Imagination is everything...

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions"
- Albert Einstein


When I first created my personal iGoogle homepage, I placed the "inspirational quote" gadget front and centre. I figured a few words of encouragement every time I logged on couldn't hurt. Although I can usually relate to most of the messages of inspiration posted each day, this Albert Einstein quote really struck me this morning. As I spent the day at my summer job, mindlessly filing papers all day long, I began thinking about how I can go about fostering rich and imaginative learning in my classroom this upcoming school year.


I truly think that this is the most excited I've been as a student teacher so far! The prospect of investing so much time and energy into planning the year is SO EXCITING! I have already begun compiling my resources, using all the ideas I've gathered from my classmates and partner teachers over the past year to create my own special learning environment. I have SO MANY IDEAS that it is somewhat overwhelming. I saw so many amazing lessons and have so many great resources from last year that I feel like I want to do them ALL this year! (Obviously an impossible endeavour, I know!) I can't wait to take a few days to sit down and map out exactly what I want to do this year and what I want my students to learn and experience. I also can't wait to finally meet my students so that I can really get a grasp on what they need from me as a grade one teacher this year (18 days until the first day of school - not that I'm counting :) ) 


Next Tuesday, I'm attending a Power of Ten workshop. For those of you who are familiar with Trevor Calkins' Power of Ten method, you know how amazing it is and this is nothing new to you! My new partner teacher recently introduced me to this way of teaching numeracy and other mathematic skills and a few of my colleagues and I immediately signed up for one of these great workshops! I can't wait to let you all know what I learn... I'm sure it will be quite eye opening. Any chance I find to gain some direction in teaching math is more than welcome! As you wait for what I'm sure will be a lengthy review, check out the webpage at: http://www.poweroften.ca/


Hope all you teachers enjoy your last few weeks of summer before kicking into back-to-school mode!! :)