School pics

The first week of school is almost finished, and I finally remembered to take some pictures of my new classroom. I have the walls and bulletin boards up, and the room is arranged okay. I hope the pictures show a little of how pretty and nice our new building is. We are all very proud of our new building, and we hope it will make a world of difference to our students. I'm just going to put them all on here, and I can describe each one.

My new, fancy desk! It is an L shaped desk that is fixed for a computer on one side. Fancy smancy! I have a little student desk at the edge of it for extra things that I use during the day and a book shelf at one end. The printer is on top of the bookshelf! Do you like my flowers and my little ballerina mouse? I have a flowery cloth over my 'new' file cabinet. See, everything is new!

 

 This is a view from the back to the front. See my promethean board??  How about that! I also have have two, new, clean dry erase boards!!

This is one of my bulletin boards. I made this ladybug a while back, when I did a unit on life cyces. I ordered real ladybugs for the children to study, too. The ladybug has pipe cleaner legs and antennae, cut out paper for eyes and spots, etc. This board has lots of postive thoughts on it, too.

This wall is my Multiple Intelligences section. There are nine intelligences, as described by Howard Gardner. We all have more than one way of being smart!!

The Cat in the Hat is peeking out to say he is spying good behavior!!

The door to the bathrooms - YES - I have bathrooms!! Whoo HOo!!
Yertle the Turtle is reminding the children to stay clean and neat. Now, I wonder why he is on the door to the bathroom? hmmmmm....

You can also see my Bloom's Taxonomy of Critical Thought wall here. I put it here for the children to see as they go out of the room (door on the right).

My CABINET!! I've never had one of these, and now I have TWO! Fox in Socks tells us he loves research and technology. My Diversity sign is one of my favorite ones. We are all different, you know! Right by the door, I put the choices poster. This poster gives the students something to think about on their way to other places.

I made this butterfly the same year that I made the ladybug, when we were studying life cycles. We had real caterpillars to feed and watch grow. The children loved watching their very own caterpillar spin its chrysalis. Even more fun was watching the butterflies come out of their chrysalis.  This butterfly is poster paper, pipe cleaners, and tissue paper. This wall also has positive thoughts.

Cubbies!! I actually have real cubbies that are built into the wall. This section that you see is my art center. The students will come around here when they are working on projects and things like that. The second cabinet is here, in the bottom corner of this picture. HEY! I actually have a sinck, too. I forgot to take a picture, though. It is on the right hand side, but it is not shown here.
Do you see my fish?

This wall is the Williams' Taxonomy of Creative Thinking wall. You cannot see the first one. It is Original Thinking.

This table is my writing center. Next to the table, I have a bookshelf with two litte ballerinas and an elephant. Over the bookshelf, you see Horton Hears Good Readers! How about my having two nice windows with blinds!!

Here is a picture of the bookshelf by my desk. Now, you can see the little ballerina mouse and my flowers. I have a window by my desk, too!

I took this picture so that you can see my nice dry erase boards and the posters. How do you like the star?

This picture shows the promethean board. I have a real hookup to it over by my desk. This board is connected to my computer, and I can show all sorts of things on it. There is a projector thingy in the ceiling that is connected to the computer, too. It is really a neat teaching tool, and this is something that I have never had before!!

This picture is another view of my posters and my other stars.

I am showing you the whole view of my nice, clean, wonderful, teaching boards!!

Yes, I am very proud of my new classroom. In my more than thirty years of being an educator, I have never, ever had a nice classroom. I have worked in portables, small closets, the library, rooms off of the library, the gym, and even outside, etc. I am very excited to be in such a nice work environment, and I am especially happy that this next generation of children is being able to attend school in such a nice place. Ahhh....

Working hard

Typing, typing, typing....that is what I have been doing a lot of these last few weeks. I mentioned earlier that I turned in my first three dissertation chapters. Well...now I am in the process of editing them. Along the way, I have been entertaining my daddy every night. His electricity is out of whack at the house, so he is staying with me for a while. Also, my cat went under the house Monday night, and she won't come out. We have spotted her a couple of times, but we cannot get her to come out. We left food, she eats it, but she stays under the house. I hope she comes out soon. I may just have to call Critter Control and get her out of there! 
School starts tomorrow. I hope to get some pictures of my nice, new room. The school is really beautiful. We have a brand new building, and everyone is excited. The children will surely be in "hog heaven" tomorrow when they attend their brand new school for the first time. Pictures will be forthcoming. Tonight, I am feeling the fact that I was up until 4:15 am Friday night typing. The bed is calling me, so I will be locating it very soon.
Have a great week!!

Blogging?

I haven't been on here to blog in a while, because I was writing the first three chapters of my dissertation. It is now in the hands of my advisor. Soon, I will be editing, editing, editing.
August has brought forth several birthdays, too. I made Christmas themed cakes for my brother, a Tangled cake for my niece, and a zebra striped cake for my daughter. I am now the mother of a THIRTY year old! My goodness how time flies. So, I have been pretty busy around here lately. After I sent in my three chapters, I took a dip in the pool where Rachel lives. Dora loves the water, and she just kicks like crazy. I have pictures to prove it, and they show her concentration as she kicks!
The next day, we took a trip to the beach. Alas, it was really  HOT, and the baby was uncomfortable. PLUS, my umbrellas did not want to stay put in the ground. One of them decided to take a trip down the beach!!!! I could not catch it. Luckily, a young man caught it for me. It was rolling over and over all the way down to the water. The other one styayed in the sand for a little while longer, but the wind was too heavy and blew it down, too.  So, we opted to come home. We did not want Dora to get sunburned or anything.
                                                         Watch those feet!

                                                           
                                                                 Concentration

 

                                                                  Focus!

                                                       Look at that concentration!!

                                                              This is fun. I love the water!

                                      
                                       Now, I finally know why I've been practicing my kicking!!

My niece wanted her daddy, my brother, to have a Santa Claus birthday. So, I made Santa Claus and a Christmas tree. I put lots of sparkly sugar on Santa. He twinkles, don't you know!!

My niece turned SIX the next week, and she had ordered a Tangled cake for her party. We tried to have a tower, but it kept falling apart. Ellen made it out of rice krispie treats like we read about, but it wouldn't stay toether. I decorated it with fondant that I had imprinted with bricks,and I put the vines and flowers on it, but the rice krispies just fell apart. That was okay, because the actual cake part was fine. I imprinted cobblestones on some fondant, that I had colored light brown, to put on the outside of the cake. Green was the top color, and I put colorful flowers all around. Then to top it off, I had all of the character figurines from the movie to put on top of the cake. So, we didn't miss the silly old tower anyway :)

My daughter turns THIRTY on Tuesday. She decided to have a breakfast party today. I made a cake for her using those new sugar sheets in a ZEBRA pattern, and then I made a red fondant circle and red trim. I cut a 30 out of the zebra print and put little Pops of zebra around the thirty ( to look like an explosion ). We all had a great time.

School starts back for me tomorrow. We are in a brand new building, so there is a lot of unpacking to do. Then, I will try to decorate the room. The students come back next Monday, so there is plenty of time to get things organized. I went in one day and got a few things done, so I am a little bit ahead on that part. Our school is beautiful, and I am so very excited to be in a new building, with new furniture, and new walls, new floors, new everything!!

I will try to be better about blogging. I know that a lot of editing is coming my way, but I will try not to let it take over my life like the first part of the writing did. I was at the computer for twelve and sixteen hours a day for a while. It will all be worth it soon, though.

Talk to you later!

Studying

I'm making progress! I began writing again last Thursday, and I have been working hard ever since. My new quarter started July 9th, but I did not get started on anything very good until last week. I had so much going on, and I had my reunion trip ahead of me, and I just couldn't concentrate. Each day, I told myself to study. I couldn't. Finally, I was suckered into babysitting my niece and nephew, and it finally hit me. I needed to write!  I watched movies with the kids, I fed the kids, I played with the kids, but I kept worrying about not studying. So, I finally came in here to this computer and just started. I typed really fast and got some things done. Then, my sister came by at 1:30 and got the kids. I went back to studying and got quite a bit accomplished. I went to Hilton Head on Saturday with the kids, where they went ziplining. I studied all day Sunday and all day today. I think I need a break, though, because I cannot read anything right now...no journals or anything. My eyes aren't working well for that, so I decided to write on the blog. Tomorrow, I have a conference call with my advisor, so I must be ready for that. I have finished a lot more this evening, but I am all written out!
Hopefully, tomorrow will bring more energy and more writing. Have a great night!!

More reunion pics

After my first posting about the reunion, many pictures were posted on our facebook page. I am going to put some of them on here. I am sure that many more will be posted, so I may continue to add them as they come.

This picture is of the whole group at the country club that we went to on the first night. Some people say that this place is very elite, so they were impressed at the ability to have our group there. The club has wood all around, walls, staircases, etc. You can tell that it is an older establishment.

This group is singing to our illustrious event planner. I was asked to sing "We've Only Just Begun". I thought it was a song that people had requested for the reunion. I sang the lead, and the others attempted a backup. It was pretty funny, because they had not realized that they were going to do this. We had technical problems, so it was done "a cappella"!  I found out later that Paul did NOT like the song. Apparently, on their senior trip, this song was played over, and over, and over, and over again on the bus...much to the boys' chagrine. So, this song was kind of as a trick to him. I did not know this, and I sang with all my might! It was great fun, and we all did a good job (without any musical accompaniment).

We had a great time at the Pfister Hotel, the Wisconsin Club, Mader's German restaurant, the Germanfest, and the Cruise. Also, the optional activities were a treat.

Here is the brave crew that headed out to find the mysterious Cheese Factory! The name of it was the Clock Tower Creamery, so we headed out to the Clock Tower. This place was supposed to be 1 mile from our hotel. About an hour later, there was a clock tower but no creamery! Also, before we got all the way to the tower, it started pouring down rain! We were all wet and some were very upset! After several downpours, we all ventured back out and caught the city bus. We were deposited several blocks from the hotel, drenched and tired. Let me tell you that Milwaukee city blocks are a LOT longer than our city blocks. All was well, though. A few of us went into the cheese factory and listened to the guy talk about making cheese. The rest of the crew went into the nearest restaurant (bar) and stayed for a while. Of course, this picture was taken at the beginning of our journey - thus the smiles!! haha  There were no smiles at the end of the journey, unfortunately. There was a BIG story to tell, though!! I think we walked about six or ten miles, rather than one. 

The next set of pictures is of the wonderful art museum. The architecture is of the sails of a boat outstretched. At certain times of the day, the sails curl up and close. It was a sight to see!

My big accomplishment at the reunion...I graduated from Bitburg American High School, and I have the diploma to prove it!!  We had a mini graduation for each person who had to leave Germany before they graduated. This ceremony and these diploms meant a lot to each and every one of us!!!!!!

Class of 1971

Class of 1972

 

Class of 1973 (MINE)

 

Class of 1974

 

I haven't found a Class of 1975 photo yet. I will get one soon. Have a great day!