I Can't Feel My Feet, but I Made It!

Well, I survived my first week of school! It was a long, exhausting week, but I made it! My feet are super sore though (and I even limit myself to flats and 1 inch heels at school). Guess I'm not used to standing for 8 hours a day just yet.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with my classes. All of my kiddos are pretty good for the most part (so far)... I do have one kid who is kind of a jerk in my 7th period, but I will whip him into shape soon! :) My classes are very small too, which is really nice! Easier to control smaller classes and easier for me to help them in one on one situations! So pretty much everything is about as good as I could have hoped!

Pic of me on my VERY FIRST day of school! :)

Do I look like a teacher?

We had a Back-to-School Carnival on Saturday as well too, which we were forced to happily volunteered our time at.

I mean really, did they have to plan it for the FIRST week of school?! Oh well.

I already need a vacay! Luckily, I am going to Florida with some of my BFFs over Labor Day weekend! :) Thank God, much needed! Ok well, I just wanted to give you guys a quick update. I am really going to try to keep up with my blogging this school year! The first week was just too crazy though! I hope all of you that went back to school last week had great first weeks! :)

PS: HAPPY 26th BIRTHDAY to my bestie Lauren!!! Wish I was in NYC to celebrate with you! :)

First Day of School!

AhhH! It's finally here!! The first day of school is TOMORROW!!! I've got my room set up, my lessons prepared, and my outfit for the first day hung on the door and ready to put on! I feel

like this day has been years in the making and I'm ready to just get on with it! Time to meet the kiddos and get started on a fun and successful first year! I really am not that nervous. I learned a lot during my classroom experience last semester, so I am not stressing. There are a few 2nd and 3rd year teachers that I know that are freaking out more than I am. Anyway, so now.... for the big reveal!! Here are some pictures of my classroom that I spent many dollars and many man hours perfecting!

But first, a few before pictures, so you can see what I had to work with:

I couldn't have done it without lots of help from my mom and Mason's mom who came up to school to help me. Here is Mason's mom helping me construct my word wall:

The finished product, WELCOME to Miss C's 6th Grade Math Class! :)

(Had to have some love for my Longhorns. I have the UT football schedule displayed in my room, each game UT wins they will get a reward...I am brainwashing them ;)

(Our school theme this year is "A League of Champions, Equipped for Exemplary". My champion wall is where I am going to hang classwork and also Benchmark scores, homework challenges, etc..)

And that's it! :) Soo excited to get started! Now I just have to try and get some sleep tonight!! I plan on watching Grease 1 (and maybe also 2). It is a tradition I have, that I started when I was in high school. I always watch them the night before school starts! Ok, well I will check back in soon to tell you all how it went! Wish me luck! :)

Say Hello (to school) and Wave Goodbye (to my life)!

Welcome back to the life of a teacher! This week I headed back to my school for a week of MORE training and to finish up my classroom. I am absolutely exhausted. Going back to school for me means:

* Being abnormally tired most days!

* Less exciting dinners, because I am too lazy to cook anything fun or to plan out a good trip to the grocery store.

* A messy apartment.

* A DVR full of shows that I want to watch, but don't have the time for.

* No more reading for pleasure. It is all I can do to keep up with my US Weekly each week, which I make myself read, because really is life worth living if you don't know what crazy shenanigans Lindsay Lohan has pulled this week??

*And probably a few other things as well, but I can't remember them because back to school means memory loss for me! Too many things to think about and to try and remember!!

Ok, well that was about the best post I could muster up for today! But stay tuned this week for a Birthday Post (my B-day is tomorrow)!!!! Also, pictures of my nearly finished classroom! :)

Snapshot

Our friend's, The Leatherwoods, just posted the professional pictures taken at their wedding that we attended in April. I don't even remember taking this, but it is a new fav... ♥

Meet the Teacher!

Babbling Abby is hosting "Teacher Week" on her blog this week as a way for all the teacher bloggers out there to meet, share ideas, empathize about the end of summer, etc. Each day this week will be a new teacher topic. First up....

10 Things About Me as a Teacher...

1.) I am starting my VERY FIRST year of teaching! I will be working at a middle school that includes grades 6th through 8th and I will be teaching 6th grade math and 1 class of social studies!

2.) I did not major in Education. Instead I chose Business. I graduated. I hated Business. Marketing = Sales (who knew?). I hate sales. I have always loved math though, so I decided I would be a good math teacher!

3.) My dad always told me I should be a teacher because it was a stable career and they would always have a need for math teachers. I told him and anyone else that would listen that I would NEVER be a teacher!

4.) I decided to get my teaching certificate at probably the worst possible time ever - right as the economy went downhill and everyone was scrambling to find better, more stable career paths (i.e. teaching). It took me 1 year and 4 months to find a job, which doesn't seem like long now, but it felt like FOREVER at the time.

5.) I started subbing to get my foot in the door at the district I currently work at. I was given a long term subbing gig from this past Feb. - June and had a wonderful mentor who told the principal at least once every day that he should hire me and he finally did! :)

6.) The first day I ever subbed. I was a substitute for an 8th grade science class at the school that I currently teach at. I thought the school was so ghetto and said I would NEVER sub there again! (Do you see a reoccurring trend in my life?) It is a title one school (a low socio-economic school) that has plenty of students who come from less than perfect circumstances, but I eventually fell in LOVE with my school and LOVE being able to actually make a difference in these kids lives!

7.) My first taste of being a teacher was when I started proctoring the SAT exam to high school students. I loved being in charge in a classroom setting! This is what initially sparked my interest in becoming a teacher!

8.) I like teaching 6th grade, because at some point, once I have worked at my school for two more years, I will know every student on our campus (or at least most of them)!

9.) Our district requires us to get our Masters degree within 10 years of working for our district. They pay for us to do this. I am considering getting my Masters in Counseling.

10.) I would also maybe consider getting my degree in Administration, although I would only want to be an Assistant Principal! Principals have way to much to deal with. My grandfather (my dad's dad) was a principal, so maybe it's in the genes! We'll see...

*I could seriously write like 30 more "about me" teacher things! It's great to finally be in a profession that I just can't stop talking about! One of the best things about teaching, is the other teachers and the community that is created through the common bond of teaching! Get any two teachers together and I guarantee they will chat non-stop about their teacher experiences! Such a cool thing! :)

Only 2 more weeks until the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Be sure and go to Babbling Abby this week to meet other fellow teachers! :)

We've Got the Beat

Hello all! Happy Monday! So today's post is going to be a short and sweet to the point.

So remember when I told you that our upstairs "vampire" neighbors moved out a few weeks ago? Well apparently they wasted no time finding new tenants to sublet their place because we had new upstairs neighbors literally 24 hours later.

Who are these new neighbors? Frat boys. Frat boys who unloaded a keyboard piano out of their moving truck and upstairs. Jokingly we thought, oh great, they will probably be hosting band practice upstairs right above our bedroom. Ha, chuckle chuckle.

Well guess what? The jokes on us. While there is no band practice going on, there is loud music being played at ALL hours of the day and night. And not just any music. Obnoxious, bass thumping music that vibrates through the floorboards! I'm "enjoying" it right now as we speak...

So what's a gal to do in this scenario? Go upstairs, knock on the door and politely tell them to keep their volume to a minimum? Or maybe it's time for Mason and I to start looking at other living environments. One where we do not have upstairs or downstairs neighbors. Our lease is up in December. What would you all do if you found yourselves living amongst noisy neighbors??

Last Day Of Summer!

We have a day off from training, so today is my Last Official Day of Summer!!!! Ahhh! Sad... But I hope to spend today reading, watching tv, napping and laying out! All my fav summer activities! :)

Tonight, we are going to the B.o.B. concert at House of Blues! So excited about that!

Yesterday, I won a door prize at one of my training sessions. Mainly just school supplies, but guess what else was in the bag!?

Smelly markers!!! I LOVE those! And I have never had a set of my own! My childhood dream fulfilled! ;) Mason was really excited about them too! We prob spent about 30 minutes smelling every marker!

Anndddd I told you that I had something exciting to tell you all about that happened last weekend...

On Sunday, Mason and I went to a jewelry store and tried on ENGAGEMENT RINGS!!!! Oh happy day!

We had so much fun! Seriously. Mason was caught saying, "This is fun!". (I know, I couldn't believe my ears!) It was even Mason's suggestion to go look, not mine! We spent 2 hours at the store learning all there is to know about diamonds, settings, bands, etc. I'm so glad we got to go look together because I ended up liking styles that I didn't even know I liked! Anyway, glad Mason has a good idea now of what I want... and now..... we wait! Ha, but hopefully not for TOO long! ;)

Hope you guys have a great weekend and a fun last day of summer if that's the case! :)

Back to School = $$$

Today was my first day of New Teacher Camp! Pretty exciting stuff... ha, not really... I basically just sat in a room with other new 6th grade teachers from our district and discussed curriculum all. day. long. I had to sit through science and reading curriculum instruction too even though I am not going to be teaching either of those. Oh well. I get paid $200 a day to attend teacher training and at 7 days worth we are looking at a cool $1400 added to my Sept paycheck! I also get a $2000 signing bonus because I am teaching Math! Whoever said teachers make no money was oh so mistaken! I am about to be the richest I have ever been... by a LOT (sadly).

And because I am about to come out of my 3.5 years of near poverty, I have been a little loose with the old purse strings lately! I sooo deserve to though, especially after 8 months of being ridiculously frugal during my time spent subbing! Also, it is my birthday month people!! Only 2 more weeks until yours truly turns 26! Anyway, here are some online purchase I made this evening as a little pat on the back to myself for finally getting a job as a teacher:

I am always looking for some cute coverups and I found these on sale @ venus.com! Can't wait to get them in the mail! :)

1 day of training down, 6 more to go! Oh and if you are lucky, I'll let you know tomorrow about something REALLY exciting that happened over the weekend! :) I'll keep you in suspense!

Sweet Treat to Beat the Heat

I have been a busy little bee working on my classroom these past two days! It is really starting to come together and is WAY cute! I mean, if I was a 6th grader I would totally hope to have me as their math teacher! ;) BIG THANKS to my mom and Mason's mom, Kim who helped me with my vision and stapled one million things to the walls! Can't wait to show you guys pictures, but not 'til it's completely finished! :)

The only obstacle we faced... THE HEAT! Guess how hot it was!?!? 108 yesterday and 106 today! WTF! That is insanity! But guess what else!?!? I found a tasty way to beat the heat!

Apparently if you go to a Wendy's restaurant and pay $1 dollar they will give you a frosty key chain thing and anytime you go to Wendy's for the REST of 2010 and buy anything at all off their menu you get a free FROSTY! So like 99 cents will buy you fries and a frosty or nuggets and a frosty or whatever your hearts content.

And don't worry about getting fat. They only give you a junior size one so you won't have to feel guilty! ;)

Frosty's are near and dear to Mason and I. Senior year of college (way before we started dating) we both took Psychology of Human Mating together, random I know.... Anyway, in an attempt to woo me, I suppose, Mason would always bring me a Wendy's Frosty to class and we would eat our tasty treats while ignoring the lecture and working a sudoku puzzle together. Mason sure knows how to win a girl's heart.... vanilla soft serve! ;)