There's no place like home! Yes it is vacation!

   It is Christmas vacation and I must say that I think for all the teachers that I know, it is well timed. It's perfect timing for me since my body decided to be sick for vacation. I guess it's better now than when school is in session and I would have to make sub plans. So I sit at home with lots of school work to do and no motivation right now to do any of it. Hoping to get my mojo back once I feel better. 
  Here are some pictures from my Christmas:                                  
                                  Our dog Krypto (my son doesn't like his picture taken anymore so the dog it is)
              
                     
                                              My sad looking gingerbread house
                                               that I made Christmas Eve at my
                                                   family Christmas party.

                 
                                        The beautiful China Lake on Christmas day!

  
    Now let's talk about my classroom. Have I mentioned that I LOVE teaching second grade. This age is great. They still like me (which I wasn't sure they would) and they are fairly independent. My students are wonderful and I would like to keep them forever. Right before vacation they earned a class reward. They voted to have a PJ and movie party. So the day before vacation we wore our pjs and then watched Santa Paws. It was great. They deserve to have some down time since they have been working VERY HARD since September. I only wish I could give them more frequent class rewards like this, but there just isn't time. We ate treats and then after, my wonderful students cleaned up our room since they know that part of having fun is cleaning up. 
   When we get back we will begin new units in math, writing, reading, and science. It will be a new year with lots of new learning. I can't wait to see all of the progress that my students make for the remainder of the year. I am thinking about having students create a goal (New Year's Resolution if you will) for themselves for the rest of the year. 
   My goal is to take it easy on myself and focus on all the great things going on in my classroom. What's your goal for the new year?

Sorry it's been so long.

  So it has been awhile since I have posted and the reasons are many. I was recently reminded about the amount of excitement and anticipation I started the year off with. Since then the year has been what I affectionately call a roller coaster. I have been reading a lot of blogs and talking to a lot of teachers who seem to be having the same experiences. Here is what I know right now: being a teacher is harder now than at any point in my last ten years of teaching. 
  
   My goal for myself is to focus on those moments during the day (when the door is closed, no one is watching or evaluating, no one is coming in to tell you another thing you have to do) when you have that group of students and are doing a lesson, they are engaged, they are learning, smiling, and I am reminded of why I worked hard to go back to school to become a teacher. I love teaching! I love my students! I love myself when I get to have those moments and remember that I am good at what I do. I just have to work harder now to make those moments happen and that is my goal. I don't want the changes, standards, evaluations, assessments, and challenging situations, to win. I want to win for myself and my students!

   So now onto how much I love second grade!!! No seriously it wasn't until I watched a little line of kindergarten students recently, by the way I love kindergarten and taught it for 7 years, that I realized how much I love my second graders. They have a higher independence, more skills, a different sense of humor, and all these things are reasons why I love them. I am still trying to learn the second grade curriculum which is vast. In my school we do Lucy Calkins writing, Handwriting without tears, Words Their Way, Daily 5/Cafe, Math Daily 3 (utilizing lessons from Engage NY, Georgia Units, Illustrative math, Howard County), and then of course Guided reading, science and social studies. That is a lot to learn for both the teacher and the student! I keep reminding myself that it's my first year in this grade level so I can't know everything or do everything perfectly, but I am doing my best. 
   
   I put up a classroom timeline in my room, but so far I haven't taken any pictures to put up on it. This is one of my many "fails" from the first two months of school. Which also means I have no pictures to post here of what we have been doing. Once things settle down I will working on getting some pictures of all the great things we are doing. 

   For now I leave you with this:

~Erica

I know my room is done when......

I know my room is done when....I walk into it and smile. That happened yesterday so I know that my room is ready for my students. I want them to smile when they enter the room. Now don't get me wrong after I smiled I noticed three things that still need to be done (labeling my math bins, organizing the writing center stuff, and organizing my math tasks/games), but probably no one else would notice those things but me. 
Here are some final pictures of my room (please note that I was able to scrounge together three tables so I no longer have all desks, YAY).

Not sure if you can see the sign on my door, but it says, "There's no place like Mrs.Gower's room." My Secret Santa made it for me last year.  Love it!

The view from my door.

View from my door.

View from my door. There is a large door behind the curtain, but it's just too hot to have the shades open right now. 

The area at the front of my room will be for whole group meetings. 

Whiteboard with learning targets on the left and our classroom timeline (got the idea for a timeline from this blog http://carolinakteacher.blogspot.com/2013/06/ten-pin-linky-party-classroom-decor.html )

Math board, chalkboard word wall, and daily 5 board

Take a break corner. This feels like it still needs some work to me. There is a bean bag, and a bucket of fidget type toys. 

Focus wall and Cafe board. 

These are dark :( but it is my library area.

Another picture (still dark) of my library area. 

My small group area and my table (I don't actually have a desk so I use the table with the green fabric for my laptop and other items that I need. 

This area is for our schedule, calendar, math morning work, and the empty space on the right will be where our rules go. The table will be used to sign in each morning. The blue bucket is my bathroom bucket (another great idea I got from a blog several years ago). 

In between working on my room, at home I have been studying our district curriculum and planning the first day of school. The first few days are all about getting to know each other and establishing rules and routines. I found this great blog post about setting the stage when the students return to school. I am going to try out the finish the picture activity.I will let you know how it goes. Here is the link to the blogpost: http://whoswhoandnew.blogspot.com/2014/07/setting-tone-in-first-10-minutes-of.html

I have also been scouring TPT for great resources for second grade. I have found lots of great free items and lots of great items that I have paid for and have on my wishlist. As usual TPT didn't let me down. Here are some of my favorite TPT sellers store's that I have found great resources: 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Amy-Lemons

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Surfin-Through-Second

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teaching-With-A-Mountain-View

Seriously there are like a million and probably a lot more great resources on TPT both free and paid. 

There is always my store too, but I need to make some second grade resources to add. That is my TPT goal for this school year to make some great resources for my classroom and for others to use in their classrooms.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Erica-Gower

I almost forgot to talk about this. SO this summer I decided to put together an Amazon Wishlist for my classroom and share it on my FB page for people who wanted to help my classroom. There are always things that we need or would make the classroom go smoother, but there just isn't money in the budget for everything. So I decided it can't hurt to put together a wishlist. I have done Donorschoose in the past and was going to put one together if the wishlist didn't work out. So far my mother-in-law has bought me a small rug for my library area, my school team got me a purple beanbag for hosting a cookout, and yesterday was like Christmas when this stuff (see picture below) showed up from my sister. I'm not going to lie I am super excited about all of these things. My theory on asking people is that sometimes if a lot of people help a little then you end up with a lot. I am so thankful to everyone who supports me as a teacher whether it's buying me pencil boxes or other school supplies like my mother and sister-in-law have in the past, purchasing something from my wishlist, or just just giving me positive feedback. I am truly very fortunate. Here is the link to my wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3HUMBSO67XGSY/ref=cm_wl_list_o_3?

Well next Monday is the day! I get to meet 17 new students. I am pretty excited to get to know them and to start this great second grade journey with them. 
~Erica

My new classroom is done....well almost.

So if you read my previous post you know that I am moving from a resource room teacher to a second grade teacher. With that comes another room change (this is my third in the last calendar year). So I have been working on getting my new room ready so that I can next work on curriculum. Well today I finished my room. Well sort of. I still need to get a shelf for the corner (you will see in the picture that it's needs work) and one for under my table (need more space to organize). I also need to purchase a few more things (pencil boxes and plastic basket type things). For the most part my room is done so I thought I would post some pictures. 

                            

This will be the sign in area. The green pocket chart will hold a number of the day that the students will work on first thing in the morning. The blue pocket chart will either hold the schedule or something for calendar?? I have not decided yet. The big blue pail on top of the table is the bathroom bucket (I got the idea from another teacher/blog several years ago and I love it).

Here is my whiteboard and the area in front of it will be my group meeting area. An easel is on it's way and I have to find a chair. Thinking that I might find one at a yard sale and paint it. 

This is the corner that needs some help. Pay no attention to the mess in the corner. Here is my word wall. I am now realizing these are not the best pics. Hopefully you can see that this is a chalkboard. I bought chalk markers to use for my word wall. The other board will soon have my daily 5 rotation stuff. I guess I still have a little work to do.

This bulletin board will be our Math focus board with anything math related that we need. 

These pictures don't look as blurry on my phone. The shelf hold my math manipulative which need a little organization. The pile in front of it is the stuff I was taking home. As you can see the little whiteboard still needs to be installed. 

Here is my small group table and behind it is a table with all my stuff. There is also a great big window which lets in natural light.The only problem with it is that nothing can be very close to it as it is an emergency exit. 

This picture shows the only closet/storage space in the room. Above it is the CAFE board. The left side may be used for student work, but I am not exactly sure about that. 

Here is my library area. The shade is pulled for the summer so that my books don't get faded. I hope to add a rug or something to this area. 

Another view of the library area. 

                            

These three pictures are the view when you enter the door to my room. 

I am now ready to start diving into the second grade curriculum. Reading some daily 5 lessons plans right now actually. 

Oh one more thing...if you have any interest in helping buy something for my classroom (no pressure, sometimes I have people ask what I need so thought I would do this) I made an Amazon wishlist for some seating items that would be great for my students. Here is the link.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3HUMBSO67XGSY/ref=cm_wl_list_o_3?

Thanks for reading and I hope the rest of your summer is relaxing and energizing. 

~Erica

Bon Jour from France and changes!!

Bon Jour!! I write this blog post from Vannes, France where my husband is the chaperone of a school exchange. My son Josh and I were able to pay our own way to come to this beautiful place as well. We spent the first three days in Paris seeing all the sights we could see. It was great, but a bit more fast paced than I like. 

We are now in the city Vannes with about 55,000 people and it seems just right. This is an old city and looks nothing like we have at home. I think I could wander the cobble stone streets forever. It feels so very different here. We have been in France for one week today and still have 10 more days. It will be nice to go home after that, but it has been an amazing experience. 

On to school related stuff. So the week before school ended our school had a few changes. One amazing teacher decided to become an interventionist within the district. One awesome teacher within the building moved from second grade to third to take that position. So this left a second grade position open. There had been other openings within our district and even building, but none had seemed just right. I knew I wanted to stay in the same building and teach K-2. Well, well a second grade position was now open, but I hated the idea of leaving the resource room. I really love working with my students. However, I knew that my heart is really in the classroom and I decided to go for it (expecting that someone else would swoop in and take it). Right before I got on the plane for France I checked my email and there it was....an email from my principal offering me the second grade position. 

You want to talk about feeling like things are crazy well the last week of school had been crazy busy. School had ended on June 16 for Shane and I and Josh was done on June 17. Then on June 18 we are sitting in an airport getting ready to fly to another country for 19 days and I am being offered what I wanted, which is to go back into the classroom. I felt like my head was swimming and I took about 3 minutes to think about it and then I responded and told the principal that I would love to accept the second grade position. Yay me!! 

So while I have been enjoying everything about France I have also been planning in my head how I am going to make my classroom and the year awesome!! So much to do when I get back, clean out my stuff from my resource room and get my new room ready, but I am going to enjoy every liter of France I can while I am here. 

Oh and that reminds me....I now need a new name for my blog. I have had one suggestion so far, "There's no place like Mrs.Gower's room" which I like, but I am looking for a few more suggestions before I change it. Thanks and au revoir!!

~Erica

The year is winding down.

I cannot believe that there are only 15 days left of school. This year has been a huge transition for me and I am just now reflecting on it. I am at a new school and have a new teaching role. Here are my thoughts on all of the changes:

       I love my new school and the idea of k-5 being under one roof. There is something about seeing the progression of students within one building that I really like. The staff here has been very welcoming to me and I hope that I have become part of their RES family. I will always love my FFP family, but I think this move was the right one for me.

       I love my students and love watching them gain confidence and make progress. It has been interesting to learn my new role (from classroom teacher to resource room teacher). I feel like just now in May I am starting to get a grasp on most things. The one thing I have decided that I don’t care for is the paperwork. There is a lot of it and since I am with students most of the day there isn’t any time to get it done.  I am hoping next year to work out a way to get everything done without feeling like I am always behind.

       The last thing that I have realized is that I love and miss being a classroom teacher. I miss the performance of teaching whole group lessons. I miss read alouds. I miss The Very Hungry Caterpillar reader’s theater that I have done for many years as a kindergarten teacher. I miss the idea that I am someone’s teacher and they are my kids (yes I know that I am still a teacher and my students are still my kids, but there is something different about it). I miss science experiments with excited 5 and 6 year olds. I miss teaching kindergarteners to read and seeing how excited they are when they can take a book home to read to their family.

       When I decided to make this change last year I really needed a change. I wanted to be a resource room teacher so I could teach students in small groups with goals that were specific to them. What I didn’t realize is that teaching in a resource room really isn’t the same as being a classroom teacher. I LOVE the students that I work with now and when they make progress I still get teary eyed, but there is something special about having the same students all day long and them being your family.

      

      I think I am really am actor and my classroom is my stage.

I am so thankful to be at RES and to be teaching some amazing students. I look forward to watching them grow and learn even more next year. Maybe if I am creative I can find a way to do some of those things that I am missing. For now I must focus on the 4 IEPs I still have to write plus a long list of other things that have to be done in the next 15 days. I am going to focusing on enjoying every minute of the remainder of the school year with my new RES family and my awesome students!

~Erica

It's been awhile..... help if you can and get a free item from my TPT store.

It’s been awhile since I have blogged. My new position keeps me busy and to be honest my role is so different I don’t know what to blog about that might be helpful. Today I am actually blogging to ask for some help.

On Wednesday of this week my little sister Lindsey (she’s 21) and her boyfriend of six years Jared lost all of their belongings in a fire. They were renting the home from his parents and Lindsey and Jared did not have renters insurance. The insurance on the home itself does not cover their belongings.

My sister is a full time nursing student while still working a full time job. She is a smart, caring, and kind person who would help anyone she can. Sadly now she is the one that needs help. I started a GoFundme campaign to raise money to help them start over. If you could help by donating it would be greatly appreciated. Here is the link to the site : http://www.gofundme.com/Lindsey-and-Jared

If you donate $10 or more I will give you one free item from my TPT store (if you want one). Once you have donated email me at egower77@gmail.com to let me know you have made a donation (I will be able to see it on the site) and I will send you one item of your choice. 

Thank you for any help you can give them.

~Erica