Ready or Not - Here I Come

So for the past week, (I said I would stay out...but see what happened?) I've been in my room, trying to get it ready. I do feel some comfort in knowing that I can't have it ALL ready because the class will create a lot of charts and push the curriculum, but am hoping that it feels comfortable, warm, and inviting. So many people are doing lists these days on their blogs, so I'm jumping on board :)

New things I am doing in my classroom

1. using songbooks (thanks to Barb and Cheryl for their giving)
2. creating reader's notebooks
3. using a word family notebook
4. pulling more from literature than the basal
5. apology of action chart rather than pulling beehives
6. having crates at each group table to store reader's bins
7. reader's bins (hopefully, if I get the money from our PTO)
8. songbook and poem binders (once again, money from PTO)
9. spelling inventories to assess where each child is and hopefully help group students better to work on the concepts THEY need
10. ABC writing unit - btw, if anyone has any print resources, I'd love to see copies and ideas
11. Want to start a group that meets monthly to discuss reading workshop (and writing of course too)

While I am excited, I know I am venturing into new territory...I'm going to take it one day at a time and blog through the adventure. I'm ready to see how using Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop together for a whole year makes a huge difference.

Oh, and on a side note, I'm also training for a mini-marathon in Indy in May of 2008...I just ran for the first time (yesterday) four miles! This will be a huge accomplishment for me...and a huge task.

Happy beginning of the year to everyone!