It's been a while...a long while! I took some time off of the blog, but I'm planning on being better this year! Setting goals for myself! Woo Hoo! So what's happened since I've been gone:
I taught a departmentalized class last year and loved it!! I taught two groups of students, splitting the day in half. I loved working with my partner, Mrs. Gutierrez. She's amazing! I taught ELA (Reading and Writing) and she taught Math and Science. I got to really delve into my craft for teaching firsties how to read. I really think we did so well (for the kids and ourselves) with departmentalizing because we have very similar teaching styles. The kids adapted really well to switching to each others' classrooms because of that!
On a personal note, I got engaged! We are getting married on December 28th in New Orleans. So exciting! After Christmas, I will be Mrs. Giffin.
So now, for this year... I'm back to teaching a self-contained class, which means I teach all subjects to one special group of firsties! I do really love teaching a self-contained class. I really get to know my kiddos' personalities and interests.
Over the summer, I did a lot of research on Growth Mindset. I am really excited to incorporate this into my classroom this year. Growth Mindset is the idea that people are not born with a fixed set of intelligence or ability. Every person can GROW in intelligence or ability. So there will not be praise for being the "Smart One" or the "Athletic One" in our class. We will praise and work on learning and persistence and progress. I will be posting more about Growth Mindset in my next post. I'm really excited about this!
Our team changed up a little bit this year! Ms. Tate came to join us in first grade! Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Gutierrez are returning! Yay!! We went to the CAMT convention this summer and really bonded as a team!
This year our school's theme is "Anchored in Success." I'm running with the nautical theme and mixing it with Growth Mindset to have our First Grade Motto:
"First Graders Refuse to Sink, We Just Keep Swimming!"
So that's all for now! I'll be back soon!
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