50th Post...well, sort of

So, I realized, rather belatedly, that I was rapidly approaching my 50th post.  And by rapidly, I mean, I hit it and didn't even notice.  :-(

I just so happened to look at my homepage and see that I had reached 50 posts.  I was going to do something special for my 50th.  Maybe a giveaway or something.  But...you know...back to school budget is incredibly tight right now.  Maybe I'll do something for my 100th.

Anyway, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you who have stuck with me for my first 50 posts.  I promise that it won't take me another entire year to hit 50 posts again.  I am making it a point to blog more this school year.  

I will.

Promise.

My first Sunday Scoop

So I am linking up with Teaching Trio for their Sunday Scoop Linky Party!

The Sunday Scoop linky is to just give you a quick glimpse into my upcoming week.  So, here goes.

My three things I have to do are pretty self-explanatory.  Laundry, cutting Brag Tags.  Since I switched from 3rd to ESE 3-5, I don't know the 4th and 5th grade math standards.  I need to get them memorized (or at least semi-memorized) so I can make sure I'm hitting my standards.

I have a huge to-do list right now.  I'm hoping that I can get things crossed off as quickly as possible.  I also really need to start running again.  It is just terribly hot in Florida, and I have something going on every day after school this week.  :-(  I'm hoping to get at least one, or two, runs in this week.

And I'm SO HAPPY because Friday, at midnight, the wifey and I are getting in the car and driving to Disney World!  We didn't get to go anywhere over the summer, so I'm just gonna take a few days off.  We'll get into the hotel Saturday morning, see my grandparents for breakfast, and then hit the parks from Saturday til Tuesday.  We're also going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for the first time!  Ahh!  And then we come home on Wednesday.  :-(

I can't wait to see what all of you have going on this week!

Is your school hospitable?

So...I really don't know if every school does this, but every school in the county I teach in has a Hospitality committee.  It's done differently at every school, but the major similarity is that the committee puts together the Christmas activity (party, luncheon, whatever).

Anyway, for the second year in a row, I am the Hospitality Chair.  I love it.  I try to plan different events throughout the year to keep morale high in our teachers.  Our jobs are difficult, it's not easy being a teacher.  So anything we can do to bring some fun into our lives - I'm all for it!

One of the things we do is Birthday Club.  Every other month we meet (usually after school) to celebrate the birthdays of our staff.  Last year it was always cake, this year we're thinking about switching it up a little.

Also, we visit a restaurant (usually Chili's) on the First Friday of every month.  It's just a time to talk and see each other outside of school.  I LOVE it!  Spouses and kids are always invited.  Some months we're a small group, sometimes a big group.  It just depends.

Here are some pictures from our two events we've had so far this year:

These two ladies and I usually close out the First Friday fun.  This year we're allowed to leave at 3:15.  Which means we made it to Chili's at 3:30.  We didn't leave until 7.  Usually someone tells one of us that they were gonna come but they thought we would be gone.  We just laugh and tell them to text one of us next time...cause we're still probably there.  :-P

Are there any things your faculty does to raise morale and enjoy time outside of school?

Classroom Reveal...finally!

Monday starts the 4th week of school.  And I am just now revealing my classroom.  

*sigh*

It's partially because it took me forever to get it finished.

I couldn't go to the school over the summer...my school was a "host school" for summer school.  Which meant that even if our room wasn't being used, we weren't allowed up there.

And then they had to strip and re-wax the entire school after that.  And I was teaching summer camps and going to workshops and just...yeah.

So...pre-planning week was really my big time to get in there.  But, if you read one of my last posts, my room was a MESS.  And I had to move all of the ESE curriculum into the mess that already was my room (I never did take a picture of that).  And, of course, during pre-planning I went to WAY too many workshops/trainings.  Luckily my principal left the school open until 9 one night.  And since I wasn't pulling groups the first 2 weeks of school (my schedule is still semi-changing), getting my room together was the last thing on my mind.  But this week I started pulling groups...so it had to be ready.

So here it is...

I got rid of almost all of my student desks.  I won't need them.  I'll only be pulling small groups and don't need all of that mess in my room.

All of that was junk I pulled off of shelves and out of filing cabinet drawers.  I have WAY too much stuff and I'm trying to get rid of some of it.

 

I don't have a teacher desk.  So my small group table is my teacher space.  I love it though.

Have you seen those Teacher Toolbox posts and pins?  I LOVE mine!  They were blue, and I just spray painted them red to match my Disney theme.

 

I have 8 4th-graders that I have to pull all at once for math, and my small group table is not big enough...so we're going to meet here.  I kinda like it...we'll see how it works though.

We were told at the beginning of last week that the little hideaway where we all keep our filing cabinets is blocking a window that is going to be turned into an egress window.  Which means we can't put our filing cabinets there.  I really don't like this...but it'll work until I turn everything digital like I want.

I am also the Hospitality Chair for our school.  So I wanted a space in my room where I could keep track of everything I had planned for the year.

Since I don't need the bulletin board outside of my room for student work, I turned most of it into a birthday board for our faculty.  Those are faculty/staff birthdays!  Every student passes my room on the way to art and music.  So now they can see all of the birthdays for that month.  Plus we will be spotlighting a different faculty member every month.  It's just a way to get to know the members of our school.

I also wanted to share this bulletin board that I did in the front hallway of our school.  Thank you to Sarah over at Math Equals Love for sharing about this bulletin board (and where she got the idea from).

We're trying to change our mindsets at my school.  

It's going to be a great year.

Thanks for sticking out this long post.