings. Meetings about expectations, meetings about data. Boring, boring, boring. But my new principal rocked our meeting today.

It kicked off with a scavenger hunt of the museum we were at, MOSH:

Source

It was a good way to get to know people. My team got extra points for coming in third, but I'm not really sure who won.

Skipping over the boring meetings (pretty sure no one wants to hear about skills block or math work). Lunch was catered by The Secret Garden cafe. The sandwiches from there are to die for. Mine came with a yummy pasta salad. (Sorry, no pictures, didn't want to weird my new teammates out with my blog habits!)

After lunch was the traditional THESE ARE THE RULES/PROCEDURES stick to them or die speech. It's that hardcore, I promise.

Finally the best part! Watching a cool star show at the largest single lens planetarium in the world. i mean, really, does a pre-planning day get any better than that?

I'm still overwhelmed, because there are a million things I don't know. Well not a million, but you get the idea. Plus, I have to get used to being in charge of a group of people. I'm going to be flexible but firm. Does 1:30 p.m. on Thursday work for our grade level meeting? sounds a lot more confident than So, what time would be best for you to meet? Thursday morning? This afternoon? Friday? 

I have to remind myself that I'm not a meek person, even if that's my instinct in new situations. I'm a good teacher and a knowledgeable one at that. My principal picked me for a reason, and she doesn't do things randomly.  Be firm but flexible.

I can do it!

Getting it done!

This is not a teacher blog. But it is a blog about my life, right? And at the moment, my classroom is on my mind. Just can't help it!

My wonderful mother came and helped me today. Which was important. Why? My school bug bombed all the classrooms (they had to, all of the classrooms open to outside, easy access for bugs!). Which means I found a lot of dead cockroaches. Gross, I know! I can't handle those nasty little buggers, even dead. Every time I found one, I shrieked.  So my mom cleared them for me.  Mom handled that like such a champ!

She also cleaned and wiped down all my cabinets and helped me organize my room. Seriously, I'm so lucky to have her. End the gush fest about my momma. :)

My classroom is coming together. Crazy how much easier it gets the longer you've been teaching. My newer teammates are freaking out about their rooms, so I'm trying my best to help them out as much as I can.

Each day I'm at the school reminds me that even though it was a hard choice to leave CRES, it was the right choice.

Tomorrow, I'm going to set up my classroom library and J is coming on his lunch break to help. Isn't that so nice? Giving up his free time to come help. I'm going to use his height to finish my bulletin boards. Being short is such a problem sometimes.

I'll post pictures once I am done. Linking up for:

 

 If you're new, leave me a comment! I promise I talk about a lot of other things besides teaching. Pinky swear :)

Whew, what a day!

I made into my classroom today. At first I was completely overwhelmed. There were all of these boxes along the window. Then I realized they belonged to the previous tenant of my room. Freak out numero dos occurred when I started worrying when she would pick all of her stuff! But it was all gravy, because she came and got it!

My other issue, was that the a.c. wasn't working. The temperature read 84.5 degrees in my room. My brother and I were DYING! Luckily, I caught the janitor and he worked some magic.

Here are some pictures:

Did you get anything done?  Ha! Doesn't look like much, but I definitely did. I threw out a bunch of garbage from all of the drawers; with little storage space I can't waste a single drawer. I moved furniture that I didn't want out of the way, and arranged my meeting area.

Oh! The other reason I didn't get more done was because my translating skills were needed in the front office. The first dad, super sweet. He just wanted to find out what his little girl needed for kindergarten! The next guy, first class jerk. His friend was trying to register her daughter. The mom had no records for her daughter, except a birth certificate, because they came from Cuba to Israel, lived there for a while and then came here. I told him that the ESOL office would contact him and we would get him the right info. His reply, thanks and do you think next time the front office could find a better Spanish speaker?

SO RUDE! I really wanted to say, you're lucky there was even a Spanish speaking teacher available. I know my conversational Spanish is rough. It takes my mind awhile to get going and sometimes I can't pull the right words.Even when I only spoke Spanish, I had issues with my r's so I have a funky accent. But I comprehend it very well. Once I'm speaking it for awhile, it comes freely. He made me feel really self conscious. Not being able to speak it well enough is one of my biggest worries.

I hope to get more done tomorrow . My mom volunteered to help, so it should be a good time!

New beginnings...

Tomorrow is August 6th. It's a date that signifies the start of something new. Even though I don't officially go back to work until the 13th, my school is open to teachers tomorrow. Tomorrow I will see my new classroom. I will meet my new co-workers. I will begin to learn the ins and outs of my new school.

It would be a complete lie if I said I wasn't nervous or scared. My last school was my home. It's where I felt comfortable. I knew it like the back of my hand. It was so small, that I knew almost every student's name. I honestly never thought that I would leave (not at least until I had children.) But then last year happened. I was made to feel like an incompetent teacher. My grade level wasn't respected because it wasn't an FCAT grade. Last year was draining, both physically and emotionally. So even though I adored my co workers, I made the decision to transfer.

I am excited about my new school. My principal seems great and I won't be the only newbie. I get a chance to be role model for other Hispanic kids. Growing up, I never had a Hispanic teacher. I'm excited to better my communicating skills in Spanish. I'm excited to work with my ESOL babies. I'm nervous about being team lead, but I know I'm the best choice. Most of the teachers on my team have less than 2 years experience. The other two veterans are new to primary. It'll be a fun challenge. A challenge I'm ready for.

My friend once told me, it's okay to feel scared when change happens. It shows you how important that change is to you. So wish me luck!

P.S. Cross your fingers that my new classroom isn't full of old file cabinets, broken books, and speakers the way my very first classroom was!
P.P.S Cross your toes that I win the giveaway over at About Fais. An Erin Condren planner would be a great way to start my year!