Day 3

So it is the end of day three. Debbie and I have put in two more hard working days in the classroom and now I have tables with chairs!

So this is the back left hand side of the classroom.



This is the back right of the classroom.


The front left of the classroom is getting there slowly!


And the right front of the classroom where the rug is!


And my beautiful assistant..apparently a fuzzy picture!


So that's what it looks like at the end of day three. I still have three days before the weekend to finish it. Debbie gets the fun job of putting my library into genres tomorrow while I work. Then she's venturing out to find the Today show on Thursday and Good Morning America on Friday while I work all day! Fun times.

My classroom- day 1

As requested here are the pictures of my first classroom. Remember .... this is day one.

When I walked in...the front...

the back right (if you are facing forward)the left side towards the front

the back half of the left side (facing front)


As you can see the room is quite big... being a corner room. I have like NO boards to hang stuff but it looks like I won't be using the chalk boards but making them into boards to hang work. All the yellow paint is SO horrible. If I had my way I would buy some and paint over crap because it is so disgusting. I just hope that once there are kids in there and stuff on the walls that it won't look TOO bad.

After seeing what Corinne... the teacher that moved to this school with me was doing I started to move furniture and figure out what I actually have. So after an hour this is what it looked like....



the left front

the left back

the right front (the rug area I think...)


the back left. I think this will be the teachers corner/computer area

As you can see I have LOT of furniture that is very miss matched. It should be interesting. Watch for updates!

Ahh

My last week of freedom for the next ten months. Ok.. So I don't work straight for ten months but would you REALLY want to teach five days a week for 10 months!? I would go insane! Most teachers would. As much as we love our students... there is just too much to be able to do day in and day out for ten months. Though I really think that year round schooling is the way to go. My friend teaches for two or three weeks then gets a couple of weeks off. It is freaking sweet.

If you think about it. Year round schooling would eliminate a lot of things and better our children. (on my soap box for a couple of minutes.) I believe that year round schooling would hep our studetns to be able to retain information between school years. With the lack of a huge summer break I believe that our students would retain more information. I also believe that having solid, consistant breaks would better our students because they will not shut down weeks before breaks such as summer and winter. Every teachers knows that most students (especally those who are part of school systems that it is traditional) feel the need to hit summer break just after May comes around. Also the same happens when it comes to winter break but not as bad. Year around schooling helps to combat these problems because of the regular breaks.

Off my soap box.

So back to this year. I am suepr excited to see my classroom tomorrow. I will take pictures and post them so everyone can see them!

Swing a Ring

Swing a Ring. What is it you may ask?

Swing a Ring is a physical fitness apparatus is which is located in only NYC and California. It is a ring contraption that has about 8 rings on very long metal chains.
You are supposed to swing from ring to ting and back and fourth to work your upper arms.

I went to visit this contraption ... it is in Riverside Park on the west side of Manhattan. It is so awesome. There was a very nice man there that was willing to show me how to do the rings AND share his chalk for my poor hands. Ok... so I wasn't THAT bad but the fact that I couldn't get my poor feet over my head. It just takes a little effort to flip your feet over your head through your arms and apparently I couldn't get them over my head. OMG! Dang. I feel dumb. O well...

And now it is down pouring. Flash flood warnings are fun.

MOMA

The Museum of Modern Art. It is a great place. I have been there once before but I decided to go again because of the free Friday nights. When I arrived... OMG. The line was around the block and still had a half hour till it opened. After getting (even though it went really quickly) I made the quick observation that I will NEVER DO THIS AGAIN! I love the museum but I would like to actually be able to sEE the poor thing.

It was so freaking crowded that they were still letting people in at like 530. An hour and a half straight of letting people in. It was crazy. I go to a museum to see the art not the back of peoples heads. So if you are ever thinking of going to the free night .. as long as you are willing to hang out and wade through all the people... go for it. Otherwise... pay the 18 dollars to get in and enjoy at your own pace.

Family Bbq

It went really well. It was so nice to see everyone. Sadly Sarah and the kids were not able to come because of army stuff but it was so awesome to spend time with Aunt T and Uncle D with Karen Jake and Lili and dad even showed up. Most of Kathie's family was here.

I got some great pictures of the kids and the fam. Even a picture of Kathie which are very rare and far inbetween. Ill put some up when I get back to NYC on Tuesday.

Laters

OMG!

North Bend is really freaking far from Welches. Aka. about 5 hours and 15 minutes or so. Long freaking drive. But I had a great time with Debbie!