I thought it might be a neat idea this school year to share an overview each week of what I did in my classroom. It will give you additional insight into my classroom and will help me remember all the fun moments this year. Each year, I make fabulous memories with my students, and I’m looking forward to recording them this year to help me keep the memories fresh!
Monday
The first day of school! Since Curiosity landed early in the morning, we focused our first day around the mission. I shared the launch videos. We created posters about why we explore, and we looked at information from Curiosity’s landing. First days are interesting in sixth grade, but I have to say this was a pretty smooth first day of school for all of us! However, I was pretty tired at the end of the day. I realized how exhausted I was when I tried to find a knife in the refrigerator!
Tuesday
On Tuesday, we started class by filling out a “20 Things about Me” questionnaire. We then shared one of our answers. I shared a post earlier in the week about my epiphany as I shared my craziest things I have ever done. Next we had to discuss the school discipline plan and the classroom expectations that go along with it. The last thing we did was a “classroom scavenger hunt”. It helped students get to know the classroom a bit better. For instance, my students were very quick to realize our theme this year is Explore. I started to get to know my students a bit better, and overall it was a fun day.
Wednesday
Our focus was lab safety on Wednesday. Before we started though, I explained our first quarter Dare Mighty Things theme: a huge life goal. Students had to think of a major challenge that they want to accomplish one day. They also have to find a picture to illustrate their goal. Next we brainstormed what could go wrong in a science lab. It always amazes me the worst case scenario type answers they can come up with! Most are not issues we have to deal with in our Earth science lab, but it’s really fun to hear the crazy ideas. Finally, we went through the lab safety rules, created posters, and passed out the lab safety contracts to get signed. Also, I’m definitely doing better with names by Wednesday!
Thursday
First, we mounted our Dare Mighty Things goals on index cards and shared with the class. I am so proud of the goals my students have set for themselves. I’ll be sharing some more specific ones soon, but the future will be an exciting place when they reach these goals! I love to see my kids dreaming big and daring mighty things! Then, I shared with my students the idea behind our interactive science notebook, which I am calling our Mission Log this year. We all agreed that was a much cooler title than interactive science notebook! Once we knew the purpose behind the notebook, we then set up our notebooks. We also had our first fire drill of the year. Overall, a great day, and we’re starting to get to know each other better.
Friday
Today we spent the morning completing a practice writing prompt. We had our first period class at the time followed by first period class and lunch together. When I told my first period class we were going to spend half of the day together, they were all excited. I have to admit, they were amazing, and the time went by super fast. On the way back from lunch, I was chatting with a couple of my girls about how I’m a nerd. They didn’t believe me! I told them they just don’t know me well enough yet! In class, I presented our science and engineering fair projects to students so they can begin brainstorming. The nice thing is that several students have experience this year. I have siblings of former students and students who participated in both school and regional fairs last year. One of my students last year is a teacher, and she taught several of my students this year. She shared with them all about science fair and had them do projects at end of the year. It’s really cool to have students have some background knowledge about the science and engineering fair this year.
I also had a good laugh today because of a memory from last year. As I introduce the science fair, I asked a series of questions in sequence: falls to Earth at a rate of 30,000 metric tons a year, you may have unknowingly eaten in a salad, and are remnants of the formation of the solar system. Today, after I gave the second clue (may have eaten in a salad), one student in each of my gifted classes answered crouton. Which is such a crazy answer because it would be pretty scary if croutons were falling from the sky at that rate! The funniest thing is that I had a student convinced it was croutons last year – even after hearing all of my clues, knowing what it really was, and so on. (Okay, not really. He was just being a wise guy.) Any way, it became a running joke for the first several weeks of the school year. In fact, at one point, he even brought croutons in to class. It was really funny, and it was fun linking memories from last to the new memories I am forming with my students this year.
Now that we’ve reached the end of the week, I am a strange mixture of tired and energized. My body is tired and ready for a rest, but my brain is on and firing. I feel so invigorated and alive. Coming back to school reminds me just how much I enjoy what I do. It’s such an incredible way to spend each day. I cannot believe how lucky I am to be an educator!
Does the beginning of the school year inspire you in the same way?
