A peek inside my school...

I thought I'd let my family (and whoever else looks at my blog) peek into my school. I have soooo many things I could blog about but I thought I'd start here since it's where I spend the majority of my time. Sadly, by the time I get home from work, I eat dinner and go to bed. I'm too exhausted to even blog! 

I was fortunate to be hired just before we moved to Texas. It's challenging to teach here, and some days downright discouraging, but I'm grateful for the employment and the fun people I am working with. I have a lot of tests I need to take to become fully certified here but I'm taking it one step at a time. After teaching first grade for 7 years I am now teaching third grade. I won't lie... there are some things that are A LOT easier teaching this age group. I'm enjoying it for the most part.

My commute is about a half hour, give or take depending on traffic. I come off the freeway and go right through the center of Fort Worth. I didn't take any photos downtown... too busy trying to not cause an accident by snapping a photo.

 

The school I am teaching at has been around for many, many years. Their old building was built in 1945. The district just built a new building for the school and this is the first year in it. It's a beautiful school.

My classroom is on the second floor.

The door right ahead goes right into my room.

Setting up a classroom is always a nightmare! I brought everything from my old classroom with me. A lot of it is in the garage at the house here. There just wasn't enough room.

My "desk" is a podium. I am lucky to have a Smartboard, document camera, and projector - all a teacher's dream!!

After many, many hours I have my room all put together.

My room is much smaller than I'm used to. You can see the entire width from it in the picture and this was taken from the door into the room. I only have 16 students so at least I'm not trying to cram a bunch of kids in there.

Another thing I'm not used to... textbooks! I'm getting the hang of them, I think.

I pledge allegiance to the FLAGS. Yup. Texas has their own pledge that we recite in addition to the pledge to the American flag. We also have a 60 second minute of silence each day.

Here's my back to school board right outside my classroom. It says "Look who's cooking up some fun in room 214" with all of the students names on little chef hats. I've used it before but I thought it turned out good. The yellow is actually fabric on the bulletin board. It turned out nice.

 

 This is probably one of the strangest things I've ever gotten from a student. Keep in mind that I teach in what is considered to be a poverty area. This student was thrilled to give me this. She told me that she bought it for me. It was hard for me not to laugh. The balloons were about the right size to "enhance" a flat chested woman. Ha ha! I kept them about a week and then slipped them into the trash can after school one day. Random gift but it brought me a few smiles.

I have a cute class. I'm learning a lot about them as individuals and about the community. It's very much a change from what I'm used to but it is certainly opening my eyes to new situations and adventures!