Back At It

I have a lot of catching up to do!  I'd drafted 3 posts before the Winter Break but lost track of them and now it's been quite awhile (I'll post them later today).  As I rediscovered them this week, I was reminded of all the great things that were going on in my classroom before the break and relieved to realize that we have (mostly) picked up where we left off, despite the 18 days off we had in the middle.

Admittedly, I was nervous about having such a long break; we had two full weeks off over Christmas and New Years, which I filled with reading, eating, drinking, relaxing, watching movies, and cooking, but I had some nerves heading back to school.  You never know if the kiddos will have forgotten all the rules and expectations.  We went back to work last Monday for a half-day PD, then I spent the rest of the day co-planning and readying my classroom.  Tuesday morning I felt anxious but ready, then, about an hour and a half before the kiddos arrived, the heater in my classroom broke.  The temps were in the teens and my room quickly turned into a refrigerator.  Not good.

Despite the inconvenience of relocating (we spent the morning in the Chinese room and then moved around while other classes had special) and not being able to review the classroom routines and procedures that I'd hoped to, we had a great day!  In fact, having to think on my feet and figure out what/how to teach out of a box helped shake off the mental "dust" from being away and made me forget about my nerves.  The kiddos were just excited to see their friends again, and me, and thought it was pretty hilarious that we got to switch rooms throughout the day.

Thankfully, the heater was fixed by Wednesday morning and we were back in the classroom and back to our routine.  I had set aside time to go over our class expectations, discuss our class and individual goals, and review procedures, but the kiddos remembered almost everything.  They quickly reminded each other about our bathroom signal, how to "SHINE," and where to sit.  Now it's hard to believe we were away from each other for such a long time!