National Fire Safety Week

This week is an important week for children across America. Firefighters all over the nation visit nearby schools to introduce themselves and what they do to help others. It's a sad fact, but often in a fire children hide from firefighters. One of our local fire stations volunteered to come and talk with our first graders. They were an amazing crew and gave a memorable presentation. Our students got to watch how fast they have to put on their gear (60 secs.), spray the water hose, put on the heavy fire fighter's jacket and take a look around the fire engine. We were introduced to tools that they use to help rescue people in fires and car accidents and learned some important safety tips if we are ever in a fire. It was a blast seeing the kids get excited spraying the water. It was also pretty funny to see one of our first grade teachers get dressed up in the gear and get secured on the board. I have never seen such a great group of firemen come to a school and talk . Thank you Las Vegas Fire Station 34! You made a lasting impression on our students and teachers!

Happy Autumn!

It was time for a new layout and I've always been a sucker for argyle. I love autumn. It's my favorite season I've decided. The fall in Las Vegas is nice, but I long for the true fall sights. Each year I read books with my students and give them the description of what fall can be like in other parts of the country. It would be so much fun to pick apples and pumpkins. Go through a corn maze and see all those leaves changing colors. Izzy would love to jump in a pile of leaves. How fun would that be to have a real fall season. I'm looking for some good suggestions on places to live with all four seasons. Izzy needs to experience more than the desert!

It wasn't a successful week as far as workouts go. I was way too lazy while Izzy was gone. Mainly because I couldn't move my left side of my body. I am not sure if it was the workouts, moving things at the warehouse or a combination of both activities. I got some good movie time in though! On Monday I had a date with Patrick Dempsey. Made of Honor hah, get it, he's made of honor and a maid of honor. Well seriously it was a cute movie. Definite chick flick and worth the watch. I don't watch McDreamie on a weekly basis so I enjoyed seeing my old flame from the Can't Buy Me Love days. My favorite part is when he's playing basketball and he tells another guy "we're waiting on our friend with longer shorts". I just die laughing whenever I see a man playing basketball or doing pretty much anything in short shorts. You just don't get to see enough knee these days! On Tuesday was Sex in the City the movie. It was just what I thought it would be and I liked it. I expected it to be really horrible, but it was fine. Sadly I connected to parts of the story in both movies. I guess love is the eternal theme. You find it, lose it and still go after it again and again. I also watched Annie Hall. What I told you my left side of my body would not cooperate with my P90X regimen. Now there's a classic that is never outdated. My favorite part is at the end when Woody Allen describes relationships and love. It's true relationships have to keep moving forward, otherwise you have a dead shark. Oh and you need the eggs!

My Classroom

All the long hours, hard work and extra cash I have are in this room. Once again I had to recreate an environment for my students to learn and explore. It can take a lot to get first graders excited and keep them going through out the year. This group of students is a little different from my last few years of teaching. Many of the students are ELL (English Language Learners) and many are below grade level. I wanted to make the year extra special. I have lots of incentives and fun things planned for us to do. The first week of school my students completed "The Real Scoop On Me" papers. Each week one student is the "Super Scoop" and we learn all about him or her. The pizzas on the wall are our behavior management system. Students who receive warnings for behavior are asked to "eat a piece of pizza" or "remove a slice". The students decorated their pizzas with favorite toppings. I also have lots of books in the library area of our room. It is said by professional educators that a good estimate is to have 100 books for each child. That would mean I need 1,600. (I'm up to 16 students.) That's a lot of books. I think I have a good number of books, but there are always more to add to my collection. I really do enjoy children's literature. I think the library is my favorite part of the classroom.

First Day Back

Summer's over and school is in session. It was my first day as a first grade teacher. I had a really fun time with my kids. It felt a little like being back in kindergarten. Probably because these students just were kindergarteners two and a half months ago. My class is small(13 kids) and I have a great big room. I felt a little strange having so few children to wrangle up at times. Kinda like I was expecting to go around to another part of the room and find five more students. It will be great having a small classs because first grade is a very intense year for a child's development.

Beyond the kids and my giant room, I love working with my staff at my school. They have been so great already this year. Each person on my grade level is genuine and works hard. It's also nice to have great leadership to look to when you are working in a school.

Well, I'll save the rest of the boring teacher talk and just keep you posted on the funny first grade antics. I have a couple of students that will be great entertainment this year- I'll keep you posted. Until then, thanks for reading!

End of An Era

I figured I could use a fun night out. It was our end of the year party for our school. There were many goodbyes to say that night. You see half of the teachers are leaving the school. It's been a rough year there and many of us were unhappy with the changes taking place. The thirty some people that have now left the school are scattered all over Las Vegas and in some cases farther. It was a great place to work. The kind of place where everyone could count on having a good day. We were all there for the right reason, to help children and do what was best for their education. Now it just isn't the same and it's sad to see the end of such a great staff and a great school. We celebrated the end of a long year with drinks, dancing and lots of reminiscing. Thanks to everyone who welcomed me back this year and thank you to everyone who made Tony Alamo a place I wanted to go to in the morning.

Gardening Without the Gloves

I have never considered myself to have a green thumb. Maybe because I kill every plant I've ever had, but my streak has ended. Ever since I started growing things in my Aerogarden I have felt like a gardener. Every few months I put my pods in the Aerogarden and suddenly I have food! Food that I have raised from little seeds to full plants and spices that I can actually eat and they won't poison me. It's pretty cool. I am on my second batch of lettuce plants and in between those I grew herbs: basil, parsley, mint, purple basil and cilantro (that never sprouted). It has given me a little taste of what it must be like to be a farmer or a person who has a garden. I would love to be able to have a garden of fruits and vegetables in my yard. That would be so great to just go out back and pick what your going to eat. For now I think I'll stick to my indoor Aerogarden. It's much easier and I don't have to get dirty.

I was in my kitchen so I decided to add a picture of my new table. I love the benches. It reminds me of a farmhouse.