My sister inspires me!

Sounds like Jackie has a real good plan to begin the new school year, unlike Jackie's procrastinating sister! :) Just kidding :)

This upcoming school year will be vastly different than any other school year for me. I will be entering into a co-teaching adventure in 3rd grade with another amazing teacher from our school, Mrs. Robbins. We just made arrangements to meet up tomorrow to discuss "back to school logistics". We decided to meet at Jackie's house so their little girls can play together!

I'll probably bring fruit salad to snack on.. I'm a big believer in "brain food to get you in the mood to learn". I'm excited to see Mrs. Robbins and ask her how summer has treated her! Mrs. Robbins and a few other teachers from our school run an amazing extra curricular program called "Dramatic Learning"... More to come.... In the meantime, check them out on the Web. http://www.dramaticlearningorlando.com/index2.html


Tonight will be devoted to making a list of back to school things to discuss tomorrow. I can't wait to share all of the neat things I have discovered off of pinterest and other teacher blogs. The point of this list is to not overwhelm Robbins, instead, I want to get her excited for our new class together!

I would love to hear about co teaching experiences you have had. Some things to think about:
1) How did you make it work?
2)What apprehensions did you have?
3)How did you overcome the obstacle of sharing a classroom?
4)If you could give one piece of advice to someone sharing a classroom, what would it be?

Back to School Logistics (8/1/11) Meeting with Mrs. Robbins:

1) Decide on a color scheme/theme for our classroom. (I like the zebra print that my sister is using, but I might try and find something different. Perhaps a music/band theme since I am in a rock band in my spare time. I love the colors green, white, and black. I love when my students create their own work to display on my walls, so I am going to look into that further.)

2)Marsha my co teacher has never used Daily 5 and Cafe system before, so I want to discuss what she knows, what I know, how we can use it in our classroom.

3)Talk about a classroom behavior system. I rely heavily on my "Smith Bucks" classroom economy. I reward students for appropriate behavior with these bucks. My sister Jackie has it saved on her computer so hopefully she can add the template. If Marsha and I decide to do this, we will have to think of a new name. "smithrobbins bucks" is one I have thought of. My face can be on the 1$ and Mrs. Robbins can be on the 5$, and I was thinking administrator(s) could be on the $20, $50 and $100.

4)Discuss procedures and guidelines that we have used at the beginning of the year. I am going to tell Mrs. Robbins about "anchor charts" and how they facilitate knowledge and ownership of expectations.

5)Decide what copies we will need for back to school. (Dragon Books-for organized Castle Creek students... more later)

6)Set up a time to go in and figure out classroom design....(more later)

7)Talk about expectations of the classroom and each other.

8)Talk about any professional development we did this summer. (I'll tell her about the ESOL class I took, books I read, and blogs I have visited. I'm sure this will be the time that Mrs. Robbins head will never be the same. Blogs are addicting.

I figured 8 things to check off on a Back to School list would be a good start! I'm sure 8 will be increased many many more times before our classroom looks "Meet the Teacher Ready", but hey, that's the fun and excitement of BACK TO SCHOOL time!

-Danielle