10 things I've learned from Teaching and Giveaway day 3!

Yesterday's winner was Debbie P!


This feels a little like David Letterman.

10.  The clearance aisle is your friend.  Especially in late August and early September when all the stores start getting rid of their extra school supplies!!



9.  Get school supplies early and buy lots.  4.50 for a box of 24 crayons!!!  What?  At the beginning of the school year they can be as low as 25 cents!  Stock up!!  I also tell parents to stock up because the school supplies never last all year!



8.  Kids love stickers!  There were times I would give stickers as positive reinforcement.  I never saw such happy faces or such sad faces over a simple sticker.


7.  Your job is not restricted to school hours!  I have been at school some days 13 hours!  There are conferences, concerts, science fairs, festivals, etc.  We also work at home, during the summer (shocking isn't it!), on the weekends.

6.You do not love your students as much as your own children, but you do love them!  I saw some of my former students graduate from 8th grade in June.  There were many that were my little 2nd graders, there were more that were my 5th graders.  I cried to see them so grown up!  My first class are now sophomores.  In less than 3 years, my 1st class of 1st graders and my 1st class of 2nd graders will be graduating high school.

5.  There will be interruptions.  There are fire drills, tornado drills, lockdowns, picture day, fundraisers, book fairs.  I am one to hate interruptions to my schedule.  I am much more flexible in 1st grade.  I HATED interruptions in 5th grade.  It was a testing grade and the 5th grade math test was a monster.  I needed every single moment!

4.Tests are a reality and they are not going away.  In fact here in NC there are going to be MORE tests for more grades!  That should prove interesting.  So my little first grader that didn't sleep last night because his mother was arrested will be tested.  I found this picture that portrays a student's perspective of Washington state's tests.



3.  At a moment's notice a child will be the most precious thing on Earth.  This is a gift from one of my first grader's this year.  It shows perfect innocent childhood.

2.  Learn from every year and always move forward.  One of the advantages to teaching is that every fall we get to start all over.  One of the hardest parts is that every fall we have to start over.

And the number 1 thing I have learned from teaching........Drumroll please......



1.  A lesson I learned my first year of teaching.  When a child looks ill, they are ill.  Get them to the trashcan, bathroom, or nurse ASAP!  I had a child doing the TPRI with me (TPRI is much like Running Records).  I asked the child if they were okay because they looked pale and a little off.  The child said they were fine.  Not two minutes later she threw up all over my reading table!  That will be a lesson I never forget!

Onto the giveaways!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Crystal