I've been inspired lately looking at all the BTS posts on pintrest, blogs, instagram, and periscope. Looking at everyone else be so excited, makes me get even more excited! It's contagious! I've "meet" so many fellow teachers through social media and it helps to connect with them when I feel like I'm getting in a slump. At the same time, it's easy to get overwhelmed and envious of everyone's classroom! I have to remind myself that as fabulous as all my teacher friends are (and they're pretty awesome), I'm not them. I'm only me! I have to do what I think will work first for my students and then for myself.
This year, I felt like I really had a grasp on my lesson planning. This will be my 6th year in first grade bilingual. And then a few weeks ago, CURVE BALL! My principal brings me into her office and shares that I will have a team teacher and we will have all the bilingual and ESL students in 1st grade. Someone that I actually know and previously taught bilingual, but left a few years ago to homeschool her children. I have actually gotten her to sub for me quite a few times the past two school years. A few things were up in the air. How will we group the students? Mix them up or separate into a bilingual group and an ESL group? What curriculum will I use for the ESL students? Currently I use the Senderos reading series for my bilingual students since they are all in Spanish instruction. I have the companion English series Journeys. The rest of the 1st grade team doesn't use their reading series Treasures. They use the TEKS resource system (formally CScope), along with Project Read and a writing series that I'm not sure the name of. I'm still waiting to speak to my principal about deciding what curriculum we will use with the ESL students. I hope it's soon because I have a lot to plan out! We did decide to separate into a bilingual and ESL group which I'm very happy about. I don't have to divide my LAR time in half and can just focus on instruction in each language at a time since I will be the LAR and Social Studies teacher. My team teacher will teach Math and Science which in our district is all in English for both bilingual and ESL students.
Aside from those technicalities I need to work out, I have had more time to spruce up my classroom this year. I get to make it look all pretty! I've moved classrooms twice in the past two years which isn't fun. This year I'm in the same classroom so I could do a little more. I finally finished painting my bookshelves and have gotten more bulletin boards up instead of just using the plain wall. I rearranged furniture which I think will work much better than last year. My bilingual group will be large, about 21 students so I decided to put my desks into three table groups of 7 tables each. I've never put this many desks together in group. I try to keep it to four tables at the most, but I don't have enough room for 5 table groups so I'm hoping this will work out.
I remember my first year of teaching and how nervous I was. I didn't know what I was doing! I was pregnant with my second child, and working in a town about 45 minutes from home so I didn't know anyone at all. Looking back there were so many things I could've done better, but if I hadn't lived through all those newbie teacher experiences, I wouldn't be as confident in myself as I am now. I was lucky to have gotten a job at my first campus. I was there for five years and learned so much from all the staff there not to mention that I've made life long friends! I actually got a visit from one of them last week. It was so great to see her and catch up even if it was only for a short while. Plus we decided to get together with all my other old coworkers soon. I can't wait to visit with the ladies that taught me so much about the bilingual program.
So what is your favorite thing about BTS? The decorating, the lesson planning, or the labeling? Maybe it's seeing all your campus teacher friends after summer break? Let me know in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment