First Day Back!

Today was my first day back to work. Orientation. Nothing too exciting, but I will hit on the major points. The kids stayed home with dad who is not working at this moment. He got laid off a few weeks ago and that is why I stopped writing the Chronicles of Summertime series.

This year, we will be focusing on trying to raise the children's KRA-L scores when they go to Kindergarten. The KRA-L is Ohio's Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (in Literacy). The 6 areas they test on are:

1. Answering who, what, when, why, and how questions
2. Repeating sentences
3. Identifying words that rhyme
4. Producing words that rhyme
5. Identifying letters
6. Identifying beginning sounds of words

I have been thinking of things I can do to promote these in the classroom. Lots of Dr. Suess and nursery rhymes immediately come to mind. I will be pondering on this more and probably scouring Pinterest for ideas. More on this later.

Also, I am excited about a research project on the topic of reading comprehension through The Ohio State University that I volunteered for today. It will last throughout the school year. If I am one of the teachers randomly chosen to carry out the activities, I will get all sorts of resources and be trained on doing some lessons with the kids. I will also be video taped which I am not looking forward to, but I think it will be great for the kids as well as make lesson planning easier. Hopefully it will also align with the KRA-L assessment work we will be doing.

I am looking forward to getting into the classroom and thinking of how I am going to set it up differently this year! Happy back to school all!!!!