pirouette creme filled rolled wafers made me get up early this morning.

Christmas bulletin board- done!

last night while i was sitting here at home, writing letters, i had a strange craving for rolled wafers..so much so, that i was envisioning myself at school sipping coffee with a creme filled pirouette...so i woke early and stopped at walmart hoping that they sold there...i was so pleased to finally find a canister this morning before school! and as i was walking out, i figured i'd ask to see if they sold stamps, and guess what, they do!

hmm..so, i have been struggling with my room set-up at school, and i think i have an idea that will make it work much better.so, now i have to set it up and do a little work...some sanding, some drilling, etc...i'm actually quite excited about it.

i was thrilled to get the a-z readers out of my room! halfway through the year, and things are starting to come together...

so tomorrow the kids will have a reading assessment to see where they are. fingers crossed!

i know i mentioned the education reform fellows program-getting excited about that. today the idea was brought up that perhaps possibly since i got into this part of the program, they might consider grandfathering me into the program...i'll have to figure out how to endear them to me! smile. anything to not have to go through that whole process again of the interviewing! when i know more, you'll know more.

and the most exciting thing going on right now is that i just found out that one of my best friends from high school in HONDURAS is coming up to the dallas area to visit her sister over Christmas, so i will get to see her and catch up! it has been over 20 years since we've gotten to hang out and have face-time-i cannot wait! not only that, but i will get to see her parents and hopefully meet her boys as well!! (she has real human boys). so i couldn't be more tickled about this holiday season!

and hopefully b-mayes will be able to come to town or we'll be able to stop up there!

AND the hobbit is coming out!! i have been looking forward to this since the first rumors!!

the holidays are sneakin' up on us!
julie

fire alarms at my school are like the little boy who cried wolf..only different b/c firemen come.

this afternoon, i was actually going to work on my school bulletin board, but i got sidetracked and found posters from last year and the year before that i wanted to put up. so i pulled out way too many. then i sorted through and made some decisions. the hardest decisions were where to place them.

so i finally decided to hang one from the tile ceiling in the room. we have those tiles you can push up, so i went to push one up to hang something and as soon as i pushed the tile up, the fire alarm went off. well, there were no kids, and so i knew it wasn't a drill, and they usually come on before-hand to let us know they are testing, or whatever. well, there was no announcement, so i jumped down from my chair, my room in shambles still, and grabbed my purse and my bag and walked out into the hallway, when i heard two other teachers down the hall. i was actually a little worried that i had tripped some wire or something when i lifted the tile (you never know what type of work those bond people have done!)

so i went down to see if they were leaving, and they were just sitting around. one of them said, "this happens like twice a week." so i went back to my room to pick up and finish up. after about 4 minutes, the sirens were in front of the bldg, and the firemen came on in. oops. perhaps we should've gone outside...umm. well, after going to the restroom, i went back to my room and unplugged the space heater and hid it in a  box. then i finished up and took off. bulletin board = not done. grr.

and on the way home, i was thinkin' i really didn't want to cook tonight...i wish i didn't live on restaurant alley-addison, you're killin' me! but i entertained myself while i waited!

look at me, i'm an electric box...no, wait, look again! i'm a robot with really long legs!!

 sooo...i obviously need to work on spelling with my bilingual kiddos and teach them some spelling patterns!

i guess bubbles can be considered a liquid (before they become the bubble capsule)..but umm...boobles? maybe liquid holders?

ramping up for tomorrow night! parent conference!

goodnight,
julie

up to date on sexual harassment and blood pathogens!

well. it's been a long week. it was a great week in science. we had some heating up and cooling down....investigated and hopefully have a better idea of what condensation is.

on wednesday  we celebrated hispanic heritage month with a little pot-luck. last minute i stopped at the store and got the ingredients fro a little spicy chicken chili and some salsa. good times. there were some fabulous dishes-always love maria's cornbread, velez' flan, and robin's brownies-i had some other delicious items, but i have no idea who brought them. yum-o.

this week i had to finish my compliance videos-which took longer than i might have liked...i cannot believe that the sexual harassment video was so long, and there were so many stinkin' law cases to read about-don't care! if i wanted to read whoever v oncale or whatever, i would've studied law with bmayes and taken the bar. but oh well, 2nd try was a charm, and i got my certificates of proof:

i should frame all of my certificates and post them around my classroom...

 and yesterday, i was so excited that our tamale mom (kinda like a soccer mom...only not really)...anyhoo, i didn't order any, but she had extras and i bought me some tamales!! yippee!!

so good you don't need salsa, but it doesn't hurt either.

so, yes, it was a busy week, and here is something that i did that just added to the 'busy'-my own fault. we had not put our bulletin board up in the bathroom yet, so i wanted to get it up-fall colors, black cat, and i'll change it for thanksgiving again, once halloween's over.

those are actual feathers in his mouth.

 and our little accessory table was removed from the stall at summer break, so i decided to replace it. i went to walmart looking for something cheap. well, i first picked up two yafa blocks and thought i would zip-tie them together, so i put them in the cart, then went to find other materials i might need. then i went back toward the plastic shelving units, just to check. and they were, in fact, more expensive. then i looked at the little box/drawer things made of cloth to set inside the blocks, but they fit really funny. when i turned around, i saw the laundry baskets and decided that was actually a better option, so i took the blocks back and put them on their shelf. i was playing in my mind how i was going to make this work.

when i got home, i pulled out the drill and hinges and made the top shelf to lift up, then i sanded down the top because i didn't like the tacky finish that was on it. then i pulled out my little handy-dandy mastermind saw and cut the corners off of another piece of wood i had so that it would fit as a lid and middle shelf that would lift up. and then i drilled a few holes and zip tied it in the back so we could store things in the bottom as well. i know, clever. it may look a little silly, but it does the job.

the necessities.

oh, and i have a great little book that has some great pictures of signs that people have sent in from their travels, and many of them are potty humor, so i decorated the top with a few of them-perhaps i will add more at a later date.

just making sure everyone knows.

so, the weekend is finally upon us, and i have so much to do. i feel like the weekends have yet to feel like weekends. i have yet to come home with nothing to do. i think that's part of what makes it so exhausting.

have a great weekend!!
julie

beard cutting...good thing bruno and chaco are not amish..i'd be in big trouble!

sit back and kick up your feet...when i go days without posting, it just all seems to build up.

i'm pretty sure that i've mentioned that i am now teaching science (and a language arts class and a social studies class)...well, science has had a great start so far-the kids seem excited and curious-exactly what i am looking for. i am really going to push thinking and finding solutions this year in science. it is going to be very involved-which means it is probably going to take quite a bit of prep work...yummy.

mass...g....volume...ml...l,w,h,diameter...cm...good times!

and after school on tuesday we had got to stay after until 6-something for our garden design and dine. i'm glad i was there, i just hate giving up precious time-i got nothing done on tuesday-that was frustrating. i guess the exchange is worth it, because the garden will be beautiful, i am sure. i mean we all agreed (somewhat) on a brown gazebo and a covering for the sand feature to avoid cat problems (you know, fecal matter and what not).got a picture of our picture taker-adrian is never in photos because he is always taking the photos. good man.

unofficial photographer/arts partner man/computer fun

the best part was the amazing assortment of wraps and the lemon bars! parents and some students were invited to this afternoon of events and i held my tongue as i watched several of the kids walking  back, not with a wrap...but rather a plate full of brownies, cookies and lemon bars. where is the parental accountability. i mean, the parents did not even care! my parents would have made me put them back or give them away!

ahhh, sweet lemon bars...you made me very, very happy!

and last night, yet again i remembered i had not taken anything out of the freezer, therefore i had nothing to eat...i am weak! curses to the builders of the burger house around the corner! i swear, i salivate when i even think about their amazing seasoned fries!!!! no joke. i feel like pavlov's dog. ri-DICULOUS!

and yesterday as we were talking about our civic responsibility in social studies, one of the boys asked if this picture was a boy or a girl:

i had to answer honestly that i thought it was a girl who got a sex-change...no i didn't; i told him i didn't know. i had been wondering the same thing only moments before he asked.

and when i got home yesterday, i was so excited to get a package in the mail-then i saw it was originally for some man, and i only received it because i am OR CURRENT RESIDENT.

men's advanced clinical degree. perhaps i'll take it to school for the boys coming in from recess...hmm..in a word: ripe.

so...as i was driving home tonight from work (remember how school gets out at 3:15, and we have to stay an additional 45 minutes after school, and i had to stay later to finish other things such as: my literacy bulletin board)..left school at 6:56 and there were a few teachers still in their rooms working. i feel inefficient and not nearly as effective as i like to be. boo. but i digress...as i was saying, on the way home, on the radio there was mention of amish beard cutting-which they then said was being tried as a federal hate crime...so i wrote the words amish and beards on my hand because it was so bizarre that it couldn't have been made up! (total snl skit material). *fortunately i will get few hate comments from amish since they don't believe in the modern convenience of electricity. i looked it up, and it was legit-check it out here.

anyhoo, it reminded me of my summer visits to michigan to visit grandpa and grandma and my cousins up that way. there were tons of amish up north. literally we would pull into the grocery store and there would be a buggy or two parked with its horses in a little shady spot. and we used to go to an amish store out in the country occasionally for amish goods like baked goods, nuts, chocolate...good times. it was from watching the buggies as we whizzed by that i learned about the blinders they use on horses to keep them focused. NEED BLINDERS FOR SOME OF MY STUDENTS!

i've started a new training for the boys because bruno has been barking at anything and everything lately and chaco has been peeing wherever he pleases (i moved their potty pad to a new location, and he's not getting the hang of it every time....)so they are both on their leashes...in the house. that way i can catch chaco before he just takes off and relieves himself wherever...and i can catch bruno before he runs to the window and attacks with a string of verbal slurs at the innocent residents below...but we are having peace tonight; it's working!

ok, you can pack it up and go to bed now!
julie

women's rights...i guess they had the right to look like my piano teacher. that's crazy.

i am convinced that the QT off forest and josey is a little slice of what hell might be like...on any given weekday morning at 6:50...yard-workers hell. it is impossible to get in and out of due to all of the trailers.

as i was putting student work up in the hallway, one of the male teachers came out and said, "oh, if you have extra work that you want to put up here on the bulletin board, you can!" (the bulletin board that the t.a. put up...) i'll shuffle through my stuff and see if i can come up with anything.

today we are beginning a week study on women's rights-suffrage. it will be an interesting week. we shall see what they learn! i will say that as i was going through the book, i came across some homely looking ladies. i need to make sure my students understand that the main idea is NOT that women used to look like men.

sorry to whomever's great great grandma this may be, but looks like a dude to me.

it actually looks a little like one of my former piano teachers...

the same t.a. that put up the bulletin board came to borrow the hot glue gun of ms. alexander to glue the same teacher's art projects for thursday...so not wanting to be the 'fail-teacher', i stuck around after school to finish hot gluing the ones in my room. ugh. they stank because of the leftover rank milk smell. nasty.

i really dislike glue guns. the little wispy string fly-aways drive me nuts.

the sculptures

the class numbers in one of our classes dropped quite a bit today. not that i am complaining...

tonight i am excited about american ninja warrior...i know, i know...what? well, the husband of one of my former kampers might be on it tonight! he made it into the top 30, now to see if he moves into the top 15! woo hoo! (he worked at kamp, and he was actually on american gladiators a few years ago!)...exciting!

anyhoo..hoping your great, great grandmother was more photogenic than some of the women's suffrage heroes.
julie

chaco thinks he needs a talent scout now....

oh blessed friday! it's good to be sitting in my own living room relaxing.

i know i work with 2nd language learners when most of my students seem to think that inanimate objects have feelings of desire or "want." i hear it almost every day. "ms. robinson, my pencil didn't want to sharpen." and i feel like asking how they know what their pencil wants...but today i decided it was time to put it in a visual:

just do it mr. pencil, it will be alright, you want to be a sharp guy, right?

it's also time to make a count-down for our bathroom bulletin board! that was gigi's job. but someone put up a note today, so i will tackle that this weekend.

walking around the school today i saw another self portrait...i think this kiddo fancies herself a superhero...

it's going to be a beautiful weekend..a little cooler than the past couple of days, but 64 isn't bad for feb.

the boys saw that i had a calendar made and chaco looked through the pics and kept saying, "mama! that's me!" "i know it is, chaco." "i'm a MODEL! you can call me sean o'pry." i looked at him, and i cocked my head (which they totally understand-they invented it), "what are you talking about?" and he just smiled and said, "ma, calvin klein...ralph lauren...versace???" so i just nodded and went along with it, "yeah, um, how about i stick with calling you chaco."

and in other interesting news, i was on high alert and worried last week because whenever i went to the bathroom it was bright yellow like a highlighter! and i was afraid that i was sick without knowing it or something, so i googled it. and much relief- multi-vitamins. who knew? fortunately whoever wrote the article did! i just started using a more expensive multi-vitamin and fish oil vitamin, so that's what i get...hopefully that isn't the only effect it has on my body.

have a blessed weekend!
julie

i've become ocd aobut checking dates-wish i had been back in may

the alarm went off this morning while it was still dark out and chaco said,"make it stop! ewwww, make it go away!"(as he burrowed further down under the cover)... i forgot to warn them last night before we went to bed.

so i got to school and got started with the most important project of the day.

seemed january-ish bulletin board

hopeful for snow days...in april or may...after good friday!

oh, and did you realize that this year we get 29 days in february? leap year!!

staff development today was pretty good-the lady who presented our developmental asset presentation liked to use the fill-in-the-blank (CLOZE) method, and thank goodness she didn't wait to long for us to answer before she just went ahead and supplied the answer. i wonder if she even realized that she was doing it, or if it was a habit from her teaching days.

i took chicken out of the freezer last night and now i have to go ahead and make some dijon chicken in the crockpot-so i can use it all and not mess around; it's a super easy recipe, so hopefully it will taste pretty good too. yum.

so i don't know if any of you remember the moment i regret most from 2011...when i missed theresa's wedding...well, since then, i have been extra careful in checking and rechecking my dates. so, every day since i printed it off, i look again...just to be sure!

makin' me ocd!

so, it really is tomorrow, and unfortunately i won't get to welcome my kids back on their first day, but the upside (whether i bomb it or not), i get to wear jeans and be comfortable...and i get to come home for lunch and spend the rest of the day not worrying about taking a test!

well, that said, i am off to do one last round!
julie

bring the bathroom to me!

sometimes as a teacher, you just have to leave your classroom to use the restroom. today one of my students got flustered because i had to leave and they had to be quiet and sit, and he said, "why do you have to go to the bathroom? why can't they bring it to you?" wouldn't that be nice? i only wish!

 then after school i was able to pull together a quick vocabulary bulletin board. it'll be up until Christmas, then we'll switch it again...i left the background in green because i think it's important to be consistent and keep a routine...ok, actually i may have been too lazy to put up the background paper. ugh. next time.

hopefully we can get more kids to use it.

when i got home, we tried pics again. still not what i was hoping for.

i was able to find a these great little ornament/books...all i need to do now is get some good pictures of my friends that are the right size so that i can make some fun little deal-y-ma-bobs.

 i'm pretty sure i have plans for these...and it will not be my principal and vice principal...i don't think they would see the comedy in that.

tonight we received the news that one of my classmates who had been battling cancer for awhile now passed away today. we had a very small class (59..60-something?) but freda was one of those silly, fun girls. she was a little shy, loved Jesus and she always had a positive demeanor! it is kind of a reminder that as much as we think we are in control our lives, we are not. for this reason, enjoy the small moments!


blessings,
julie

i kinda like my creative side sometimes

last night i finished what i started about 2 months ago! first of all, i will say it was a hassle getting this thing in my car, if you will recall. brand new car and it barely fit. when i got it home, i sanded it up and painted it two shades of brown.

just an excuse to purchase a sander!

and last night i finally decided to finish painting it so that i can set it up later as a headboard. the only thing is, i am going to have to figure out how to put it up because it's really heavy! the lighting isn't great, but here is the final product (apart from one board on the back which i have to remove).

it looks much cooler in person

it matches a canvas set i painted awhile back. i'll have to take a better picture in better light. sorry. also yesterday i worked on our bathroom bulletin board again, now we just need gigi to make us a count-down! woo hoo!

yes, it has battery operated lights.

it's always a sense of accomplishment to finish something, but two things in one day?! no wonder i didn't get started on my Christmas cards like i had planned! hmm.

i walked into the apartment tonight, and i threw on some sweats i had worn in branson. well, when i reached into my pocket, i found the key card we were looking for before we left. i knew i had used it, but i had no clue where it was! i'm thinkin' i sat it down and one of the boys slipped it into my pocket when i wasn't looking!

hopefully they don't charge for them. oh, and the dominos that's advertised on the front is right next to my hole-in-the wall sushi restaurant that i took mom and dad to.

may your creativity and productivity astound even you,
julie

chaco thought i was eating poopoo-sas, and he laughed

i am so glad tomorrow is tomorrow! my friend bmayes was going to come down for the weekend and bring chaco's sister to visit, but after thinking x,about it, just because she's from ou doesn't mean she has to come this weekend for the game just because it's ou//tx so hopefully she gets a chance to come next weekend. it's been an exhausting weekend, so i think that works out well for both of us!

i was a little late at work today (but i wasn't the last!). i finished vocabulary board #2. i don't know how it will go, but hopefully we get some participation!

affixes and root words. can you prefix something before it breaks? i doubt it.

as you may notice at the top, the B was missing from VOCABULARY,  and i was too lazy to go get the purple marker, so i just made a brown one.

also before i left, i was in our restroom stall and i glanced at the mavs poster in the teacher stall and my eyes played  a trick on me. i thought i saw the words :CARBON BUTTER

then i double checked because my mind switched the idea to carbs and butter thinking perhaps the mavs were promoting a wellness/ nutrition poster...no worries, they aren't.

i got home and cooked dinner and chaco ran to find bruno and said, "mama's eating poopoo." i peeked around the corner and corrected him. "pu-pu-SAs." 

tomorrow i have off because it is our 'fair-day'....may your day be fair as well!

bulletin boards...a contact sport.

at the end of a long dark corridor there is a board. a green board. a green bulletin board. my responsibility. uf..

nemesis or challenge in disguise?

so today i set my jaw and decided to tackle it! and by tackle it, i am not talking football, although let's be honest, it might have been slightly comical for our interim principal to walk out and see me running down the hall and jumping on the bulletin board and pulling it down...but no, it was more like this:

hopefully we'll get some interaction!

today i heard a boy say, "i have something in my brain." as he felt a little bump/scab on his head toward the front of his hairline. i wanted to say, "if there's something in your brain, you'd better leave it there! that's what we've been working toward!" but i didn't. 

later, i noticed that my coworker had a bag of loving-kindness (the only place i've ever heard that is in the Bible, but this bag was full of deliciousness of biblical proportions)...tamales! now...i will preface this with: nothing beats the tamales that doña angelica used to make in honduras with banana leaves-they were our Christmas and new years love). anyhoo, back to the tamales of today. they were typical mexican corn husk tamales. there were three different kinds and each was very good. the last one i had was packed with heat (not packing heat).

reminds me a little of corn husk dolls.

the picture kinda reminds me of when i was small and we went to a turkey farm in michigan (hopefully i haven't mentioned this before), but i really wanted a corn cob pipe. i don't really know why- i think it was the smell...and maybe the popeye cartoons.  but my parents voted me down...kinda like when i wanted the sword from mackinac island, mi. must be the michigan souvenirs. hmm.

well, i am thrilled about the rain outside because it's like goldilocks: not too light, not too hard!
hope your weekend is just right!
julie