New Year, New Me

So my previous post all the way back in July stated that I would try to post more.

As you can tell, I have not done a good job of posting since that post. 

So let's have a little recap of the past few months.

     After that post in July, a transformer caught fire at my new school. We were not able to get into the building until two days before school started. Stressful to say the least. 

     In August, the school year began with lots of planning, attempts at organizing, and getting to know my new students and fellow teachers. September was quite busy for us because of various activities, including lots of involvement with FBC. Lots of fun, but extremely busy! October began with a wedding! My cousin Allyn married his sweetheart Noelle. Then, Carson-Newman crushed Tusculum on Homecoming. Ryan began a new job, that he LOVES. November was not incredibly eventful, but it was fun having a Thanksgiving with new friends, Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family in Morristown, and Thanksgiving with dad's side of the family in GA. One incredibly AMAZING event is that my Twinkie, Hollie, had a beautiful baby boy the day after Thanksgiving!!! He is such a handsome angel! December was a time of Christmas celebrations, but mostly it was just a busy month. We did have a snowy Christmas Eve!!!

    That brings us to this month. So far in January, I can sum up the events in 3 words: Cold and Snowy!!!!!! We've had some snow days, and as I write this, snow is still pouring down!!! 

    Over the past few months, I've endured a significant amount of change. I am a creature of habit, so all of this change has definitely turned my life upside down and inside out. I have had moments of sadness, thinking of wonderful friends in New Orleans who Ryan and I have shared life with in the past two years. I've had moments of being totally thrilled to be back in East TN, living within 5 minutes of my life-long favorite place to be. I've made new friends since being back, and it has thrilled my heart to be back with people I love and treasure.

     Now that it is 2014, I've determined that I will be a "New Me" in the "New Year". So far, I've determined to keep the house more organized, get rid of clutter, and to try to keep my desk cleaner. I'm also trying to get back in shape and eat healthier. I am doing a decent job so far, but I still have work to do! As a teacher, I've decided to simplify my centers while maximizing comprehension. So far, I've not had much of an opportunity to observe the effectiveness, considering the various snow days and 2 hour delays we've had so far!! However, I will attempt to blog about how they are going after I've tried them out!! 

    Well, I know this is quite a long blog, so for now I'm going to enjoy a cup of hot tea and some time with my hubby!!! 

New Beginnings

Maybe I will actually get back into blogging now that we (Ryan and I) are embarking upon a new adventure. In the past 2 months, we have gone through quite a walk of faith. We trusted God when He told us He had a new plan for us outside of New Orleans. It was difficult to rely on Him entirely, but worthwhile when I received an offer for a fantastic 3rd grade teaching position in Morristown, TN. It has been hard leaving our friends in New Orleans, who were really more like family than just friends, but we know God has great plans for us in Jefferson City, and we look forward to the new adventure. 

As I get ready for the upcoming school year, I will be posting pictures of my new classroom and ideas I have for teaching, so come back and read more to see what I am up to! 

Teacher Meet N Greet!

Wow... so today was an absolutely awesome and excessively exhausting day! I am beyond tired, but was soooo excited to see my precious new kids today! I am very pumped about school starting tomorrow. Tomorrow will consist of Hugs, "First Day of School Jitters", Expectations, getting into lockers, devotions, etc! And my favorite part... my PINK POODLE SKIRT!!!! I can't wait to share those pictures with you tomorrow! Here are a few from today...

 I am completely stoked about my Behavior Chart for this year! I have a song for my clip chart to go along with each level! Students start the day in the middle--- and can go up or down! I can't wait to start seeing my music notes move up the board!!!

 Student desks after some dropped off supplies today--- thus the bags!

 My desk--- before I cleaned it back off, and the SCARY library in the back!

AMAZING book recommendations chart that my friend Taran helped me make! I give her all the credit! She did a great job with the creativity!

Dressing Up my Nest!

So today I FINALLY have gotten my desk area figured out! I opted to get rid of a "real" teacher's desk and instead us a table & a rolling drawer cabinet. Needless to say... I LOVE LOVE LOVE it so far! It's soooooo much better than the big bulky desk I had before that just accumulated JUNK and now I can have small groups at my desk! OH HOORAY! A few pictures from today:

 Student desks will all books ready to go to their lockers! :)

 My desk, classroom library, and student desks!

 MY NEW DESK SPACE!!!! It's a little cluttered now, but I'm so excited about it!

 Classroom library... all I can say is SCARY!

Another view of my desk!

Learnin' Round the Clock

So the school year is getting started... and for the past week I've been working on setting up my classroom. My theme for this school year is the 1950s! I am trying to maintain my theme throughout my classroom-- from the moment you walk into the door, to the students' desks, and even to my anchor charts and classroom library! Here are a few pictures of getting set-up... and once I get more done, I'll post more pictures!

My classroom when I walked in on Monday... 

 

 My juke box for my wall

 Getting the desks set up... which is a little difficult with 4 more students this year. I had no idea how much space 4 desks take up! But I am excited about having a slightly larger class this year because I'll have more babies to love on! :)

 The start of my "Info to Know" bulletin board--- with my AWESOME piano key border!

 Homework Agenda board/computer table & bookshelf.

 The really cool decor I found at the Educator store! How fun is this?

A New Year Blooms!

So after a summer that seemed INCREDIBLY too short, the upcoming year is only 2 weeks away and there is so much today! Mostly, I'm trying to get myself super organized for this upcoming year so that there is less chance of me becoming unorganized. I've been going through papers, chunking unneeded papers, and attempting to file everything in a somewhat orderly fashion. I've also been clearing out my school email to make it nice and need for next year! 500+ emails later, I've finally gone through them all! Tomorrow I hope to go by the school and begin organizing my classroom! I'll be sure to post some pictures of the work in progress!

Perfect Poetry Club

Two weeks ago, we had a "Poetry Club" to finish out our poetry unit. My students worked for 6 weeks to create poetry books of completely original works. In the book are over 10 different styles of poems (including haiku, acrostic, alliteration, and free verse) They had so much fun sharing their final books with their classmates! Each student picked 3-5 poems to share aloud with their classmates. We also had hot chocolate, muffins, and cinnamon rolls to snack on during the club. Below are some of the pictures of our wonderful poetry club!! (I'll upload more book photos later!) I am beyond pleased with how well this worked for a first time event! I definitely think this will become an annual event! 

 

 Backdrop for reading poetry

 Sharing some of her favorite poems

 Snapping for their classmates

 Reading and complimenting other students' poetry books

 The "critique" sheet

 Some of their positive comments!

 My little poets!

 Silly faces!

Trying to be serious... doesn't work well! Haha.

Welcome to my Wacky 4th Grade World!

First blog... and I'm not entirely sure what to write. 

I'll just start by introducing myself. My name is Taira Gladwin. I am a newlywed. I married Ryan Gladwin on July 23, 2011, so we've been married for 7 months and 10 days. 4 days after our wedding, we relocated to New Orleans so my husband can attend seminary. I teach at a small private Christian school where I have 9 precious babies. They crack up when I call them that, but they know it means I just really love them as if they're my own. 

Oh, and this is my first year as a teacher. I have had an interesting 1st year of teaching. I teach wonderful 4th graders, and most days they do not drive me crazy! They are a great group of kids. 

Well, that's all I have time to write for now, since I have more lesson planning to do, but I will post more later!!!!!!