Day 13 - Day 18

I did warn you all that I am an awful blogger. I have at least been taking some pictures even though I haven't been blogging. To save time I am putting my last few pictures into one entry.

 

Last Thursday I reorganized the bookshelf so that my scrapbook albums were more easily accessible. They had been in the stack on the bottom with the picture frames - now I can pull them on and off the shelf. You can also note some of my favoritest books on the top shelf - Harry Potter series, Tamora Pierce books, Ella Enchanted and Fairest... 

 No pictures from last Friday or Saturday as I was not feeling well with a sinus infection.  Last Sunday I got my scrapbook supplies back out. This page is a work in progress. I actually just finished it last night - matted the pics at the bottom and fixed the title, as well as adding a journaling block.

This picture is from last Monday - we had the day off school for MLK day, at night I bundled up against the windy cold to get some stuff ready at school. We ended up having a 2 hour delay due to the below zero windchill the next morning.

 Phyl bought flowers on Tuesday for no reason. They look very nice on our kitchen table.

 More scrapbooking from last night. My goal is to finish scrapbooking our last cruise before we go on our next cruise this June.

My teacher ipad and my two student ipads. I'm loading different storybook apps onto them all so I can start using them for listen to reading tomorrow. The apps are taking FOREVER to install....

And we're all caught up, for now...

Day 12

 

Great day at school today. My kids are L-O-V-I-N-G math by myself. Mostly because they love this graphing dice roll activity. We did it today and you could here a pin drop in my room. When we stopped to go to art, there were many complaints and people begging to do it again. Yay for loving math! 

You get a bonus picture today because a particularly delightful child wrote me this letter. I love it. The last line makes me smile every time. I wrote her a letter back and I can't wait to read her response. I'm hoping she answers my question and tells me how I am like a rainbow. Did I mention I love it? Because I do.

Day 11

So today I decided to make cookies, for a couple reasons. One, we had milk that was expiring and needed to be drunk, and two, I wanted to do something at home that was productive (ie not sitting in front of a computer/tv screen all night as has been my pattern as of late) but also not related to school. Phyl pointed out as I was making these that we still have cookies leftover from Christmas. I say those cookies are stale and nothing goes better with the milk that we need to drink than warm, gooey, chocolate andes mint cookies. You may notice there is already a cookie missing from the tray - it was delicious. The chocolate was also still very melty, and dripped on the floor. These cookies are very messy until they get a chance to cool down.

In other news, launched math daily 5 yesterday and continued with it today. The kids are really excited about it, which is good! I'm really excited about it too, although still working out the best way to organize materials so they can be easily gotten and put away so that everything stays in the right place for next time and no one is stampeded in the process. This week - math by myself and math writing. Next week - math with technology and maybe math with someone, depending on how kiddos are doing with stamina in other areas. Then we can start groups, and hopefully keep our stamina up at the same time! Also will be starting group conferences in literacy daily five after MOY benchmarking is done. So lots going on in daily 5 world in our classroom right now!

Day 10

Today I spent a ridiculous amount of time at school, getting ready for the week and especially organizing to try to get ready to launch daily 5 math this week. I felt bad staying away from home all day on Phyl's day off, but I came home to a lovely clean living room and kitchen, with the Christmas tree put away. What a nice husband I have.

Day 9

This is yesterday's picture. Phyl and I went to Red Lobster to use some of our Christmas gift cards. we had planned on going to a movie afterwards, but Red Lobster was busy and had a wait, so we ended up coming home and watched netflix instead. It was a lovely lazy Saturday.

Day 8

 

This is one of my favorite Christmas presents, I got it from my sister. Just to show that great minds think alike, I got my sister one of these cups too, but hers says "Keep Calm Teach On". I came very close to buying one for myself but decided to wait till Christmas. Glad I did! She even filled it with chocolate, she knows me so well.

Day 7

 

This photo is actually from Wednesday. Both Tuesday and Wednesday I fell asleep on the couch before making it to bed. Getting back into school routine is hard. My kiddos are also experiencing this, as more than usual complained of being tired. I noticed it today especially. Of course I promised myself that last night I would go to bed early, but then I played the first episode of Downtown Abbey out of curiosity on Netflix while writing report card comments. I was promptly compelled to watch the entire season in one setting. So I went to bed at 1:30 and did not even finish the report card comments. Ahem. 

Day 6

This is yesterday's picture. First day back to school and the tree which we said would come down over break is clearly still up. Ah well. As I told Phyl, we can look at my procrastination as a good thing because I received two handmade ornaments from one of my students as a belated Christmas present. If the tree was all put away, we'd have to drag the boxes back out to put away those ornaments. Unfortunately I don't have a good reason as to why the tree has not been put away tonight...

Day 5

 

This is actually the picture from Monday. Classroom all ready for kiddos again =)

Day 4

Today Phyl and I went out to dinner and saw Les Miserables. Phyl hadn't seen it yet, it was the second time I saw it. I actually enjoyed it more the second time. I meant to take pictures throughout our date night, but aside from a picture of the Applebee's sign, I didn't manage to take out the camera until we were done. So Phyl's expression (which I love) says "are you seriously taking a picture of us as we walk up the driveway?". Now about to enjoy chocolate hot fudge cake with ice cream since we opted for no dessert at Applebee's (as if we didn't have enough sweets in the house with all our leftover holiday cookies).

Day 3

I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity with some other teacher friends today. I helped hang door frames and was convinced to use a nail gun. The nail gun was actually really easy. Hanging door frames was not at all easy. I can say after today that I do not have the patience to be a carpenter. Which is funny, because as a teacher I am told I have tons of patience all the time. I'm just not at all a Type A personality and have the tendency to just say "ah, that's good enough" which doesn't always work in the exact world of carpentry.

Day 2

 

Yesterday I took a whole bunch of public library books out of my classroom, today I brought in a bunch more books! These books, mostly from a long-ago half price Goodwill trip, have been sitting and sitting and sitting in my car. I finally had time to sort them all out and reorganize my library which I've been wanting to do for months!

Day 1

So I'm trying the project 365 again this year. Not off to the best start, as it's already January 3, but better than last year when I didn't decide to start until February. Besides, I've already decided I'm not aiming for perfection, just trying to get a picture a day as many days as I can.

With that said, I really like today's picture - came to school for the first time since break started with an unexpected snow day. The sun was setting as I pulled up and lighting up our beautiful school perfectly. I managed to carry out almost all of my public library books (still missing ten) and return them today. Only took four very full trips to the car!