Get by with some help from my friends

Thank god for the Beatles and lyrics that make such great, if not cliche and overused, headings for blogs. I would also like to send a shout out to Sonny and Cher (United we stand, divided we fall) and salute Stevie Wonder (Ebony and Ivory, go together in perfect harmony...err, that one doesn't fit).

The point is, it is through talking to other teachers, albeit ones that are always striving for, finding and practicing the best teaching they can, that we are able to catch, hold down and commit to our ideas about how we want things to go in our classrooms. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with a friend from Augsburg, my Alma Mater. (It's so cool to say "my Alma Mater", because I never really ever thought I'd get a degree; I'd more or less given up on it in my 20's.) Sorry, tangent. I met with a friend that I went through the education program together with. She is also all growed up, with a family and a different career behind her, and spent the last year teaching for the first time. She was bumped this summer from third to first, a harrowing and terrifying tale of budgets and cutbacks and pinkslips for all probationary teachers, but a tale for a different day. So we spent yesterday afternoon talking about our first year, and what the next year will look like. She is all over D5 (all over like chicks on Twilight, not all over like scrunchies or banana clips) and is now reading CAFE, so I asked her about the dilemma I am having starting D5 and CAFE on the first day. We talked and talked and talked, and what my good friend Jennifer did was help me sort out the conflicting thoughts I had.

As I talked, I realized that my goals seemed different but were actually one and the same. I want to establish expectations and routines on day 1. I want to set the tone for the year. So why wouldn't I want to do that for reading? Why would I not want to establish, from day one, that reading is one of the important things we do in our room, and there are things we need to do to be successful. It doesn't mean I can't read The Kissing Hand, or Junie B. First Grader. In fact, why not double dip and actually teach something while I read?

And Jennifer had more wisdom to share. She also started Everyday Math on the first day. Yes!! It is all about establishing routines, so let's start by establishing the routines that will happen each and every day.

Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, PT friends. Thank you, Paul McCartney. I am determined to do it right this year, and I'm getting by with a little help from my friends.