School Days, part II

Back to School!

The students returned to school on Thursday, August 13th this year. As you can see, I was pretty excited to have them back. Although the school is amazing and beautiful, it just felt empty until it had all those little faces back in the halls and classrooms!
Before the kiddos came back, I had access to my classroom (in addition to some LONG days of training). Here are a few pics of the classroom as I found it:

*A shot of my classroom - or as much as I could get of it in one picture! That thing hanging down

is a projector, which hooks up to my computer so I don't have to use an overhead machine.

I absolutely adore all of the technology I get to use! What a turn-around from my classroom at Adams City!

*Here is a shot of the front of the room. My desk is off to the left of this shot.

*My beautiful view!!! An entire wall of windows - awesome!!

I was extremely lucky, because Casey spent the better part of one day with me, helping me work on getting the classroom in a more "kid friendly" condition. I think we really accomplished something:

*Just to help, a little reminder of the many kinds of punctuation... I teach Language Arts, after all!

*I had to have a little Twilight. I never said I wasn't a fanatic...

*My awesome little office area. It's starting to look lived in!

*I really wanted to emphasize the college thing early.
Hopefully, there will be a few for whom it sticks.

*Pendant flags from all the Big XII schools (and CO State against my will. I suppose I really should support the in-state schools).

I was really pleased with how the first week of school went. We had back to school night Thursday, which was fun. At Adams City, I had probably 100 kids and only about 6 parents who showed up. This time around, I had 5 or 6 from each one of my classes. It is really encouraging to have parents and students who are invested in their education!

Although I am completely exhausted (Casey and I ordered in last night and were supposed to watch a movie... except that I fell asleep at about 8:00), it was a great first week. I really enjoy working with my students. 8th grade is definitely a different animal than high school, but it's also really fun.

And I've been feeling pretty good on top of that. As long as I manage my meals by eating every few hours, I still haven't had much nausea. I also came clean to my boss and co-workers, mostly because I wasn't sure what the protocol would be for leaving a classroom of students alone if I had to make a sudden trip to the restroom... Fortunately, though, I haven't had to do that!

Now, if I could just get my energy level back!