All Manner of Pressing Issues

After going to my new school yesterday to see my classroom and meet the principal (we interviewed over the phone), I realized I had a lot of work to do and was eager to get started! The teacher who was in my classroom last year left a lot of materials–fairly well organized, but there is just a lot in there for me to go through and organize in a way that will work for my students and me. I am at an absolutely wonderful school and am thrilled about getting to work!

Yesterday I counted about 40 boxes of ziploc bags. I am not sure what I am going to do if all of my students this year also bring ziploc bags. Maybe some other teachers will need some! I organized the boxes of ziplocs according to size (snack, sandwich, gallon). The white container on the top left is full of wet wipes. Next to that are several cans of Lysol spray. I also have a plastic container full of anti-bacterial handsoap and a couple of bottles of hand sanitizer. On the bottom shelves in this picture I’ve got paper plates/napkins/cups. On the right shelf I have folders organized by color, material and whether or not they have brads. I also have writing paper on that shelf. All of this may not stay there, but it is organized there for now.

I may wind up moving the cleaning supply type items underneath the sink (that is just where I always put them), but for now I have paint and some art supplies.

In the other “under the sink” type cabinet I have some science materials–including a Polaroid camera.
That will be fun!

I sorted school supplies today! I have a FULL container each of glue, scissors, markers, boxes of crayons, dry erase markers and pencils. I think all of my students could come without supplies and we’d make it just fine!

There were a lot of big books in the classroom. Some belonged to the science, social studies and math series. I organized the big books basically by content area. I put all the content area books together. Then I organized the remaining big books by “read aloud” or “shared reading”. I also have a section for big books/charts that focus on fluency.

Originally I thought I wanted to try tables this year, but after spending some time in the classroom today I realized there would be nowhere for the students to keep their crayon boxes, text books,
notebooks etc. So, I am going to have the tables exchanged for student desks. Luckily, the school has small individual desks. They will be big enough for the students to have personal space and a place to keep their belongings without taking up a ton of our floor space. I am also getting rid of the teacher desk and I will use the small group table (my principal ordered a kidney table for me) as my desk.

The floors are to be striped on Monday and I am not sure when they are waxing. It may be a few days before I can get into my classroom again. Of course, I have that back door, so if I could get in that way
and I could just stay on the carpeted area and work! I am so eager to get everything organized. The air conditioning wasn’t working today, so hopefully that will be repaired before I go back! Richard is helping me move in my things next Friday (everything in the room now is what the previous teacher left).

But anyway… I am so excited about our new school year and feel like I am already making progress in the room!

In an effort to keep from boring everyone to death, I will try to be as brief as possible in this post about our Philadelphia trip! I rode the trolley tour at least two full times, so I feel like a tour guide myself! I will spare you all of the little facts I learned. I have posted pictures of the places I actually went inside of/toured. Richard was in meetings all week, so I did the vast majority of the touring alone–which I didn’t mind–our California trip last fall was good training for me. I have linked the captions in case someone would like to know more about the particular site we visited. We had a great time in Philadelphia! It’s obviously a very historic city with lots of neat things to do and see. I loved Independence Hall and the Eastern State Penitentiary. The Tacconelli’s pizza was hands down the best pizza I have ever eaten. I also toured the Seaport Museum, but it wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t even photograph it. If you are considering taking a trip to Philadelphia, I recommend checking into purchasing a Philly Pass. It’s a pass that allows you access to the Trolley and I think also the Phlash (a transit trolley) and many of the museums and such. I think I definitely would have saved some money if I would have done this. Also, if you go to Philadelphia, take a lot of cash because there are many, many places that do not accept debit/credit cards. We had a wonderful time and if you ever get the opportunity to go to Philadelphia, GO GO GO!

Independence Hall/Liberty
Bell

Ben Franklin’s Grave

Christ Church-This is
where Betsy Ross, George Washington, William Penn and Ben Franklin worshiped.

Betsy Ross’s House

The Melting Pot

Rosie’s Yarn Cellar

Philadelphia’s City Hall

Cathedral Basilica of
Saints Peter and Paul

Pennsylvania Hospital

Philadelphia Zoo

Philadelphia Zoo

Eastern State
Penitentiary

Eastern State
Penitentiary

Al Capone’s cell: Eastern State
Penitentiary

Tacconelli’s Pizza

Congress Hall

Franklin Court

Masonic Temple

JFK Plaza/Love Park

For the past several weeks for breakfast I have been eating a bagel with low-fat cream cheese. I thought this was okay–especially considering all of the running I’ve been doing, but unfortunately the scales have not been tipping in my favor. So, with a little encouragement from my friend, Autumn, I decided to do something different for breakfast from now on
(although no decision has been made about what the ‘different’ will be). During the school year, I drink a Slim Fast before the students arrive–more because it’s easy and quick than because I like them.

Oh I have to take a time out and tell a story about my students right now. Sometimes I wouldn’t remember to drink my Slim Fast before the students arrived and I would wind up sipping on it during our circle time/read aloud time in the mornings. On one of these mornings, we were all at the carpet together and one of my students (first grade–6-7 yr olds) asked me if I was drinking it to lose weight. I responded no and told him that I just drank them because it was my breakfast. Another student piped up and asked, “So you just want to STAY that way?” Little stinkers.

Ok back to what I was saying…During the summer I try to take advantage of the fact that I have time to actually enjoy breakfast and try to eat things I don’t normally have time to eat–hence the bagel eating. My bagel eating days are over though (at least eating one every morning).

All of that to say this… this week when I went grocery shopping I bought the very bare essentials because we are going out of town all next week and I didn’t want us to waste any food. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I bought nothing for breakfast. Oops. I have made do just fine all week (R. doesn’t eat breakfast). This morning I decided I wanted something different though. I thought about what we had on hand and decided I’d try to bake a batch of blueberry muffins. I got out my BHG red and white cookbook and quickly found a simple muffin recipe. I’ve never made homemade muffins before. I am not sure I’ll ever buy the packaged mix again. This recipe is simple, fast and delicious!

I have been knitting some this summer. I have not knitted as much as I would like to though. I think I need to make a list of projects and maybe that will help me focus. This morning I took some time to find a few patterns for dog sweaters. I know that sounds crazy to knit a sweater for my dog, but she will have to wear them in the winter and I have a lot of yarn in my stash I can use. I also revamped my pattern notebook–complete with page protectors and dividers.

Back to the point of this post…I have knitted two baby hats recently. I knitted the blue/green/white one and the polka-dotted hat for a girl at Richard’s office who is expecting. I thought they both turned out cute. The polka-dotted one wasn’t hard, just time consuming.

I cannot believe I let myself do this, but I knitted the stripey stocking cap last fall and just lined it and made the pom-pom yesterday. It is a gift…  a very belated gift. I am horrible. I cannot for the life of me figure out how or why I let myself put that off. Anyway–it’s finished now and in the mail!

Last night, I cast on yet another baby hat. I love the color combination. I think that is why I love knitting baby caps: There are endless possibilities when it comes to color combinations. However, this is true of most knitting projects. I have a feeling I may get hooked on doggie sweaters like I have baby hats. Yikes! Let’s hope we have a long, cold winter!

Our scruffy, wild, little Olivia isn’t quite so scruffy or little anymore! She is still wild, though! Olivia got groomed today and she now looks like a respectable Westie. The groomer did a fantastic job on her cut and was very loving and patient with Olivia. It literally took a village to get Olivia through her first haircut, but she made it! I am still trying to decide if I like the sophisticated, big girl cut or if I like the scruffy look better. I think it will just take me a few days to get used to seeing her with her new do!

P.S. The first 5 pictures are the “before” and the last 3 are the “after”.