It's Been Awhile

So I realize it's been almost three months since I've updated. Yikes.

Please know that neglecting this blog was never my intention; I've been involved in a lot of other projects (NaNoWriMo, trying to start a blogging network, starting a fitness blog with my bestie) in the past few months.

There is one thing, however, that has happened that actually has an effect on this blog: I (kind of) got a promotion!

I'm still in my old classroom on Monday mornings (with just M and N), but Tuesday-Thursday mornings, I am in the Preschool I classroom (which is M and N's main classroom), and Monday-Thursday afternoons, I am in the Pre-K class (4 and 5-year-olds).

All the classes except Play Time (my original class) have co-teachers. One of the co-teachers in the Preschool I classroom was offered a higher-paying job closer to home (at her son's school, nonetheless), and she decided to take it; the director offered me her vacant position, and I accepted.  The Preschool I class is for 2-3 year olds, and is offered Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, with the option to send children two or three days of the week.  We currently have 11 students: three Americans (2 girls, 1 boy -- N from Mondays), three Chinese girls, four Korean boys, and a Japanese girl (M from Mondays).  We can have up to 12 children, and next semester, we will be gaining another American boy. One of our Chinese girls, D, will be going back to China next semester for Spring Festival, so O, who is in Play Time Tuesday-Thursday, will be taking her spot.

Adjusting to having a co-teacher was a lot easier than I expected to be.  There's always an extra pair of eyes and hands and we switch off lead teaching every two weeks so we get a bit of a break.  I love my co-teacher; she's kind and she's pretty hilarious, so that made the transition a lot easier than I expected it to.

Around the same time that I switched classrooms, the director asked me to help out in the afternoon Pre-K class as well.  It's a lot smaller than the morning class (9 kids vs 17), but there are some special needs in the afternoon class. There were originally six kids, including two kids from a set of triplets, and a week or two before I started, the third triplet started as well.  Two of the triplets have Autism Spectrum Disorder and celiac disease, and require some extra attention.  When two more children joined the class, the director figured a second set of eyes and ears would  be beneficial, so now I get to spend my afternoons in Pre-K :) I really enjoy it, because it's the age group I used to teach.

Here are some pictures of my new classroom (the Preschool I room). The theme is adventure/exploring.

view from the door

our teacher corner...all our supplies and files are here

the north wall -- the cabinets have puzzles and games that all classes share

tables. we have two of them.

dramatic play area

sensory table (and some awesome artwork!)

cubbies (and my stuff)

Christmas tree with ornaments the kids made

each child has his/her own "picture"...

...which indicates where they sit on the rug!

books :)

calendar

color jars

P.S. Here's what I've been doing in Play Time the last couple of weeks :)

Classroom Sneak Peek

I really should have taken more pictures of my classroom some time over the past couple of days, because my room has been finished and decorated for Parent Orientation Night and Visitation Day, but I forgot to.  Instead of showing you a bunch of half-finished pictures, I will show you one I took the other day of the first thing I completed in the classroom.

All of our classrooms are supposed to have a theme. The Pre-K class is owls (and puzzles), the Preschool II class is the ocean, and the Preschool I class is Adventuring/Exploring (pirates and the like).  I wanted to do something cool, but a little unexpected.  Last year, the teacher in my room did a jungle theme (So. Many. Monkeys.), but that's not really my style (I'm really not into monkeys).  I decided to go with a space theme; it's cool, it's educational, and it doesn't automatically scream preschool (not that that's a bad thing). 

I didn't want to go overboard with decorating, because I like to let the kids' artwork make up most of the decoration, but I wanted to use lots of stars.  Not only do they look cool (a star is my favorite shape), but it reinforces the idea of a star as a shape for my group of mostly two-year-olds.

So anyway, here are some of my stars :)