Go Fourth!

Hello! It's been quite a while since I've blogged. The last couple of months of school were crazy with state testing and end of the year activities. Summer break has been grand though! My husband and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas in early June and it was AMAZING! Since then, grad school classes have been consuming my summer, but I'm happy that I've gotten a lot done. Hopefully I'll be finished with my master's at the end of November!

Nassau, Bahamas - The water was gorgeous!

Now, as much as I hate to think about it right now, I'm starting to gear up for back to school. {Cue the alarm clock going off and whining!} Actually, I couldn't help but feel a little giddy when I walked into Walmart the other day and saw employees setting out school supplies on the shelves. I'm starting to think about how I will set up my classroom for this year. Still, I will miss sleeping in.

There are BIG changes in store for this coming school year...

Guess where I'm moving! :)

1. The biggest change is that I'm moving to 4th grade!!

AND I don't even have to move classrooms! Yay! I'm super excited about moving down a grade. I enjoyed fifth grade, but feel like this may be a better fit. Fourth grade is not departmentalized like fifth so I will be teaching everything. Even though this involves more planning, I'm totally embracing this change. I'm very much looking forward to having the same class all day and not having to worry about being on someone else's schedule to switch classes. I'm sure there will be much more about this to come.

2. I got a SMART board for my classroom!! You may remember me mentioning wanting one in this post. Ok, actually I got it during the last month of school, but I'm still over the moon about it! My students were thrilled, but their excitement couldn't compare to mine, haha! I had used a Smart Board before, but wanted to brush up on my skills. I attended a couple of inservice trainings to learn more about using it this summer so I'm looking forward to incorporating my new knowledge this year with my new kiddos.

3. We are getting a new principal at my school. Our principal retired at the end of last year. He was great and totally supported his teachers. We were used to things being pretty laid back though so we are all fully expecting changes this year. It should be interesting to see what happens.

4. Our district adopted a new math series. We already use the Scott Foresman reading, science, and social studies series so it came as no surprise that our district went with the Foresman math series as well. I attended an inservice on it this summer, but I've seen a copy of the inservice schedule for teacher's first week back and know that there are further trainings for this textbook in my future. Not going to lie...I'm a little nervous about teaching math in general in 4th grade because I've only taught math in primary grades before. {Last year, I only taught science and social studies in 5th.} Have any of you used this series before? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.