Finally settling in...

Well, we have about two and a half weeks left in the first nine weeks and I feel like I'm finally settling in with my students. Is that bad? There are so many things that have come into play this year which seem to hamper the building of relationships with my students. That is one of the things I love about my job...getting to know these children...the precious, the not-so-precious, the smart, the popular, the struggling, the unparented, the unlovely...I truly enjoy getting to know them all. Our schedule this year is...in a word, UGH...so I don't have time to spend relating. I have also never taught math on a four person team...this means that I have about twice as many students as I've had before and it just takes me longer to get to know them.

Me having moved to a new school makes it a little different as well. I'm not only trying to develop relationships with new students, but new faculty/staff as well...sometimes the adult relationships are harder to develop than the student/teacher ones.

So almost seven weeks into this school year, I'm beginning to feel like some relationships are forming, and I'm finally feeling like a decent teacher again.

Disney Pics

I mentioned yesterday that we had a great time at Disney World. For Greg and I, watching the kids have fun was just as much fun as doing the stuff ourselves! Caleb and Sarah both loved being there. Every time we rode a roller coaster, before we got to the end of the ride, they were both screaming "I wanna do it again!!!!"

We arrived around 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 17th. We slept in a bit and then left our hotel for Epcot.

We rode the bus from our hotel to Epcot...we had to stop into the gift shop at the hotel on the way to the bus, and the kids went crazy!!! They had some really great stuff in there...this is one of my favorite pics, and I took it on the first morning in the gift shop at All Star Movies Resort.

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom. We did Space Mountain first...and second...and third! "Let's go again!" was definitely the phrase of the week. There were so many photo opportunities at Magic Kingdom but these are 3 of my favorites.

If you look VERY closely at this photo, right in front of the man in the red shirt is Sarah. She is in a white shirt...she HAD to have her picture taken at Cinderella's Castle!

Animal Kingdom was our third stop and it was my favorite! I know the kids loved it and I think Greg did too. Exhibition Everest is a fantastic roller coaster...it takes you very high, then fast for a bit, then backward, then forward again, really fast and take a HUGE drop!!! It's awesome!

The kids were waiting in line and Caleb was being silly...had to snap a picture!

The last full day was Caleb's 10th birthday! We went to Hollywood Studios to celebrate. We had a great time! One of the highlights of the day was our lunch at a drive in theatre...Sci-Fi theatre. We actually sat in a car to eat. Sarah's favorite was DEFINITELY Tower of Terror...I think she rode it three times!

Definitely a great time was had by all!!! Can't wait to go back!

Think PINK!!!

Hi everyone! I know, it's been a long time since I updated and I'm sorry. I've been very busy! We had a blast at Disney and I have some really good pictures! I'll try to post some soon.



The biggest item on my radar lately has been fundraising for my Avon Breast Cancer Walk. I don't know how many of you remember this but I blogged about it several months ago. I will be joining several thousand people in Charlotte, NC on October 25 and 26 to walk a total of 39 miles. I'm on a team of five women and I've really enjoyed getting to know them through all this fundraising and getting prepared for the walk.



I'm much closer to my goal of $1800 than I was several months ago...I think I'm close to $1000. I really would like to be able to go to the walk for check in and have all my funds raised, rather than hope that someone will give me any extra they may have. At this point in the game, I only need 32 people to donate $25.00 and I will reach my goal!



Please visit my Avon Walk site and consider donating. It's very easy...just go to http://tinyurl.com/3xonrz. Once on the site you should be able to easily find the button that says "make a donation." Just click on that button and enter the information needed. You should receive a receipt via email for your tax purposes. I am so grateful for everyone who has already donated! You have no idea how much this means to me...after my step-mom's survival of breast cancer, and my scare last spring, the effort to find a cure is more critical to me than ever before.
The walk is fast approaching and any help I can get with fundraising would be fabulous!

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!