His celebration reminded me that YOU have also reached that 100 days of teaching and learning milestone with your students. Every day during our drive home, Daniel asks me about what I did at work. He insists that I tell him the names of the teachers that I saw and what their kids were doing. Lots of times after I finish telling him about our time together, he says, "Wow, that's NEAT Mommy."
It REALLY IS neat. All that you've been able to do in your first 100 days in the classroom have inspired me more than you know.
Check out this list. It's just a few of the many, many things that are happening daily in your classrooms. CELEBRATE! and keep up the beautiful work.
In the first 100 days of school, in the classrooms of first year teachers, I've seen...
1. Teachers learning and
2. welcoming their students into bright, stimulating, warm classrooms
3. Children singing
4. and dancing
5. and laughing
6. Veteran teachers sharing valuable resources with beginning teachers
7. and taking the time to listen
8. and pore over data
9. and brainstorm together of what is best for their students
10. A teacher organizing her first class library with books she'd carefully selected and collected over the summer
11. A child asking a question
12. to a teacher
13. and a friend
14. and of themselves to extend their own learning
15. Seeds being planted
16. Constructive comments left on students' writing
17. A first grader's writing piece that taught me something new
18. Word walls
19. A special need student signing a new word
20. A junior student's public service announcement
21. A teacher sitting cross legged with students, listening
22. Flexible groups
23. and guided reading sessions
24. Whole class read alouds
25. Book it! pizza certificates being awarded
26. A student telling a math story
27. Students hypothesizing about their class caterpillar
28. and asking new questions to investigate
29. A teacher in tears after a long day
30. and showing up the next day even stronger for her students
31. A child being rewarded with specific praise
32. and beaming for the next hour
33. A principal walking in and leaving an encouraging note
34. Morning routines set up such as:
35. Morning messages
36. Bellwork
37. Reflective questions
38. Morning stretches and good-morning handshakes
39. Weather reports
40. and a sharing of the day's objectives
41. Essential questions posted and discussed
42. Students collaborating to make meaning
43. A teacher saying, "I understand"
44. A child saying, "I understand"
45. Brain breaks
46. Math manipulatives being used
47. to create problems
48. and solve problems
49. A student saying, "I agree with you because..."
50. and another saying, "I'm thinking of it another way..."
51. Self portraits
52. Inspirational quotes posted
53. A child acting out a new vocabulary word
54. and using it in a new context
55. A child using a graphic organizer to brainstorm a writing piece
56. Students making reindeer candy canes to sell as a fundraiser for their end of the year banquet
57. A teacher responding to students' misunderstanding and
58. adjusting his lesson on the spot
59. A teacher planning her first STEM project
60. and finding that it was more successful with her students than she'd even hoped for
61. Students creating mock Facebook pages to show their understanding of Hawaiian kings and queens
62. and presenting it in a gallery walk
63. Students self assessing themselves
64. and their peers
65. Students asking Level 4 questions
66. and answering them
67. A teacher creating a rubric
68. and developing a lesson
68. aligned to Common Core State Standards
69. "I Can" statements posted
70. and read by students
71. Interactive math journals
72. A teacher implementing a strategy learned in a professional development class
73. and by observing a veteran teacher
74. Students poring over ads for a Black Friday economics lesson
75. Students singing a song about the how blood circulates through the heart to the tune of "Ho Hey I Belong to You"
76. Students cooking
77. and building circuits
78. Completed KWL charts
79. Students helping one another
80. and showing care
81. and respect
82. Students writing their homework in planners
83. Students building 3-D shapes out of straws and play-doh
84. A kindness chain
85. Question starter bookmarks
86. Hands eagerly raised
87. Progressfolios
88. with carefully chosen student reflected work placed inside
89. A teacher participating meaningfully in a data team meeting
90. and asking questions when next steps were unclear
91. A student excited to share her Thanksgiving poem
92. and smiling with pride as her classmates attentively listened
93. and then said, "WOW."
94. A parent picking up their child after school and stopping in to tell a teacher how much his child is loving learning in her class
96. A teacher calling a parent to tell her how much her child is growing in class
97. Children making mistakes and learning from them
98. A teacher honestly reflecting
99. and saying that teaching is harder...
100. but more rewarding than she ever imagined it could be.