Day 246 of 365: Hellooooo trailer park life :(

So here's where I will be spending next school year. Quite sad and drab compared to my old room. :( I might have to work on that when I set up class for next year!! Oh, and all those boxes in the photo? They belong to the teacher who was there before me. She left them for the custodian to move for her (I did all my own moving, since they have enough to do!) My stuff is all safely inside the closets.

Oh, and remember my fabulous "wall o' windows"? Here's my new tiny window view. It looks out to the dumpster behind the cafeteria. :(

Day 245 of 365: Bye bye my beautiful classroom inside :(

So, I'm 98% packed and moved to the new room/trailer. I'm going to miss my butterfly bushes in the fall and the general beautiful window view with sunshine coming in to the room in the morning! I've been assured that I am really going to prefer being in the trailer. We shall see....

Day 240 of 365: So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good bye!

Today was the last day of school for the year! Wooooo! We have a yearly tradition where all the teachers follow the students out to the buses and wave as they drive away. The kids wave back from inside the bus (shouting bye to their teachers out the bus windows as they wait!) and the bus drivers all honk the horns as they drive away! It might seem a little corny, but I think it's really nice! I mean, yeah, I'm also thinking "byyyyyyyyye! woohoo!" but it's sweet. If I were a student I'd be touched!

Day 233 of 365: Olympics part 2

Today was the 8th grade's turn to have Olympics. So, during the time I'd normally have them in class, I had to go to the gym to watch them instead. It was fun. Here, they're playing a game called Pin Guard. They are in teams of like 15 to start and they have to guard the golden pin from being hit by the other team. Both teams are throwing rubber balls at each other dodge ball style. Any player that gets hit by a ball is out. Obviously the objective is to hit the pin first and/or get rid of as many of their players as possible since then the pin would be left open to be hit!

Day 231 of 365: Let's go GREECE!

This is a panoramic shot of the 7th grade students all decked out in their Olympics shirts! We do field days each year by grade level. Each grade is divided into countries who then also compete against each other. This year the teams are (from left to right) Greece in blue, Sweden in yellow, Japan in red and Brazil in green.

At one point during the basketball games, Greece started cheering for Japan because they were in 3rd place and the students thought they could use it! How sportsmanlike, right?? :)

Day 219 of 365: Free time

Normally I'd have a classroom full of eighth graders at this time, but they were gone to Six Flags for the annual "science and math" field trip. I put that in quotations, because I suspect they do very little actual science or math at the park. Oh well. I was happy to have a little down time on a Friday afternoon.

Day 213 of 365: Tiles

This is a small selection of the tiles that line a semi circle brick wall outside behind the flag pole. They were made by students of the school I work at. I *think* they were made the year the school opened, but I'm not sure. There are quite a variety of tiles and I think it's cool to see what touches the kids and how they see the school! Notice the smiley face in the top left! At least this one doesn't look creepy! Haha!

Day 210 of 365: Contracts

So it's official. I'm legally bound to return to school next year. On one hand, I'm grateful that I've not had to worry about having a job (there are many teachers losing their jobs, contrary to the popular misconception that teachers are secure). However, this officially means that my original plan of moving over to London this year is not going to happen (unless I choose to break my contract and probably burn some bridges in the process). I know that I've just got to have patience! It will all happen exactly how and WHEN it should. But I'm very impatient and am ready for it to happen YESTERDAY!

Day 205 of 365: I see YOU!

This creepy, winking smiley seems to be saying "I see you little girl. Come get in my creepy van and have some candy!" In reality, it's on a camping style chair set in the rotunda of school to encourage the students to do their "best on the test" during CRCTs (state mandated standardized tests). In fact, there are smileys all over the school- hanging signs on each hallway, stuffed smileys and smiley rugs in the hall ways, and best of all- every teacher and staff member is wearing yellow shirts with smileys and "Do your best on the test" in huge letters on the front. Yippee!

Day 191 of 365: You say it's your birthday!

This is a close up of my door at school. The students wrapped my door as a "surprise" for my birthday (they've been telling me they would do it for weeks now! lol) Can you see the mini Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower stickers? There were also Mona Lisa and French flags and stuff. It was very sweet!!

Day 189 of 365: Electric Slide

We had a lunch time Lighthouse schools (sort of like School of Excellence) celebration for the students, where they got an extra 30 minutes at lunch to go into the gym where there was a mini dance going on, DJ and all! Well, the DJ decided to do a dance off between the teachers vs. the students. The song? Electric slide! The teachers got up on stage (not me of course!!) and immediately had the kids beat! The students were tripping over their feet while the teachers were instantly in sync showing off their dance moves! It was a nice treat for everyone, I think. The teachers were definitely getting down!

Day 187 of 365: Snow, Snow, Everywhere Snow!

Yep, this is really from today, here in Georgia!! I didn't go to Canada or anything!! These are the trees behind the parking lot here at my apartment complex. The snow was coming down very heavy and in huge flakes. There was even some "thunder snow"- basically I saw a flash of lightening and heard a bunch of thunder! It was cool considering you don't normally hear thunder while it's snowing.

The snow mainly was sticking on the grassy areas and not on the pavement. However, since it is very wet with lots of puddles all around, and it's supposed to drop down into the 20s, we're hoping it will freeze on the roads and we won't have school tomorrow! I think this is our last chance!! Cross your fingers! :)

Day 183 of 365: Half way!

This is where I spent 2 hours of my afternoon on a so-called "early release" day from school. Basically all it means is we have several classes as normal, kids get to go home early (when it still feels like we had a whole school day!), then we teachers get forced to sit through 4+ hours of meetings. At one point I thought I might scream out loud. I felt about how that tree looks in the photo. We've got one more of these days this year!! Thank goodness.

On another note, I just would like to point out that I've officially reached and surpassed the halfway mark in my 365 blog! Some days were definitely better than others, but I am happy that I haven't given up on this blog. Hopefully, there are many more random photographic snapshots of my life to come! Maybe some will even be interesting! ;)

Day 182 of 365: Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Just a small sampling of the authentic Mardi Gras beads I've got hanging around. My friend Tiffanie gave them to me last year after Mardi Gras. They lived in my car trunk until about a week ago when I finally dragged them inside my classroom. We made masks to celebrate in class, today, and I threw out beads to the kids who had their finished masks at the end of class! They seemed to enjoy it and so did I! Maybe next year I will apply to work on a float throwing out beads. Heh. Oh, and what shall I name the little dragon I found hidden in amongst all the beads? Isn't he cute??

Day 181 of 365: $%^@&#!!!

Yet another interruption to my classes!!!! Grrrf. I just found out today that I have to give some math competition test in my class tomorrow (once during second and once during eighth period). Not only that, but I have to grade them and organize them by highest to lowest score! Tell me why I'm doing this in my French class again? I am working on a plan to randomly take various French students out of their math classes over a series of days for no reason. Bwahahaha!

Day 177 of 365: Be mine

This is a close up of some of the decorations in the faculty mail room at school. The guys always decorate and bring in a special brunch for the ladies at work on Valentine's day. There's even a made to order pancake station run by the male assistant principal. He even special delivered with my pancake! Very fun! In return, the ladies always treat the guys on St. Patrick's Day.

These flowers were way up above the cabinets on the side wall. I didn't even notice them until today! What a special detail! In addition, famous quotes about love were posted all over the walls and doors. I am attempting to read them all. :)

Day 176 of 365: Oh baby baby (push it!)

This is my friend Ashley. We gave her a baby shower at work today. It's her first (a boy!) and she is so excited! It's been great fun watching her go through this. I have to admit that I'm jealous- she's doesn't have to come back to work next year. I'm still working on my plan for being a stay at home mom without the kids! Heh.

Day 147 of 365: Inauguration Day

No matter what your politics are, it is always interesting to watch the presidential inauguration. Obviously, this one is a lot more significant than any in recent years for many reasons. We were allowed to watch the ceremonies in class today with our students (they even adjusted the class schedules for it!!) I have to say, I am quite surprised at how quiet and attentive a class of 33 thirteen year olds was!! They listened completely to the swearing in of the vice president and president and to the inaugural speech. Obama must be quite a powerful speaker to catch the undivided attention of 33 kids for nearly 20 minutes!!!!

Day 132 of 365: Calm before the storm

In less than 24 hours, these desks will once again be filled with students, eager to start a new semester of inspired French learning! Haha. That almost sounds convincing, doesn't it. ;) I will say that I am grateful for the school board's wise decision to give us a Monday work day (instead of Friday like the past few years!!) It makes the transition back much easier for us teachers. Only 90 more, right??

Day 97 of 365: SNOW!!!

I know this photo looks out of focus, but really, it's just focused on the snow flakes! It was falling hard and fast at this point. It's hard to capture snow on a camera, though. Well, this lasted about 2 hours this afternoon. The students were transfixed looking out my big classroom window! It was hard to keep their attention, but luckily it stopped by last period. Fun while it lasted, however!