Well, my three week winter vacation is coming to a close. Before I know it, these last couple of days of freedom will be gone and it will be MONDAY.
I’m not sure how it happened, but these three weeks have felt SO LONG that I’ve been telling people I don’t understand how I’m actually a teacher and in charge of live human beings. It’s so weird because these past three weeks have felt longer to me than summer break . . .
I know once I’m back in the classroom with my kiddos, it will feel like I never had a break, but I am here to tell you that I am just feeling all out of sorts at the moment.
And if I’m feeling out of sorts, I wonder how my first graders are feeling!?!
So I decided that whatever I have planned to do (and who knows what that is because I got all prepped and planned before I left and now I can’t remember anything whatsoever at all) doesn’t matter. I’m not going to do it.
I am even going to cancel my parent volunteers. I KNOW!
I need to take this first week back and really review behavior expectations, but also just have TIME with my kids so that we can reconnect as a little family, even if our little family is dysfunctional at times, and we tattle tale, and threaten not to be each other’s friends anymore.
Not to mention . . . the weather forecast for this week is RAIN ALL THE DAY LONG. Until Friday.
And, even though I haven’t said it, I do miss my kids. But not so much that I feel the need to spend 24/7 with them without first reminding them how and what to do in our room especially since they’ve been doing whatever and who-knows-what for the past three weeks.
SO!
I’m going to use the Behavior Posters that my school came up with to REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW.
I’m thinking we’ll focus on two a day so that by the end of the week, we’ll have refreshed our memories for all ten behavior expectations.
I’ve got these posted (just regular 8.5 x 11 size) on a bulletin board right by our door. That way, we can refer to them as we’re lining up and getting ready to head out somewhere. But, mostly, if I’m being 100% real and honest with you, it’s because our principal asked us to post them somewhere in our room and so I did.
Mainly, when we’re lining up, you’ll hear me saying things such as stop touching him, please face forward, no, you’re fine, oh wait, yes, please get a tissue and then wash your hands, why?, because when you have a puddle of snot in your hands, you are supposed to wash your hands, I said stop touching him, I’m waiting, I’m looking for friends who look and sound like Miss Follows the Rules All Day Long . . . and so on. I don’t really have time to “refer to the posters” because I want to get out of the classroom and out the door AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLY.
But I also made these into a book (I just used our binding machine at school) so that I can have them with me at the carpet and that’s when I use them the MOST. For real.
Here’s a close up look at a few . . .
I made these posters to match my room, but I made some other color options as well, such as rainbow, polka dotted, and a burlap set for all of the Chip and Joanna fans at my school (and there are a lot). I also made a set in black and white for other teachers who like to save their color ink and/or don’t have any color ink because we work at a public school and just getting tissue is sometimes hard.
I also made the posters editable because I know school rules differ from place to place.
ANYWHO!
Now you know what I’l be doing this week.
Sloshing through my day in rain boots, hugging on my kids, and reminding everyone of the behavior expectations as I yell STAY OUT OF THE PUDDLES and BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR UMBRELLAS and YOU JUST WENT TO THE BATHROOM, YOU ONLY WANT TO GO BECAUSE IT’S RAINING!
🙂 Have a great week, everyone!