Summer is here! I'm sleeping till 9:00 - waking well into the morning with the sunlight streaming in through the windows. (I've gotta get those room darkening shades.) I wash my hair and get dressed at the time when my class is finishing lunch and getting ready to settle in for our chapter book read aloud. The kids and I are faced with the difficult choice of going to the park to catch frogs or swimming in our back yard redneck pool. Life is beyond good.
And yet I can't quit thinking about school. I surf the teacher boards and yahoo groups. I read the education blogs. I have stacks of dogeared books by the bed and the couch. In short, I'm a teacher without a class.
Here's what I'm pondering for my group of 2nd graders next year:
~ To theme or not to theme
~ If I go with a theme, will it be camping? beach? frogs? dogs? mystery? Can I even keep up with the madness once I start it?
~ Revamp reading workshop units after finishing Catching Readers Before They Fall.
~ Revamp writing workshop units after finishing Pyrotechnics on the Page.
~ Don't forget the online book study for Pyrotechnics, too.
~ Meet with the curriculum lady at school about setting up the word study program and training teachers on it.
~ Plan room arrangement and math/reading bulletin boards for next year.
~ Sort and level the newer books for the classroom library. Slap labels on them. Pick up some new $1.00 tubs at Dollar Tree for them.
~ Hunt for bean bag chairs at yard sales and thrift stores.
~ Pray for a document camera, computer projector of my very own, a new computer with a giant monitor, and/or a Smartboard.
~ Print and assemble beginning of the year calendar folders, offices, welcome letters, newsletter template, birthday badges, desk toppers, etc. (Etc. covers everything I think of between now and Aug. 24.)
~ Hit Staples Teacher Appreciation Days and shop Target's Back to School sales. Can't have too much paper, too many pencils, enough markers and glue and staples.
~ View Responsive Classroom videos.
~ Catch up on wrestling moves.
I know there's more. I just know it. And I'll probably think of it around 3:11 a.m. and get up to write it down. I sure hope not.
