Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Last Hurrah!




After a year and a half away from blogging I have returned, to record my last year of teaching. This is it, the last "Hurrah!" If change is good for one's brain, mine is getting a great workout. I have a new teaching partner, a new principal in our building, a new state mandated assessment for kindergarten called WAKIDS and of course the Common Core Standards are still fairly new in Washington. If negotiations improve we will start school on time with a new contract too. My classroom is the same one I have taught in for 19 years except the seating arrangement is different and I moved around bookshelves and the calendar so everything is on opposite sides of the room. We had a Jump Start program last week to introduce our kindergarten students to school. They came for half days and we had extra help to give the fall Kindergarten Inventory. So I already know quite a bit about the 2/3 of the class that participated. I don't want to be overly optimistic but I must say that the class chemistry was positive overall.  So, ready or not kindergartners, let's begin!