Labor Day is Coming!

Tomorrow is Friday and my feet are so happy that we have a long weekend. This has been an amazing, but exhausting week. I sat in a meeting today and heard stories from teachers in other grade levels about how they had been collaborating and implementing strategies to improve the learning climate after a pretty crazy first day. The transformation from Monday to today is hard to believe. We've each had some frazzled moments, or days, but we keep moving forward. As for me, I keep adding layers of structure as I discover more about my students. I feel so bad for them because they are very young and they are completely out of the habit of going to school. So after about noon they are hungry and tired and have lost their focus. I keep adjusting my activities to suit their level of endurance, but I haven't found the right mix yet and that is frustrating for me (and for them). We did make our literacy boxes yesterday. Right now, they have self-selected books in them for independent reading. My class loves books! Monday we will add writer's journals. We started Student of the Day and they love that, too! Tomorrow we visit the library and the guidance counselor is coming. That should break up our day quite nicely. Next week, I think we will move recess to the afternoon.