Our first full week is behind us! It was our first run of our regular weekly schedule, which will take some time for all of us to get used to. Our morning schedule is consistent throughout the week, but the second half of the school day is dependent on the day of the week. On Monday and Tuesday, my homeroom remains in Mrs. O'Keefe's classroom for intervention block and science, and return to me after specialist for the final block of the school day. On Thursday and Friday, it's the opposite; I see them for intervention and the block before lunch, and they go to Mrs. O'Keefe in the afternoon after specialist. Wednesday tends to vary because of all the students taking instrument and because of the occasional half-day Wednesday. Yup--it will definitely take some getting used to!

We finished up our goal setting towards the beginning of the week. I'm big into self reflecting and goal setting, as I think it's important for students to regularly self assess and take ownership of their learning. So using a self reflection homework assignment, students set goals for themselves for the 4th grade school year. We worked hard to make the goals SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. And trust me, this is no easy task. But this challenging assignment pushes kids to think about areas they need to improve on, and reinforces their desire to make that area a priority this school year. I'll hang up these goal pennants and throughout the year, we'll track our progress towards meeting our goals.

We also had our first STEAM class of the school year. Ms. Tosches is a close friend of mine, and I absolutely LOVE working with her. We did a divergent thinking activity around growth mindset and emotion regulation, and it's always fun to see what the kids come up with and create when given a set number of assorted materials. Make sure to check out the pictures below!

Our Bucket Fillers of the week were Mac and Quinn. Mac is helpful, kind, and respectful, and I often find myself saying his name as an example of a student making positive choices and following directions. I can also tell that he's insightful and receptive to feedback, which are qualities I really appreciate in my students. Speaking of qualities I appreciate, Quinn was the epitome of kindness on Friday, and I LOVED it. He noticed a classmate discouraged during STEAM class, so he made a little "good luck clover" for her to cheer her up. What was especially cool though was that it was a genuine act of kindness--he had no intention of me finding out. He simply that she was down and wanted to make her feel better. I love that, and I hope to see lots more acts of kindness this school year.