Beginning Afresh!

I've thought and thought and thought about doing this.  Sadly one of my biggest hang-ups was not being able to come up with a name I liked.  But burlap and books - two of my favorite things! Easy peasy!

I can't wait to share with you what I am learning for this coming school year!  This will be my 7th year teaching, and according to my principal, he is "99.98 percent sure I will be in the same classroom and the same grade" this next year.  What that means?  Another year in 2nd!  After a really negative year a few years ago teaching second graders, last year with my group of 2nd's was such a blessing (or maybe it was the additional fact that I was out the first two months on maternity leave?!).  Either way, it was truly a good group of kids - so another year in 2nd sounds fine with me!

Some of my goals for this next school year:
1.  Incorporate Daily 5 into my ELA/Reading Block.  I always have the best of intentions with guided reading and stations.....and I tend to end up doing so much work trying to get stations to be sufficient that I bomb on other areas (i.e. being prepared for guided reading lessons!)

2.  Incorporate Guided Math and Math Workshop.  I'm reading the Guided Math book right now and keeping up with other bloggers that are discussing about it weekly.  It's been an easy read and I hope to keep up with them and begin contributing to their discussion! 

I know there was one more big goal for my year...and wouldn't you know - I didn't write it down, so where it is stored in this little brain of mine?!  I'm sure it will turn up again! 

I am also changing around the theme of my classroom for this next year.  I had originally thought of doing a camping theme.  While I love the idea....I can't help but think about all of the work that that sounds like!  Tents, and sleeping bags, and tackle boxes, oh my!  Soooooo I'm fairly certain I'm going to switch it to a red and aqua theme with some yellow accents.  The only thing is now I can't decide if I want black as a base color to go with it (chalkboard style) or burlap and brown (rustic-ish).

What theme are you going with this year in your classroom?