Look out Disney...Here we come

We're leaving this afternoon, as soon as I can get home from school. We will drive into the night and then get up tomorrow morning and hit the parks! This vacation has been a long time coming for our family and I think the kids are old enough to truly enjoy it!!!

I've had plenty of people ask if they could go with us...including a couple of students! :) However, our suitcases are STUFFED, so there's really no room!

I'll be trying to post some photos next week!

Have a great week!

We're headed out!!!

So I'm here today and tomorrow but then I'm taking all my personal leave days at once and my family and I are going to Disney World. We haven't been as a family since Caleb was 9 months old! We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!



Sarah hit the floor running this morning, jumped on my bed and screamed "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD TOMORROW!" This is a perfect explanation of how we all feel!

Updated the Blog a bit

I visited another blog that's absolutely beautiful and got the idea to change mine a bit. Hope it doesn't shock anyone too much! I love the colors. I think they suit me a little better than the milder greens and oranges I had previously.

I've photographed my students, but have to be sure their parents have signed off giving permission for their pictures to be published online. I really am growing to like these kids fast! Can't wait to show them to you all.

We're cruising into the third full week of school, which I think means that progress reports are going home soon. That's kinda bad because I don't have enough grades to send home. Gotta get crackin' on that!

Caleb will be 10 years old in less than 2 weeks!!!! I can't believe it. I don't feel like it's been 10 years since I met that precious boy! What's really cool about this birthday, though, is that we will be at DISNEY WORLD when he turns 10! What an awesome birthday party!!!!!!!!

Have a good week everyone!

Gotta update...

I need to get a new photo of myself and put here...I may try to cut and paste one from my reunion. If you look closely at this one you'll see that the charm on my necklace is a Raider. That's the Rawlinson Road mascot and now I'm a Wildcat. Gotta find a good wildcat slide to wear on that silver necklace.

We have the day off today because of Labor Day, but my mind has been on school all day. I can't wait to get back tomorrow and really start teaching. I'm going to try to sweet talk Greg and see if he'll let me use his laptop to type up my plans. I've got to do some reassigning of seats on my power point I use for a seating chart, so I'll have to use his computer to do that.

I'm really struggling with my ADHD right now...I'm trying to figure how to raise money for the Breast Cancer walk at the same time I'm trying to come up with all these great lesson plans to share with my other 7th grade math teachers, while I'm planning my family vacation, while I'm trying to also spend quality time with our friends.

I will be taking my camera to school to take pictures this week. Hope I can get them posted!

We're feelin' the love!

We've been in school now for a solid week. I usually have a bead on my students within a day or two and begin to form relationships with them quickly. I told Rolla the other day that I was frustrated..."I don't know if it's just this group of kids, or that it's a different school, or that I'm still out of sorts from moving, but I'm not gelling with these kids." She agreed. "I think it's the kids. They're very closed...difficult to read."

Well, we've been with them long enough to realize who can and can't be seated near each other, so that was what happened in all four of our classes yesterday...we moved students around. Then, BOOM! today. They opened up...one boy who has not said ONE SINGLE WORD, actually turned around and BEGAN a conversation with Rolla. A girl who has had nothing but disdain for me, sidled up to me and started talking to me, because I found out who her "crush" is. She even wrote a note...granted it was just her name written over and over with the crush's name, but it was something.

One girl who was a major pill was moved in 3 of the 4 rooms and has absolutely BLOSSOMED. She is actually doing the warm ups and I thought she was going to EXPLODE if I didn't call her name to answer a question.

I found out that one boy who has been giving us all a hard time has been being cared for by members of my church...now I have a little bit of leverage to talk to him. I did today...I asked him to help me carry some stuff to my room and told him what I know. I explained how I expected him to shape up...I know he can.

Well, today Rolla and I both said that we are much more content...seems like we generally have a good group of kids.

I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

First Friday!

Well, we made it through the first three days of school. It's been so nice! Saluda Trail is a newer school (opened in 1999) and my classroom is so big! Generally my students have been very nice and seem eager to learn. I am, however, more exhausted than I've been in a very long time!

On the first day, in the first class, I had a student pull out a battery operated pencil sharpener and start sharpening his pencil while I was talking. I told him to stop and then thought to myself "is that for real? Did that really just happen?"

Then today, while my team mates and I were on lunch duty, a boy walked up to the canteen door to place his order. My team mate Lilli looked at him and said (REALLY LOUD) "Excuse me!!!!! Crack KILLS, so pull up those pants. My eyes are burning! I don't get paid enough to see that!" I almost spit my food all over the place! Maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was really funny!

Hope you're all having a good school year!

Just one more day

I'm in my room today...planning to stay here all day! I have a bunch of stuff to do, not the least of which is to get stuff on the walls and assign seats for students who will be here tomorrow. Is it possible that I have let the summer get away from me like this?


Well, at least this one thing holds true...where ever I go, I can take Pavarotti with me! I can't wait to start answering questions about this one...it's posted right beside my desk.

I've already had one young lady ask me why I didn't take him down and put up someone more desirable. I know...I'm weird that way.

Please say a prayer that I don't implode before tomorrow morning. :)