Tuesday!

1. I am really looking forward to Friday night. I can't wait to sleep all night long and not get up until it is light outside.

2. I have a renewed man-cruch on Neil Patrick Harris. Have you watched How I Met Your Mother?

3. My song line for life right now is from Sara Bareilles "Many the Miles"
       "I made up my mind as a young girl, I've been given this one life, I won't worry it away"

4. This is new tv week! So... I am very excited to waste some time watching stuff I don't have time for.

5. I am very happy with the way my classroom is going this year. I have few big behavior issues and if I do have them, I don't let it bother me at all. It is other stuff like lesson plans that stress me out. But I actually have time to do extra stuff with my class because for the most part they stay on task.

Constitution Day

Yesterday at school we had a lady from the Grimes County something come and read a book about the Constitution to our fifth grade. I was busy taking care of two behavior issues and the yearbook guy who came to talk to me that I wasn't paying attention all that much.

When I finally got settled, she was asking kids to name some people who helped write the Constitution.

Some kids raised their hands and shouted names.

"George Washington!" Yes he was.

And then two students said "John Adams and Thomas Jefferson"

And she said Yes.

Um... Not they were not. They were both aboard as ministers in Great Britain and France.

It isn't a huge mistake, but I think that you should always tell kids the truth. I try to never say anything untrue and if I don't know for sure, I say, "I'll look that up for you." But we all just assume that they were part of the delegation that helped write the Constitution and because we assume, that lie of history gets passed down.

They did sign the Declaration of Independence, but we weren't talking about that.

I've survived

I have made it through my first three days of school! Little celebration there. Only two days left of the week.

Everything is going better than last year. I feel better than last year. I am less frustrated and less effected by misbehavior. So I am leaving school happier. Happy Randi=Happy Randi. I just repeat my instructions and expectations, use my rain stick and move on. I did pull out a seating chart for one of my classes today, and that helped tremendously. Tomorrow we get to practice walking in the hallway and coming back into the classroom without talking. Yeah for the first week of school!

My feet do hurt. They are basically killing me at the end of the day. Because I am such an awesome teacher, I never sit while students are in the classroom. I am always walking around. So, my feet have to get used to being used again.

And I have been so busy. I am not getting a lot of stuff done at school because I want to try to leave at a decent hour. I refuse to stay up there too long after school. I need a mental break from the building.

But I have decided that this year will be a good year. And I am going to at least make it to the end of September before I break down and cry.

The New School Year

Welcome to my classroom! It is finally mostly done. There are only a few things to touch up. I think it is better than last year and I love it. 

Tonight was Meet the Teacher night and most of the kids commented that they liked my room, which makes me happy. I think it feels open and inviting. 

This is my absent wall. I have a student job to maintain these folder.

Shot from the front of my classroom. I am trying groups this year. I am hoping that I have a group of kids that it works with. Notice the ceiling. I made tissue flowers which are hanging everywhere. Those are my favorite.

Shot from the size of my classroom.

My permanent word wall. This is another favorite.

My current word wall where all the words will start.

Thank you to Mom and Sammie and Jannette for helping me with lots of stuff. Only 3 days to the first day of school!

Ouch

1. I banged my head really hard on something today. I literally have a bump. And it hurts.

2. Today was my first day back at work. We had inservice and I have 6 more days to get my classroom ready until students come.

3. I have read 3 zombie books this summer. And working on a fourth. They are pretty fascinating. I had a student ask me last year if I thought I would survive a zombie attack. I thought, "Zombie's aren't cool." Well, they are pretty interesting. I think they are my favorite supernatural creature. And Chris and I started watching The Walking Dead, which I love.

4. My classroom is going to be so awesome this year, decoration wise. I will take pictures when it is done. I am counting on a few people (Charleah, Sammie, and Jannette) to come help me decorate. Not all of those people may know they are helping yet. 

5. Refrigerator 

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

I am not really sure how to categorize this book. I guess it is realistic fiction although I don't think it would ever really happen.

Chris saw this book in the featured book section at the library and said it looked like a book I would read. I went back a few weeks later to get it and wasn't sure at all what to expect. I didn't even read the book cover.

Marylou is 77 years old and and in the fifties was given a radioactive cocktail while she was pregnant as part of a study. The cocktail was eventually blamed for the death of her daughter years later. Now it is 50 years later and Marylou is seeking revenge so she tracks down the doctor in charge of the study and moves into his neighborhood with the intent to kill him. But it doesn't exactly go as planned. The doctor now has a form of dementia and she wants he to know why she is killing him.

Each chapter is devoted to a different member of the doctor's family. I didn't quite expect that. But I ended up liking it. The family seemed like a typical family that looks perfect from the outside but had some big issues.

Adult topics are covered. Not RS book club recommended.

Montpelier

The morning we visited Monticello we also visited James Madison's house Montpelier which is in Virginia. Because it has really only looked like this for three years, it is very sparse inside. They are still looking for some of Madison's furniture or similar things to fill the house with. And you can imagine that those things would be expensive. 

I find it interesting that Monticello actually has some art that was originally James Madison's while Montpelier actually has the copies. I think they should probably give those back, but I guess Monticello wouldn't like to lose it.

After Madison died, his stepson basically lost the house. It was went through a few hand before ending up in the DuPont family. They had several additions to the house and added some pink stucco. When the last DuPont died in 1983, she gave it to National Trust for Historic Preservation. The must have toured it like this for while before they decided they could take the stucco off and took off the additions. 

It almost doesn't look like the same house. I would love to go back in a few years to see what they have added. 

John Adams

This was my first installment of presidential biographies. I decided not to do them in order because 1) I was already reading this book when I made the decision 2) I don't want to be constrained by something as silly as chronology.

I don't have a very high opinion of politicians. I think most of them are liars and fakes. I tired to believe that there can be good politicians, but I don't feel like I have met one yet. (My sample size is very small.)

But I like John Adams. Maybe because during his time he wasn't so much a politician as he was a diplomat. But from what other people wrote about him, I don't get the feeling that he was fake. There were several people who wrote about his flaws, but praise him for his convictions and patriotism. They were aware he wasn't perfect and so was he.

As someone who has trouble reading non-fiction books, I thought this book was well-written. It was able to hold my attention and almost read like a story. I could have done with a more condensed biography of John Adams, but David McCullough is a good author.

I loved the letters between John and Abigail Adams. They spent so much apart and wrote hundreds of letters. He is also one of the Founding Fathers who never owned slaves. The only time John and Abigail had a slave working in their house was when Thomas Jefferson's daughter came to stay with them awhile and brought her own slave.

I marked two of my favorite quotes by John Adams.

Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it; others will not... Integrity should be preserved in all events, as essential to his happiness, though every stage of his existence... My advice to my children is to maintain an independent character.

And when he was praised for the accomplisments of his son John Quincy Adams, who was also elected president, he said, "My son had a mother!"

Get Down On Tuesday

1. I am half way finished with summer school. With the students I was blessed with the last 6 days, I don't think I want to teach summer school next year.

2. I got told I looked like I was pregnant yesterday by a student. (Why wouldn't I want to teach summer school?) Needless to say, I made sure I worked out last night.

3. I don't look pregnant. I went to the bathroom and checked. I think he was just being rude. But I did let him know that he would need to learn how to charm women if he ever wanted a girlfriend.

4. I am going to read the biographies of the presidents. I already finished one, John Adams. It was 650 pages long. I told myself I would try to get shorter ones in the future. So I got FDR which is 630 pages.

5. I am going to groom one of our children (son or daughter) to be President of the United States. You can blame a combination of visiting DC, reading the John Adams biography, and re-watching The West Wing for that.

Rain Rain

One of my favorite things about Texas is the summer thunderstorms. For those living in Texas, you know that we haven't had those in a while. Well, one here and there. But not enough to make me happy. Or anyone else. 

This drought has taken its toll on some stuff. 

This is the pond in Chris's parent's backyard. From the picture you can't really tell, but it is probably about 10 feet deep. 

I saw this pond early this week. It has dried up so much that the fish don't have enough room to swim. Can you see the dead fish floating?

While I don't think this drought is very cool, I do find it interesting. And it is something I can use when we talk about ecosystems in science this year. For that I am excited to draw on something the kids have experience with.

There is supposed to be a rain in about a week. But I think the weather people just say that to make people feel better. It always gets pushed back.