Getting to Know my Students

I am returning to the classroom this year and I am SO excited!  :)  This will be the first time in my twenty-one year teaching career that I will have one class all day long, all to myself.  I was a coach for 14 years so I always shared a class and before that, I was a part time Reading Recovery teacher, part time title or part time kindergarten, part time title.
I am starting to think about the space that I will work in with my students this year.  I really want the space to be inviting and very functional.  I want to create an open feeling that is purposeful in every way.  I can not wait to set up the writing area, classroom library and math station tubs.  I love to organize, and it is so much more fun when you know that kids will be walking through your door, ready to learn in only a matter of weeks.  :)
Tonight I began to get to know my students by looking at their spring reading assessments.  We use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System to determine level, accuracy, comprehension, fluency, self correction rate and sometimes the ability to write about reading.  I have always told the teachers that I worked with that they didn't need to start the year off with assessments.  They should start the year off with teaching from the spring assessments.  So...  being one to try to practice what I preach, I dug into my yellow folders (these cherished things house all of the assessments for a child).  So far, I have looked at the reading levels and behaviors of all of the children.  I have my preliminary groups set up for the beginning of the year.
I know that many of the children will have changed levels over the summer, but I also know that that is why reading groups are flexible.  I can't wait to have the time, early in the year, to sit with my small groups, enjoying books at or near their just right levels and getting to know them as readers and as children!
Next up, I will be looking at their developmental math assessments!  I can't wait!