It's been too long my friends

Long (long) time no see!  It's been a busy couple of months in Mrs. Kelly's world.

For starters, I spent a thirteen week stint long term subbing a TERRIFIC fifth grade class!  It was great.  By the time I left only 3 of my 24 students weren't reading on grade level (that meant that 7 moved up!) and the others I know will get there by the end of the year!  Amazing progress my friends!

Now I'm back to plain Jane day by day subbing.  I love that too, but for other reasons.  It's great to see and experience how different schools within the same system can be.  Yes, standards are all the same, but the population is different.  It gives me a great chance to practice and try out different classroom management techniques.

I've found that (for the most part) not only does keeping the kid's minds busy make for a more efficient classroom, but keeping their bodies going does as well.  If I get the kids up and moving for about 30-60 seconds each hour, they spend the next 59 or so minutes focused and on task.  It is incredible what a quick game of Simon Says does for a group of Third Graders. I'm also working on different types of non-verbal management.  It's a lot easier for that one kid to distract the others if you let them get you distracted as well.  I found some cute little stop-signs online, and have made a batch and can't wait to try them out!  Katie over at Rock & Teach has a template, and it's amazing!  The only thing I did different was to glue them onto red card stock before laminating (still need to get that part done) but I felt like it might make them more sturdy.  You'll love it, I promise.  If you've tried this method before let me know how your experience was.

Now, let's talk a little bit about what's going on right now in Mrs. Kelly's world.

Interview season is approaching!  As of now I have 18 job applications out (yikes! That's a lot) and hopefully casting the net wide will equal some interviews.  I feel like I'm in a much better place than I was last year at this time.  For starters, not only do I have a degree and a license (which I was waiting on last year), but I also have experience teaching Summer School and substitute teaching.  Remember, 13 of those substitute weeks were long term, so I was responsible for my own lesson planning and EVERYTHING!  See, better place that last year.

If you have any interview advice, what types of samples to bring, how to make myself stand out, ANYTHING let me know!  I was told that my interviews went well last year, I was just lacking in the experience department.

The past week has also been a great time to revisit my good friend Pinterest.  Between there, Craigslist, Freecycle, and Thrift stores I should be able to get some pretty good stuff together for my (being positive here!) classroom.  I'm getting some great decor and management ideas.  If you have any suggestions, I'm happy to take them!  Best part of being a teacher is being able to learn new things everyday!  Ok, you can do that anyway, but now it's "professional development" or something ;)


Wow, this was longer than I had planned on, but it's been a while.  I'm going to try and keep the updates a little shorter and more often and will be adding more pictures also (Sorry! I know it's boring to just read, but I'm on the old desktop and it doesn't do a great job storing photos anymore).

Thanks!

Mrs. K.