Introductions and a Lot of Prep!

After lurking around on other blogs all summer, I figured it was time to start documenting my own story!  Introductions are a must, so....

My name is Felicia and I'm getting ready to go into my first year of teaching!  I'm lucky enough to be teaching 4th grade for the 2013-2014 school year.  We're a school with a ton of programs, so the task of navigating my first year is pretty huge!

The biggest thing is that we're an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme School (Or PYP, for short), so all of our curriculum has to be integrated into a variety of interdisciplinary themes over the course of the school year.  The idea is that math is supposed to flow into language arts and so on.  4th grade's first theme with PYP is Who We Are, so I have the challenging task of integrating all of our curriculum for the first 8 weeks or so of the school year into a student-led study exploring what makes each student unique.

My principal advised me not to try tackling too many things at once, and I'm already struggling with that.  After seeing so many cool ideas, it's hard not to want to try everything all at once!  But hey, I've always been a little ambitious!  I'm looking forward to writing down my journey this year :)

Now!  I figure the best way to jump right in to all of this is to really see how much time I have left before the school year starts!

 

 Because I'm a new teacher, I have to go back a week before everyone else, so my first official day of work is Monday!  That's right, I have five more days until I get to see my very first classroom!  I'm spending that time sorting out books to go into my classroom library, making some odds and ends, and finding cheap yardsale things to put in my classroom (which I'll take pictures of next week!).  All of the other teachers are back to work on Monday the 19th, and then the students come in on Monday the 26th!  I have less than 3 weeks until I have students in my classroom!!!  I'm nervous, but incredibly excited.  But then again, how different is that from any teacher getting ready for a new school year?

Check back next week for pictures of the classroom and updates on the (sure to be slow-going) progress!