Best First Day Ever?

I have to be honest. I've had a few "first days of school" as a teacher. At least 10 by my count. Today might have been the best. It was a really good day. I have a great feeling about this group of students and we really got things off to a good start.

What exactly did we do? Well, we had our first Morning Meeting, went to our first Art class, learned the classroom procedures and expectations, and set our "Hopes and Dreams" for the year.  And that was just before lunch. We also had a short reading and writing workshop and read one of my favorite poems, "Alligator Pie" by Dennis Lee. Click here to read it. (Tomorrow we'll write our first poem using this one as our inspiration.) Then---yes, there's more---we used the laptop lab to explore the class wiki.

The class wiki is a website that the students can edit. We learned how to post information to it today. The kids took what they worked on in Writing Workshop and started posting it to their wiki page. The great thing about wikis is that they can be edited from anywhere. Several students, including Selena, Kaelyn, Keturah, Armani, and Danielle, have already worked on theirs from home tonight!!! Parents, look for more detailed instructions to be posted here about how to access and edit the wiki. If you want to check out the students' work, please go to the class wiki by clicking on the "Links" tab at the top of this page. Then choose "Class Wiki."

A detailed note came home from me today. It says "From the Desk of Mr. Curran" at the top of it. There will be another one coming home tomorrow, too. And then one the day after that! I try to spread them out so as not to overwhelm you. :) If you have any questions, please let me know.

There is lots more to do tomorrow, which could very well be the best second day ever!

Welcome to Fourth Grade!

We are less than a week away from the start of school. I could not be more excited than I am. I hope that you are, too. One thing you're probably wondering is: "What does my new classroom look like?" Well these aren't the best pictures, but take a look:

Like many things, the room looks much better in person. We have lots of work to do together in this classroom, and many successes to achieve. I can't wait!

Special Guest on the First Day

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you might have heard about President Obama's speech to America's schoolchildren today. I'll spare you a rant about how silly I think all the "controversy" surrounding the speech is and just say that I thought it was wonderful timing, today being the first day of school and all.

I broadcast the speech live and I was proud to be part of a historic event. I hope the students took something from his powerful, important message.

In case you're interested in hearing the speech, here it is:

Stay tuned to the blog for more info about the start of the school year. I'll be posting more very soon.