“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”

I have been very busy these last few days starting the school year as a teacher. We have had meeting galore and very little time to work in our classrooms.  I'm hoping that tomorrow I can be extremely motivated and focused to get things done in my room as Meet the Teacher is Tuesday evening. I fell across this quote:
“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.”  --Charlotte Mason

It made me think about the importance of the atmosphere I'm creating in my classroom and how I should be spending so much energy investing in my students to help create a classroom atmosphere that is beneficial to all my students reaching their full potential together and individually.

I am already planning some things to help me with reduce the number of words and "nagging" I end up doing as a teacher. I hope to use anchor songs to cue certain activities and procedures. I am pretty excited at the prospect of using music, something my students are crazy about already, to help shape their behavior and save my words for more important things, like actual instruction. 

I currently have 27 students on my list. I'm looking forward to meeting them and I'm feeling a little anxious about what this year will hold. Time will tell. I will post pictures of my classroom as soon as it's presentable!