Prep Day

After a 15 minute jaunt at the district office, and a combined total of  hours in transit from home to the office, and then up to Anytown... I finally got there! I met with Mrs. Z; she seems nice. We also have an aide in the classroom, Ms D, to help with those students with special needs. I was told today that we have 25 students: 7 with special needs, 6 who are ESL, and 3 who are undocumented special needs. That leaves us 9 who are not in resources... and of those 9, only 3-5 are on level for reading/math/writing. WOW! If anything, this will be a VERY big eye-opener for me this year!

I'm guessing that I really didn't miss much when it comes to setting up the classroom. Mrs. Z isn't much for decorating... in fact, most of the classrooms that I've seen, decorating doesn't seem to be a concern in the classroom. I've seen one or two that have decorative elements in the classroom, but not many! 

This school is called a "neighborhood" school. This means that classes are in 4 groups of 6 (K-1, 1-2, 3-4, 3-5). Each group, or neighborhood, is given a color (Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple) and has a lounge/learning area outside of their rooms. This area is designated for small group help, large group meetings, etc. There are chairs and tables, lots of curriculum materials, a resource room, and a very large carpeted area. Once a week, all the classes in the neighborhood gather on the carpet for the Pledge, the school motto, a story "Word of Wisdom" that talks about choices and any announcements that need to be made. It's a cool feature...I'm interested to see how it presents itself during the day.