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!!!!!!