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!

Bitburg American High School Reunion~40 years later

I have returned from my high school reunion, no worse for wear! I had a wonderful time. There were people there from all over the United States. One person actually came all the way from Switzerland, where she has lived for 20 years. Our reunion was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Why was it there, you may ask. Well, one of our fellow Barons lives there and is an event planner. He told us about Germanfest being there this month, and he planned a mighty fine reunion. He had lots of help, mind you, but he and his wife were the masters of the art of planning in their own town. He had many activities for us that were wonderful. He got us into a very exclusive country club for our first night there: The Wisconsin Club. Then, he planned a night for us at the Germanfest (good food). He also planned a riverboat cruise, complete with fireworks that were put on just for us. We ate at a great German restaurant called Maders, right before the cruise. There were several optional activities that we could do. I went to a wonderful art museum. Some people took a bike ride in the park. Others went on a tour of the brewery there. Milwaukee has many things for people to do. We stayed at the hotel called The Pfister, and it was a wonderful place.  Saturday night, we were supposed to dress "Hippie Chic". This couple was a hoot, Joe and Cathy. You can see Joe in the farewell picture that I posted lower in this post. He brought his long hair and headband with him for the night! I love Cathy's rose colored glasses, too!!

Bitburg American High School was located on the Air Force Base in Bitburg, Germany. I lived in Spangdahlem, Germany on the Air Force Base. Back in those days, the high school was in Bitburg. Nowadays, the Bitburg base is closed, and the Spangdahlem base has a high school. Spangdahlem has the largest runway for the airplanes, so I guess that is why it is the one that is open. "Spang" was always the smaller base of the two. Now, Spang has new housing and several new schools.
Back to the original posting!

Our program...

This is a picture of those of us who arrived at the same time. Denise and I were on the same plane from Atlanta, even though she flew in from Texas!! Renate is from Texas, too.
Here you see Denise Brown (75), Renate Ritchie (74), and ME (73).

A friend of mine started a facebook page for Bitburg Alumni from the graduation years of 1969-1975. She decided that it would be much better for people who actually attended school at the same time to be on a page, rather than those who attended the school from the 1950's up until 2012! We have more in common, being the same age. There is a website for our school, and there are reunions for the whole school, but the age range is VERY WIDE~~ Those of us who joined together this past week remember each other, or we remember who we were, or maybe just remember someone from a yearbook picture, or from afar. Although everyone may not have been best friends, or even acquaintances, back then, we all became good friends at the reunion. It was a Love Fest!! Everyone was so very happy to see each other. I am going to copy my post from our facebook page so that you can understand just why we were all so happy to see each other. You see, military brats hardly EVER get to see each other again in their lifetimes. We all move so much, to so many places, and then retire back to our parents' hometowns, or our parents' last assignment. Anyway, we had FUN!
Here is my post from the Facebook page:

‎"My bags are actually packed. I'm very ready to go. I'm waitin', and waitin' to leave on a jet plane to-mor-row..."
I'm headed to Milwaukee to a high school reunion with a bunch of my fellow military brats from Bitburg, Germany!! Yippee! I cannot believe that the day is almost here, but it is! Forty-one (41?) years later, and I will be reunited and reacquainted with lots of my high school friends. Who would have ever thought that any of us would ever see each other again? Military brats don't usually cross paths again in their lifetimes, but we will this weekend! This event is going to be truly amazing! Thank you, Dawn, for starting this whole facebook adventure and making it possible for all of us to be together again. Thank you to the entire committee for all of your hard work and committment to this task this past year. We are truly blessed to have you all!
Come on jet plane. Let's go!
Auf Wiedersehen, Savannah! Hallo and Guten Tag, Milwaukee!

This picture is from our farewell brunch. Here you see Christine Clark (75), Joe Martino (71), Dawn Grant (73) my best buddy from 8th grade and the one who started this whole facebook adventure, Gary Clark (73), and ME (73). Yes, Gary and Chris are married. How about that!

Many of us did not get to actually graduate from Bitburg, because our fathers were either transferred back to the states, or they retired (like my dad). Some had to leave DURING their senior years, even! Can you imagine!! Some left the summer before their senior year. I left the summer before my junior year. Others were only able to attend their freshman year. Some were there the first part of high school, while others were there the last part of high school. Some were even lucky enough to be there all four years, but that number is very few.

I have a Bitburg Diploma now, too, so I scanned it for this post! I'm a Bitburg graduate after all!!

SO, we all have the same thing in common - We LOVED our time in Germany, and the friends we made there are very, very special. For some reason, everyone says that their time in Germany was the best and most memorable time in their lives. There is something about being a military brat that is just amazing and like family.

One of the events scheduled for us was to attend the Germanfest that is held in Milwukee every year. Here is a picture of me and Kay Langford at the Germanfest. Notice our t-shirts and buttons! They were made for our reunion. The buttons had our senior pictures on them, or pictures from other years that were in the yearbooks.

In Germany, we all lived in big apartment buildings. There were three different stairwells and four floors. We lived in the C stairwell. Two of the people at the reunion lived in the A stairwell of my building, Denise and Cheryl Brown. Here is a picture of them together at the Germanfest.

Denise Brown (75) and Cheryl Brown (72).

By the way, the numbers in parentheses are the graduating years for us! I hope you have enjoyed my brief review of the reunion. While I was posting, I had to stop and buy more google storage for pictures. I had let my larger coverage lapse, and it caught up with me!! Enjoy the rest of your day!!

 

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

My bags are packed. I'm ready to go. I'm leaving on a jet plane to go my high school reunion!! I cannot believe that the actual event is so close! Everyone is very excited. We have a Nostalgia page on Facebook where we have all reconnected. My friend started this whole thing, and now we will all be together again. I haven't seen these people in 41 years!! I have to get up really early, in order to get to the airport in time for my flight. I was dreading the early rising time, but now I am anxious for it to get here!  I also cannot believe that I am all packed and ready to go. My personal stylist made a house call yesterday, and she got all of my outfits together for me. I'm talking about my wonderful daughter, of course!  I was going to keep everything hanging, since I have ironed all of the clothes, but I finally decided to just pack them and be done with that. I have been much calmer about the whole trip, today, since I packed the stuff. I got all of my medicines, toiletries, shoes, clothes, and other stuff all ready. Now tomorrow, I have to back to the dentist to have my tooth repaired again. The front part of it came off again, so I hope this new one will last until Sunday night, at least!!
Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel where we will all be staying. The pictures look really fancy...la de da!!  I'm excited! I will probably not post anything until next week, after I return home. Have a great week, everyone!!

This picture is of the hotel. As you can see, there is a tower section. This part is the newest part of the hotel. The main part is the historical section, where my room is supposed to be located. I hope so, anyway!

I will post more things when I return!

Lobby