Author Archives: Jen Bearden

Update

Remember the pictures from yesterday?  Take a look at just what an hour or two’s worth of work can do:

This picture didn’t turn out too good, but it’s the view to the right from the door.  My desk, the carpet, a table or two and the ActivBoard.

Still some stuff on the windows, but can you see a classroom starting to take shape?  I am really excited about the way this part of the room worked out.  The blue shelf will be cubbies for some of you.  The empty shelves on the left will be the library.

Just inside the door: table, yellow cubbies, a desk and a round table.  All the stuff on the counter will move and that will be the art center.  See the green wall to the left?  It looks like this:

I’m pretty excited about it.  I mean yes, eventually it will have stuff covering that all up, but I love how it speaks to our construction theme.  You will start to see more of that CAUTION tape creeping up around the room soon.

I worked some more today, but forgot to take pictures.  I’ll do that when I go in again tomorrow.

Hope you got your letter today (or yesterday!).  Watch your mailbox for a note from me, too!  🙂

 

Ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered what your classroom looks like at the end of summer before your teacher gets there and puts it all back together?  Did you even know that it looks different during the summer?  Well, here’s a few sneak peeks of what our room looked like today when I got there.  It’s the first day I’ve been to school to start working on it, and I thought you’d want to see it before I got too far:

View to the right of the door

Just inside the door

How ’bout all that stuff piled on the windowsill? 🙂

Another great pile of stuff on the counter

So now start imagining how those big, messy piles of tables and chairs and books and supplies will become your classroom.  Stay tuned–I’ll post an update soon.

Writing Challenge

I read lots of other people’s blogs.  Most are either teachers or crafters.  Today I read one that I really loved, and thought I’d share here.  It’s a writing challenge that I’m taking on.  Ok, well really it’s something I already do, but love a challenge, so I’m in.  Read about it here and see if you’re in, too.  BELIEVE ME, we’ll talk alot more about it once we get started with Writer’s Workshop, but I thought I’d give you a chance for a head start.  Don’t know what to write about today?  How about the favorite thing you did this summer, or what you wish you’d done this summer that you didn’t get a chance to do.  The biggest thing is that you write, not what you write about. 🙂

August

It’s officially August!  That’s good–because we’ll be together soon–but it also means it’s almost the end of the summer.  I’m most excited about today because it’s the day the letters go home so you’ll FINALLY know who’s class you’re in.  And I hope it’s mine!  Send me a message or comment on this post!  See you soon, friends. 🙂

Getting closer…

Hello again!  So today I got a really exciting email from Mrs. Sisul that had some back-to-school information in it.  I learned more about what our schedule will look like during the day, and it’s going to be pretty great!  We will probably have math in the morning–which is good because your brains will be fresher then–and reading is after lunch.  With every little bit of info that I get, the more excited I become to meet you and get this party started!

Oh, and since I whined in my last post about how I couldn’t find anything for our theme, I thought you’d like to know that I’ve started to find some really great things.  Just had to think about it a little more (so I could plan on what I might need to make), and shop in a few other places.  And I love shopping, so that was pretty cool.  Like I said in the title of this post, school is getting closer, and I’m getting even more excited!

Frustrated

I told you already about our theme this year.  Well, I told you that you could find it if you went to the right place.  That place was our classroom website (www.kirkwoodschools.org/faculty/beardej).  So since you’ve already been there to visit our website (it’s really great, right?), then you know the theme this year is Building Great Minds.  I have had all sorts of ideas about things around our classroom that will tie into that theme–table name tags, hall passes, bulletin boards, signs, etc–but once I started shopping for those things, I COULDN’T FIND WHAT I WANTED ANYWHERE!  Apparently there is not much of a market for construction hats and dump trucks or other images related to building.  So what do you do when you run into a problem?  Problem solve!  I guess that now I am on a new search.  And this search includes materials to make most of the things I envision.  Which is actually pretty cool, because I enjoy that type of thing.  Stay tuned for pictures of what I’m making.  Some of the new creations just might have your name on them!  (But not until after August 1, since I can’t reveal who’s in my class until after that.)

Thinking about theme

I know it’s summer, but sometimes my mind wanders to school anyway.  While I am not at school yet doing anything “official”, I usually do at least a little thinking or planning about school every day.  Right now the work is on our classroom theme.  I’m excited to share it with you and then work on building on that theme all year.  Any guess at what it might be?  There are clues out there already if you know where to look….

The waiting is killing me!

So excited to find out who’s in my class this year!  I love this time of the summer when anticipation is high and everyone is excited to learn who their new teacher will be.  Will it be you?  I sure hope so!  Watch for a letter in your mailbox around August 1st.  Can’t wait to meet you all, new friends!  🙂