First Post!

This was my very first blog post!  I switched my blog name, so it looks like I went blog wild on July 21, but that's just the way it had to be when I moved everything over on that date. :-)

I teach second grade in the town in which I live.  Before that I taught first grade for several years.  I will be entering my 20th year of teaching in the fall.  My kids were already in school when I began teaching and they're all grown up and on their own, now.

I read other teachers' blogs all the time and I've always admired all the teachers that take the time (I know how busy you are) to post ideas to share with others, so I finally decided to give it a try.  I doubt I'll be as diligent as many of you are, but I'm going to give it a shot!

It's summer and like many of you, I spend  a good portion of it getting ready for the upcoming school year. I've been reading lots of blogs. The Clutter-Free Classroom is one of my favorites.  She posts her items for sale a lot, but she does have a good number of freebies.  Anyway, she gives a lot of great tips about setting up and getting rid of the clutter.  I cannot start anything yet as the custodians are currently cleaning the school and they haven't gotten to my room yet, but I plan on really trying to purge a lot of what I've collected over the past 20 years.  Hopefully someone else can use what I no longer need.

I've also been gearing up to get my math program in order.  I am going to try a math rotation board this year. I made up my own on Print Shop and I've got that all set to go. We will have a new math program this year called, "My Math" by McGraw-Hill (any comments--good or bad?).  I don't even have my teacher's manual yet, so to say that I'm a bit nervous about this situation is an understatement.  I was hoping we'd get the book early in the summer and have time to go over it. Hopefully we'll have some sort of professional development around the new program before school begins.  

Please stay tuned. :-)