Preparing for back to school

Today is the last day in July. It makes me feel a little sad in one way and really excited in another. I'll be going back to the school district and the elementary school where I started out. I'm excited for the new and the old. I'm also a tiny bit nervous because they are implementing a dual language program. It will start this year in two kindergarten classrooms and expand over the course of the next several years to each grade level. These classrooms will have half of their instruction in Spanish. It will be a challenge for me to figure out how to work with this and with the push for inclusion that has continued to grow while I was away. I've been trying to research some, but I really haven't found much to help me with the dual language aspect. It's just going to be a big learning process for us all.

In the meantime, I decided to go ahead and start thinking about how I want to get the new school year started. Bucket Filling is always a key part to my initial lessons as it helps to explain why we have rules in speech (although not too many). I also like to do a "get to know you" activity too. I hang these up in my room for the first few weeks of school. I'm really excited about the ones I found this year. It'll be a nice change from the superhero sheet that I've used for the past four years.

Here is a list of some freebies that I've found and will be incorporating into my plans:


"All About Me"

1. All About Me Booklet. 
2. All About Me Page or a slightly more grown-up version here for middle school 
1. All About Me Spanish Page
3. Student Goal Page
4. Icebreakers
5. What I Didn't Do on My Vacation (very cute)

Bucket Filler Activities

1. Sorting Page
2. Word Search
3. Bucket Filler Incentive Chart
4. Bucket Filler Wall

Articulation

1. Back to School Backback craft. I love this cute craft for students. It's something that they will want to show off to their parents and teachers. 

Language

1. Back to School Grammar Baseline
2. Self-checking pronoun cards. I really like the photos in this one. 
3. Back to School Verbs
4. Flip It! Back to School Themed Following Directions Activity.
5. BTS Cariboo

Fluency

1. BTS Get to know me/summer vacation fluency tower

Finding my way back....

These last three months have been some of the hardest in my life since my sophomore year in college when my father nearly died in a car accident. I feel like I've been through hell and back.

But.....I am stronger for it.....

With the love of my life supporting me (can't believe we've been married a year now)

With our dogs to keep me busy as always 

With my family's help 

With a new diet to undo the damage of the last three months (got in trouble with my cholesterol)

With a new job far away from the cause of all of this

All I can say is that I am not meant for a life of permanent upheaval. I also think all those websites that claim to have tips for family members of people struggling with mental illnesses do not fully grasp just how bad it can be. It is not a world of sunshine and rainbows. It is a very lonely and scary place. A place that I will no longer be trapped in.