Now that the summer training sessions have ended, it is time to turn my attention to preparing the classrooms for the children to return. I have always found this to be one of the most satisfying times of the year. All the adults who have been learning how to be better teachers have left. Many have been inspired by what they learned. And spending time with them has charged my batteries to spend the coming school year working with children again.

I’m glad that it is raining today. I am looking forward to poking through the shelves in the classrooms straightening things, repairing damaged lessons, and preparing new things for children to use.

This year the record keeping system we have been using in the early childhood class will be ready to use in the elementary. What a difference that will make! Not only will it facilitate our getting the academic records computerized, but we will be able to access potential new lessons for children so much easier and faster. That means we can actually spend more time teaching instead of determining the next best lesson to teach! I can hardly wait to put this into action.

Yesterday during the training sessions we were very fortunate to have Sharon Duncan of Waseca Learning Materials <wasecalearning.com> visiting us. She presenting many beautiful geography materials that inspired many of the trainees.

I was thrilled to be able to buy a new material for our early childhood class called the Backyard Biome Mat. This lovely lesson combines some science, geography and language in a presentation that mirrors the language project for building sentences with grammar cards. I know the older students in the early childhood class and the younger elementary students are going to really enjoy this new lesson.

Now I am eagerly awaiting the beginning of school so I can share it with students. I am also looking at other new materials that I would like to purchase. This is one of the really fun things about running a school!