go team

As a second year teacher, I am a protege to an experienced teacher, my mentor. We meet every Tuesday afternoon to discuss the happenings in kindergarten, how things are going on my end, school goals, and any questions, concerns, or difficulties that I am having. This is a time for me to absorb all of the knowledge that she has to share, since she is retiring at the end of the school year.

Today, we began our discussion talking about assessments. We spent yesterday and today doing language arts and math assessments that will produce the data that should drive our next quarter of instruction. As we were discussing this, I mentioned that last week I took the time to copy the weekly assessments that we will need to do in language arts, the benchmark assessments for language arts and math, and a couple of other little things that we will use on a regular basis. The next step was how to get copies for our whole grade level. And my question was answered with action.

My mentor took me down to the main office and she taught me how to fill out work orders for our district print shop. Our fellow kindergarten teacher also happened to be in the office, and so we sat down and filled out all of the work orders - about 14 in all. Yay for teamwork! If I had been trying to do that on my own it would have taken a good 30 to 45 minutes. With the three of us we were done in 15! Go team!

As an added bonus, this helps us to be better organized for the rest of the school year - and if you know me, I love organization!