Addicted...

You know you're a NEW teacher when...

...you ASK your reading specialist for some "good books and videos" on guided reading, are legitimately thankful when she gives you some to take home, and then proceed to PLAN (and actually be excited) to watch them on your Saturday night.

...or maybe its the laying-on-the-comfy-couch, relaxing, no-alarm-set-for-the-morning part that's exciting to look forward to...

Anywho, no joke, this is what I did this weekend. The reason being, I am having a tough time differentiating and finding meaningful lessons with rich literature in the traditional anthologies. They are just so...blah. I am so intrigued by the concept of work boards, stations, and guided reading, the students' main source of reading instruction being done independently. My school gave me a GREAT book called "Spaces and Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy" by Debbie Diller.

Inside are lots of pictures showing what a well set up classroom looks like and how greatly it impacts the success of your reading lessons. I am hooked. All I can think about now is how I can set up my room to MAXIMIZE the amount of learning that can go on simultaneously in our room! The only problem is that I am a new teacher and I have inherited such a hodge-podge of random furniture that its going to be tough to have a nicely cornered library on bookshelves...seeing as I don't ACTUALLY have bookshelves. I am determined though and luckily my mentor just happens to be one of the reading specialists in the school. I am thinking that taking full advantage of my resources is going to be the secret to my success. I have a PD this week that is actually based off of Diller's book. How perfect! (That's another one...you know you're a NEW teacher when...you're actually excited for professional development.)

Plus, I am in the midst of decorating and redesigning my new place. (I'm a big girl now...gotta have a big girl house to match the big girl job!) Many trips to Target later, it is coming together. I am excited to move onto bigger and better things...ie my classroom :) I love the idea of a well decorated and thoughtfully laid out classroom (mostly because mine is SO not). I can just picture it...a room with defined centers, working traffic patterns, and a definite color scheme. So far, I've got the color scheme chosen (based around my fave color, teal, of course). I am thinking that I am up for the challenge...we'll see!