I moved to Boston in October 2025, so I have only been at the school I am currently working at for less than 6 months. I am so lucky to be working alongside an amazing educator in the first grade classroom. I’ve learned so much from her already, and finding my own place in the classroom environment she has worked so diligently to build for years has been such a special experience. We make a great team. Here’s a little bit more about our classroom and what a typical day in first grade looks like.
As students filter in, they are offered a choice: handshake/fistbump, hug, or high five. We say good morning to each other, and then unpacking begins! Students place their homework folder on the back table, their backpack in a rubber tub, and their lunch box on a shelf. Then they get started on morning work, which is usually reading a library book at their desk.
Students have new jobs each week! One of these jobs is our Schedule Reader. The Schedule Reader kicks off our morning meeting by reading to the class the schedule that is posted on the board for all to see. Then, our Calendar Helper reminds us the date, day of the week, and contributes to our ten-frames where we figure out what day of school it is!
We then move the desks row by row and arrange ourselves into a circle in the back of the room. We have a greeting circle and then read the morning message for the day, which usually has a question or prompt relevant to that day’s or week’s activities that we discuss as a class.
