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 Now there's a classic that is never outdated.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.