The Good, The Bad, The Unsure -- First week back.

Well, I've almost completed my first week back to school after being on maternity leave for 14 weeks. I will say -- I survived. Details are for another post!

This week was filled with emotion, but when I got in my classroom and watched my lesson plans come to life I got that teacher high back! So, here is the good, bad, and unsure about my week.

GOOD.

• Trust -- First thing Monday morning instead of setting our usual goals I let my kids move their seats to sit next to their friends. I SWEAR I'M NOT INSANE. This has always worked for me. I tell my kids that I trust them enough to make the right decisions when it comes to respecting me and they really try to live up to that expectation. So far, so good. It is so important to me to regain trust after being gone for so long.

• Array Review -- Since we just came back from a long break I wanted to check for retention. I threw out some Legos on the desks and we reviewed arrays! The kids were super engaged and I was able to assess quickly. 

iPad on the run photo quality. 

• Multiplication Showdown -- Talk about a blast. We about blew the roof off of our room shouting and cheering our teams on. I separated the class in to two groups and sat at the main table as they lined up across the classroom. Two students at a time would come up, I would flip a multiplication fact over, the first person to answer correctly gets the card. The team with the most cards at the end wins! B-L-A-S-T. 

BAD. 

Organization -- I. Need. To. Get. Organized. That is all. 

UNSURE. 

Conferences -- I have always loved doing conferences for reading, writing, major assessments. My experience has been that when students know you are going to be checking in with them and holding them accountable they will stay on their toes and strive to hit goals. However, I'm having trouble finding time to get to all of my students during the week. I need to get a more concrete schedule set to ensure I hit all my students during the week. 

As you can see, the good outweighs the bad and the unsure, as it usually does being a teacher. 

On a side note: One of my favorite blogs is starting a home organization challenge this Saturday. Who wants to join with me?!