One tired teacher...

Phew...it has been a rough couple of weeks. We have been in school for two weeks, and the beginning of kindergarten is exhausting for me. My students are wonderful, but they are very young and not used to being in school all day. I must keep them busy, entertained, cared for, on task, and somewhere in between all that, I need to teach them--"them" meaning 21 five year old boys and girls. So, needless to say, I've been very tired lately and haven't been blogging very much. Hopeful things will settle down soon, and I can keep my blog updated on a more regular basis and/or have something exciting and new to blog about. Right now, I just work, study, and sleep. LOL

I feel so boring...

So, since my husband has been out of work and we both are working on degrees, not much time and money has been left to make life very exciting. Its been a tough pill to swallow this summer when many of my friends have been able to go on vacation, go to concerts, and just have BBQ after BBQ. Us?--We just sit at home most days. Very boring and ho-hum. Its been so boring, that I dodn't even have much to blog about! Downright sad!

And now here I am, my summer almost over. Next week I start school. 3 days of teacher institute and then the kids come in. I'm looking forward to starting school again so that I will at least have something besides putzing around the house to do and I'll get a steady paycheck again. Just for those who may not know, teachers (at least in my district) get paid based on the 9 month long school year. However, that 9 month salary is spread out over the 12 month school year. So, technically, we don't get paid summers off--we've already earned that money. Therefore, every May, I get the rest of my money that I earned that school year and have to figure out how to budget it the whole summer.

Anyway, I stopped by on Saturday and the new floor tile was in and they were getting ready to wax it. So, I am hoping to go in later this afternoon and hopefully, all my classroom furniture will be in so that I can begin getting everything set up and ready. Once I get it all prettied up, I hope to post some photos for you.

a new template for you

I was hoping to get some scrapbooking done this week but I've been too busy with my college course work to find the time. I wanted to make a layout using this template to show you an example of a layout done with the template, but just didn't get around to it. So, instead of keeping you waiting, I figured I'd post the template without the layout this time. Hope you enjoy it!

I only have 1 more week left of summer break and then I have parent-teacher conferences, 3 days of teacher institute, and then the first day of school. I am highly stressed at the moment because myself and two other teachers at my school had carpet in out classrooms. This summer they decided to take the carpet out and put down new tile. Well, they took the carpet out, and now with one week left, they still haven't put the new tile down and my floor is just yucky looking concrete at the moment. I was told the contractors are working on another job, but we are trying to get them to stop that job and finish this one and they are not cooperating. So, all of my furniture and classroom items are in the gym in a big pile, and I can't get my room ready until the contractors decide to finish the tile. Lucky for me, I know exactly where all my furniture goes in my room, but the other two teachers are new to those particular classrooms and not sure how they even want their room set up yet. So, keep your fingers crossed for us that these contractors get their act together and come and finish what they started, because if they don't, my poor kindergarteners are going to have a gross looking concrete floor--not very nice for them at all. All the other teacher's classrooms at my school are cleaned and set up and ready to go with fresh paint and shiny newly waxed floors. Those teachers are all calm and looking forward to school starting. Must be nice. One even had the nerve to ask me if I was all ready for school to begin. Huh???? They obviously hadn't walked by my hallway, nor noticed all the plastic that was sealing the whole section of the school off this summer when they had to take the old tile out due to asbestos. Needless to say, they probably wished they hadn't asked me that by the time I spilled out all my frustrations concerning the situation.

Anyway, it won't be the first time I've had to get my room ready at the last minute. By the way, here is the template:


Download here. Enjoy!

My brain might just explode with too much information

Once again, I have done a lousy job keeping my blog updated. This is because now I am up to my eyeballs in college coursework. As you may know, I am taking online classes, which so far I love because I can do it at my own speed, so I am trying to work super hard and super fast to get a lot done before school starts in a few weeks. My classes started by right away jumping into the huge project that will need to be done at the end of the degree program, so I've been very busy working on what my project and research is going to be and how to implement it into my classroom for research purposes. Right now I am up to my armpits in academic journal ariticles doing research and literature review and writing paper after paper....my brian is very tired and doesn't want to do it. For those of you who asked, the degree I am working on is a Master's in Learning and Technology, and my current class is Research Fundamentals and Instructional Design (which since I've done pleanty of research before, it isn't really anything new, but lots and lots of work!!)

For weeks I sat around being lazy, and now all of a sudden my classes are getting strenuous, I have to work this week at our school's registration to screen the incoming kindergarteners, and then I have to start getting my classroom ready for the beginning of school. Ugh! When it rains it pours!

Anyway, I did manage to get some scrapbooking done last week and have a new template for you that I will get posted for you soon, I promise!

Another week and another template

I can't believe its been a whole week since I've posted again. It certainly doesn't seem like it. Funny how my days fly by, even though I'm not doing much of anything at the moment. I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! We went to a BBQ and had the best ribs of my entire life. I didn't even know I liked ribs that much, but these were delicious and I couldn't stop eating them! Then after lots of fun at the BBQ, we headed home and watched the Macy Day Firework's and reminisce about how we were actually there last year in New York city watching the fireworks extravaganza in person. This year, I couldn't even be bothered with the crowds and the bugs, so just decided to watch them on TV. Lazy, I know. That seems to be the theme of the summer so far--Lazy.

I started my classes last week, and got the first one done (it was just an introductory course--easy peasy) and am now working on my second class, which is going along okay, but at the moment I am in limbo as the college is on break for the week, and I am just waiting for more directions. So, what to do now? Scrapbooking, of course! I figure I might as well use the time when I have it.

Below is a template I made which I totally scraplifted off of a layout I saw in a magazine that I just loved. It is simple, but sometimes, I just love "simple!" I thought it would be perfect for my crab shack pictures that we took when we were in Clearwater. I am really hoping to get this album done this summer. However, I still need to finish the album I started last year with my NYC photos. Maybe I'll get a burst of creative energy and get them both done! Anyway, here is the template:

You can download it here.

And here is my layout I made of it. Yes, that is me with the cheesy grin. I'm sure it was 5 o'clock somewhere when that pic was taken.

Would You Do This?

This past week, the Sears Tower in Chicago got a new lookout balcony--a glass box. Not any old glass box mind you. Oh no. This one is super strength and apparently a bunch of people can stand on it and it won't even break. Would you take their word for it and step out onto it over Chicago? For me, this is kind of scary. I am not afraid of heights and have been at the top of the Sears Tower before and have seen its incredible views. However, I just don't know if I'd have the courage to step out into the glass box hovering over the city. It just doesn't seem like something we should be doing. It goes against the grain. I also don't like the idea of little kids doing it. I fear this could confuse the lines of what is safe to do and what is not safe to do for them. They did this over the Grand Canyon, too. Again, it is too unnerving for me to want to do it. Why isn't just looking out the window or from the railing enough? Does this mean I'm becomming an old fuddy-duddy?

Day 2 of College

Yesterday was my first day of my new Master's program that I am doing. It is all online, so very different from my last Master's program which was through a traditional classroom setting. I have seen the list of course work and believe me...I am very scared. It is going to be a lot of work. I am now wondering what I've gotten myself into and why I want to go through yet another degree program. Oh yeah...I remember...more money!! However, after just shelling out $90 for two text books, and realizing how much my school loans will be when I'm done, I think I'm going to need an even bigger raise! Funny how you have to pay money to make money, isn't it? Wish me luck as I have to start using my brain again. It has gotten very rusty the last few weeks, that's for sure! Its not going to like this one single bit....