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The First Days of School...


My husband, who is an AP, was at work from 7:15 am this morning until 8:30pm. Basically I never see him, which means I have tons of extra time by myself at home to create stuff like a new lesson plan template!

Today consisted of trying on clothes from my "Don't Open Unless You Want to Feel Bad About Yourself" box, and being able to fit in to EVERYTHING except two size 4 skirts from Banana Republic. Even those zipped, but it did not look good, lol. Then, I thought, "What the heck, I wonder what my wedding dress looks like?" So I unpacked it from what reminded me of an alien cryogenic cell, and lo and behold, it's loose!

I decided to reward myself by getting some Subway, watching The Great Gatsby (which I LOVED, especially the cinematography), going to the gym, returning a shirt, playing Candy Crush (I'm obsessed), and creating these lessons.

I can't believe I used to fill this out for every single lesson I did. Nowadays I just do it when I'm introducing a unit, or planning out the first days of school, because I want to be uber prepared! I created the template in Pages for Mac, using one I had from student teaching as a guide. If you would like a copy of the template and you have Pages, shoot me an e-mail and I would be glad to send it to you! It doesn't work in word. :( The fonts I used are The Only Exception for the headers, Pea Nicki for the sidebar, and Helvetica Neue Ultra Light for the actual text.

My first three days will look the same in basically every class except my writing class, where we will be diving head first into some Kelly Gallagher stuff! I am excited this year to have a more structured approach, and I really loved Middle School Math Rules idea to start the first day with something fun instead of cramming in a ton of paperwork and forms!

Day 1

Day 2: I'll be introducing the "This I Believe" assignment on this day with all my students.

Day 3


Please let me know if you have any problems viewing these Google Docs. I know it's funky to have to scroll around, I couldn't find a better way to embed them, sorry! :(

Comments

  1. Thank you so much for posting these. I've been wracking my brain of how to redo my first few days of school to eliminate amount of paper and boredom! I would love a copy of your lesson template!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! Thank you so much for commenting! If you send me an e-mail I can shoot them over to you right away! :)

      Delete
  2. Those are so cool! Thanks!

    Stephanie
    Tales of Teaching in Heels

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so glad I found your blog! I am in my second year of teaching middle school and I love seeing your classroom and ideas! I am trying to use Edmodo for the first time in my classroom and I was wondering if you might share the Overview/Information packet you provide students to get started? Thanks again for all your awesome resources! - Rachael

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Send me an e-mail and I'll get them to you. :) Thanks for stopping by and make sure to follow so we can keep in touch!! :)

      Delete
  4. Jen, I'd love your template - please send to jwolfe@djusd.net. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would love a copy of the permission/information packet for Edmodo.
    My email is misty.barnett@lawrence.kyschools.us

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your blog is amazing, so many great ideas! I would love a copy of your lesson planning template when you have the time, my email is zemaitik@salineschools.org.

    Thank you!!!

    ReplyDelete

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Thanks for stopping by! JW

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