Sunday, August 28, 2016

The First 3 Days

The First 3 Days have come and gone. Here is a glimpse at our initial time together:

We began with a pep talk from our friend, Kid President. You can watch it too on our Room 200 Resources page. 


We thought about his message and put it into our own words and illustrations.



We also created our "First Day Faces". This challenge contained a little twist. The students were not allowed to use scissors. They had a blast and the faces turned out great!



Also, many of our building experts helped us remember our school expectations during our Expectation Walks. We practiced our CHAMPS and many other helpful routines.





Expectations and routines are going to help us run a very smooth classroom. We made a video to help us with our morning routine.

Morning Routine from LBright on Vimeo.

In math, we learned a really great new game called Knock Out. Check it out and try it at home. 




It is super important to be able to work as a team so we spent time talking and practicing teamwork with our Big Bad Wolf challenge. 




And as always, we spent a ton of time reading, talking about books and writing about books. 









Thanks for checking in! 

Stay tuned next week for our Declaration of Awesome!

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Welcome!

Greetings and Welcome to Room 200!

School is just around the corner and I am so excited to meet all of the newest members of Room 200. I am very curious to learn about you and I will bet that you are very curious to learn about me. 

Here are 10 interesting facts about me:

1. This will be my 13th year as a Kaneland teacher and my 3rd Kaneland building. I have taught 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. 



2. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and I am always rereading one of the books. It is my happy, magical place. 

3. My husband and I are fur parents. We have 2 dogs (had 3 until recently) and 2 cats. They all greet me when I get home from school and that makes me so happy.



4. I am very passionate about making your 2nd grade experience super comfortable and stress free. I think about this all of the time. I try to make our room cozy and creative. I think you will love it!
You can get a glimpse of our room by following us on Instagram: @mrsbrightkbk


5. I LOVE plants!  I love gardening and spending time with my flowers and vegetables outside. I also love bringing nature indoors in my home and our classroom. We will have a very "green" classroom!


6. Last November, I became an aunt for the first time. You are going to hear A LOT about Baby Wayne!




7. I am entering the 3rd and final year of my National Board Certification process. I had to take a really big test and send in videos of myself teaching and my students learning. I am always working on being the best teacher that I can be. This process has helped me on my teaching journey.

8. I love fitness! It is really important for me to be in great shape so that I can have enough energy to be the best teacher for all of my Room 200 friends. I enjoy biking, running, climbing and hanging. However, my favorite is weightlifting. I am on my journey to become a national qualifier in my age and weight bracket. I like being strong and confident. I am on a team filled with other amazing women and we have a blast!



9. My friends are super important to me and they make a huge difference in my life. You will hear me talk about a few of them a lot. 


10. I love teaching because I love my students. I am SO excited to meet you and start our journey together. We will have fun, challenge our minds and stretch our hearts. This is going to be amazing!


As you can see, I think having many hobbies and interests is important and makes me a better teacher. I look forward to learning all about you!

Now I'm going to ask two things from you:

1. Please click here to tell me a bit about yourself and your family. 

2. Please email me a picture of your family so that I can hang it up in our room to make it even more comfortable. laura.bright@kaneland.org


I look forward to meeting you Monday night. Until then, feel free to browse the blog to get a feel for what our adventure might look like this year.