Welcome Back Bus

Several of the awesome Knollwood staff members ready to go. (Photo taken by the fabulous Mr. Yellow Robe)

Mrs. Roller, Ms. Kolbach, Ms. Hoscheid,
and Mrs Tautkus sporting their cool new gear.

Cortney, a second grade student at Knollwood Elementary proudly shows off her new shirt.

Things are in full swing. Today marked my first official school event for the 2010-2011 school year. I hopped aboard the big yellow bus this evening to deliver school supplies and pass out Knollwood t-shirts to our students. This is our second year for the Welcome Back Bus. Both years we have passed out school supplies and terrific looking tees.

First Grade Team Field Trip to Crazy Horse

Speaking of teams, I work with a variety of teams at Knollwood. One of those teams is the core first grade team. There are four sections of first grade at my school so I am blessed to work with three other amazing individuals who each bring their own strengths and perspectives to our team.

I already introduced you to Mrs. Tautkus yesterday. My other two first grade teammates are Ms. Holsather and Mrs. Erickson. Ms. Holsather has been teaching for eight years. This will be her third year at Knollwood. She is extremely organized and beautifully integrates music into all aspects of her day. You can often hear her singing with her students. Mrs. Erickson has 27 years of teaching experience and this will be her 22nd year at Knollwood. Now that’s dedication to a school! Mrs. Erickson is quite an artist and has a knack for design. Both ladies truly care about kids and helping them be the best they can be.

Ms. Holsather and I taught the June session of Camp Adventure this summer. On one of the days, we went to Crazy Horse with our students. Both Ms. Holsather and I felt that we needed more time at Crazy Horse to enjoy the atmosphere and browse the museum. Plus, we were dying to spend money in the gift shop. Did anybody say “BOOKS”? We decided to take a “team field trip” to Crazy Horse and had a blast. Of course, we talked about school a little bit, but “school talk” did not monopolize our rich conversations. It was a quality team building time. Who knows…maybe we will make team field trips a tradition and go somewhere together every couple of months.

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” — George Bernard Shaw. All three of these women are great people to exchange ideas with. Here’s to you, hoping you have a solid team and wonderful people with whom you can exchange ideas…

Check out the following website if you are interested in learning about about Crazy Horse. http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/

Teammates

Continued to work on room arrangement today. The physical design of a classroom is critical for positive academic and social learning. Great care and thought go into my room set up every year. It is always a process. My room is a canvas and the painting is slowly unfolding before my eyes. Of course, it will not be complete until my 25 little artists add their unique talents and perspectives to the picture. My goal is to create a safe and welcoming environment where students want to be and are motivated to learn. I have always been and continue to be a curious and enthusiastic person. My hope is that my students catch that same passion for learning.

Mrs. Tautkus presenting at her Master's symposium, April 2010.       
Her work was on word sorts.

One of my wonderful teammates, Mrs. Tautkus, was also at school today. There can be no greater gift than having remarkable people to work with. Mrs. Tautkus is one of those people. Mrs. Tautkus is in her fifth year of teaching and is a huge asset to our team. She recently earned her Master’s Degree in Reading Leadership. She is innovative, creative, and hard working. I am blessed to work at a school that greatly values teamwork and collaboration. I leave you with this quote from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: "One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” More on teams to come.

Room Set Up

I'll be "officially" back at school next week at this time. I have had a busy summer planning and preparing for the upcoming year. Yesterday I spent the day working on room set up. It's amazing the time and energy it takes to set up a room. Before leaving for the summer, we dismantle our classrooms and pack everything up. During the summer, our wonderful custodians take EVERYTHING out of our rooms and do a thorough cleaning. This includes waxing the floors. Then they put everything back in and it is ready for us to start unpacking and getting things ready for the new year. This is how the classroom started out...

New to Blogging

It's almost time for the start of the 2010-2011 school year. I am both excited and nervous about the new year ahead. I have a feeling that this is going to be a year full of "firsts" so I am taking a step out of my comfort zone and have entered into the world of blogging. Thanks for coming along with me on this adventure into the fascinating world of first graders.