Ok, well it has been a while.... a long while..... since my last post. To say that the beginning of the year has been a bit overwhelming would be the understatement of the year. Not only is this my first full year teaching, I changed grade levels (I taught half a year of 4th grade last year) to first. I am the 1st grade team leader, and was asked to take on an after school STEM club for K-2 students. Combine that with a husband who coaches cross country, a daughter starting high school and running cross country and a son who decided to take Taekwondo and play flag football and you can begin to see the reason behind my lack of posts. I have taken a lot of pictures along the way and will begin to post them soon. I need to make a list of all the fabulous blogs I need to give credit too (as you will see, I have taken full advantage of all of the great resources out there) before I begin posting pics.

I will limit this post to telling you a little about my firsties. Perhaps the most significant thing about my class this year is that I have 6 ESL students (yes, you read that right... 6). Somehow, the balancing out didn't go well when making the class lists. My fellow first grade teachers only have 1 each and somehow I ended up with 6. On the flip side, I love them all and wouldn't trade a single one! We have made some amazing progress and breakthroughs these last several weeks. The positive of having so many ESL kiddos is that the ESL teacher practically lives in my room during our literacy center time and the extra help is great!

I have quite a few characters in my class as well. Every day is an adventure. I have 3 students who hardly speak (a part of my ESL group of course) and I have 2 or 3 that cannot seem to keep their mouth closed. We have spent the first month of school setting our routines. I have my literacy centers in place, although my kiddos are still not all able to work independently without needing my input. I am hoping that this will be the last week of "practice" before I can actually start my guided reading centers. I have been working one-on-one and in small groups with some of my lower and struggling readers during this time, but the constant interruptions from the other students makes it difficult. I am hoping and praying that this week goes better.

I think I have perfected my center set-up and can't wait to share it. I will get some pictures of everything this week so I can be ready for that post.

Anyway, I am off to celebrate the Saint's first win of the season!!! (WHO DAT! I'm a Louisiana girl living in Japan!) Because of the time difference, the game is on in the morning here and thanks to my friend Chris Columbus, I was able to enjoy it in my PJ's relaxing at home! Happy Columbus Day! (A day off for us! One of the perks of working for the government!)