Teacher Prep Days

Today was my second day of teacher prep - and tomorrow is the first day of school! I am so excited to meet the kids in my class. Mrs. C, my "classroom mentor" (PennSpeak for "teacher") has been so kind and welcoming! She has really made me feel that I am part of the team. My name is up next to hers on the wall outside our room, I have my own desk with cute desk supplies, post-its, etc., and she had me draft a note introducing myself to our kids' families to go home in the packet with everything else tomorrow. I know its going to be a great year.

I have already begun to hear snippits of information about our incoming class from the 3rd grade teachers - both good and bad news. The one little boy with whom we were expecting to have the most difficulty has transferred to Catholic school, and I got to meet one girl, S, today with her dad. She just moved to the neighborhood and seemed very nice (and also nervous and quiet, but who wouldnt be!). I'm really excited to meet everyone tomorrow. I've printed their names so many times on folders, workbooks, bookmarks, handouts, nametags, etc. that I feel like I know them already!

Mrs. C seems like a GREAT teacher. She uses the Lucy Calkins writing method and the Everyday Math curriculum, both of which we are studying in class at Penn this semester. She is also REALLY into science - the class raises silkworms, crawfish, beetles, and other animals throughout the year. This is really exciting. We looked at her lesson plans for the next few weeks, and talked about her methods for evaluating the students at the beginning of the year. I am happy to know that I am learning from someone with so much experience and enthusiasm for the profession.

I'm watching Project Runway with M tonight... yay! I didn't watch last week's episode, so I have TWO to catch up on. And it will give us plenty of time to compare notes and get ready for THE BIG DAY tomorrow!