New to 2nd grade

[2grdteachr]

Hi everyone! I was just hired as a second grade teacher. This will be my first year teaching. Are there specific things that work well for your classroom? Where is the best place to get supplies or order supplies? I will be using a racing theme for my classroom. I have checkered valences for the curtains and a car incentive chart so far. What are some helpful classroom tips I could use? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

[hescollin]

Petunia

Send me an e mail direct and I will share activities and ideas, that I have in docs on the computer. Tell me second grade.

 

[suem]

second grade

Some things they forgot to tell you in college. Model EVERYTHING. This includes how and when you want your children to go to the bathroom and get drinks. There is a book out called The First Six Weeks of School. Read it, it is really helpful. Scholastic.com has some great check list for the beginning of school I tend to look at every year even though I have been doing this a little while. But the big thing is teach what and how you want your students to do for classroom management those first couple of weeks. It WILL make things go easier. If other teachers are jumping into curriculum, let them, you will catch up because you will be spending less time on rules and how too's later on. Another thing a teacher did in my building this year that I wish I had thought of was after Christmas break, she took an entire day and went over all the rules and procedures again.
If you have never subbed, you will want to have lots of "extra" things to do if a lesson doesn't take as long as you expect. (Teachers who were subs know this.) Don't leave a moment unplanned and be prepared for anything to happen during a lesson. Not only fire drills, but children getting sick and assembleys no one told you about can really mess things up!
Above all, have fun!

 

[2ndGradeChick]

Welcome

to second grade...it's awesome. You are going to love it. Students are capable of reading alone and working independently, but still want to please their teacher and follow rules. I agree with the other post, both to MODEL everything as well as to spend a lot of time at the beginning with the rules. If you want to have a cooperative, smooth running room, these are a must.

I have a free choice chart for when they are finished working on their assignment. Things like read around the room, play a math game, book of choice, file folder game, puzzle, listen to a story, write a story, illustrate a story etc. However, if students rush and turn in crap for work...I make them show me their paper, and if it's not quality work, they can only read at their desk.

I like to order supplies from catalogs...or go to my teachers store nearby. One catalog i like a lot is Really Good Stuff. I spend the summer building my science units, social studies and math games, make new file folder games, organizing stuff...never a dull moment.