State of the Classrooms

It's crunch time.  Tomorrow, we have meetings from 8:00-3:30, and our 6th grade open house begins at 4:00.  Students and their families will be in our classrooms, so today was the last day we had to get them in presentable shape.  For the record, I walked out of the building tonight at 9:35, just before heading to Wal-Mart to buy some last-minute supplies.

We had meetings this morning, but we had the afternoon free to work in our classrooms.  At the beginning of our work time, our classrooms looked like this:

Tiffany's Room

Barbara's Room

Taylor's Classroom:

My Classroom:

Remember the non-existent word wall I mentioned yesterday?

Still non-existent.  But rest assured, I stayed at school until 9:30 tonight in attempt to have something on that wall for tomorrow.

I have been way a teensy bit stressed out about the state of my classroom.  It's nowhere near where I want it to be.  Thankfully, I have one co-worker whose room makes me feel good about my progress.

Steph's Classroom:

As of noon today, it had hardly been touched.


We spent much of today's work time doing things like:

Cutting out lamination:

Working on lesson plans:

And posing for pictures:

It was a long, exhausting, busy day, but good progress was made.

Lest any of you are still thinking that Steph is a slacker for having done nothing to her room, I shall show you the condition it was in when I left at 9:30:

As you can see, Steph works quickly.

In closing, a celebration:  Today's 'Person of the Day' award goes to Mrs. Cownie for hanging out and helping all of us out tonight.

(Applause, please)

We owe you big time, Am!

Help Wanted

S/W/F teacher seeks to fill the following short-term, seasonal positions.  Interested applicants should submit a résumé, cover letter, and references, none of which will be read in-depth because of time shortages.  There is no salary and are no medical, dental, vision, or insurance benefits associated with these positions due to budgetary restrictions.  Baked goods and/or other fringe benefits will be discussed upon hire.  I am an equal opportunity employer. 

Creative Wall Director
Ideal applicants should have a creative vision for how to design a large word wall, which must include many colors and readable fonts.  All wall hangings must be straight.  Careless, crooked stapling will result in the loss of this position and all benefits.

Copyroom Assistant
This position involves standing at copy machine and scanning documents to be sent to our district's print center.  Experience working with MFDs is preferred, but not required.  Ideal candidates are detail-oriented, organized, and skilled at fixing paper jams.

Meeting Proxy
This position involves attending all required team, committee, and school-wide meetings and taking legible, detailed notes.  The meeting proxy will actively listen and participate in each meeting and will be responsible for typing and submitting a detailed summary of what happened at each meeting.

Director of Labeling
This position involves typing, laminating, and affixing labels for everything in the classroom.  This person needs to be thorough in examining contents of cupboards and storage totes in order to properly ensure that all supplies can be easily found by reading said labels.  The ideal candidate is also proactive in labeling other things around the classroom that would help the students or the teacher to more efficiently locate whatever is needed.  Job responsibilities also include labeling binders with student names, numbering textbooks, and stamping all books and materials with the school stamp.

Bargain Hunter
This position involves traveling to stores all over town in order to find the best deal on school supplies.  Items include, but are not limited to, kleenex, notebooks, pencils, folders, binders, markers, construction paper, loose leaf paper, and hand sanitizer.  No money will be provided for these purchases, so an interested applicant should be either overly generous with his or her personal pocketbook or resourceful in acquiring these supplies.  This position requires general competency in filling out donation request forms and interpersonal skills for begging store managers for mercy negotiating supply donations.

Curriculum Director
Interested applicants should have previous experience in planning lessons for middle level students.  A Bachelor's Degree in Education is the minimum requirement for this position.  Applicant will plan for the first eight (8) days of school, being sure to include plenty of icebreakers and name games.  Ideal candidate is someone who is familiar with Bloom's taxonomy, is skilled in using a variety of learning modalities, is a good time manager, and a thorough planner.  The curriculum director will collaborate with other staff to make sure all necessary meetings and orientations, pre-assessments, and reviews of expectations are properly scheduled in.  For this eight-day period, the curriculum director will also need to locate or create all necessary formative and summative assessments that correspond with the daily lessons.

The application process for the aforementioned positions is ongoing, and interviews wil begin immediately.  Thank you in advance for your interest in helping this desperate, behind schedule, frazzled teacher.

The Friendly Confines

I just got back from our family vacation to Chicago, Illinois.  I honestly have lost count of how many times I have been to Chicago, but this was my second time going with my family.

For a while, we weren't sure if it was going to happen.  It started out as being a trip with just my brother and I.  Brother has never been to a game at Wrigley Field and wanted to go, so I suggested that we make it a siblings trip.  Over Spring Break, we were talking about it at home, and my parents both said they wanted to go, too.  And so, flights were booked and tickets were purchased.

But then, my mom got hurt.  In the midst of cleaning up after the Superior Tornado, my mother injured herself.  At first, she thought it was just a fractured foot, but it was later revealed that she also blew her knee.  I'm sure that "blew her knee" is not the proper medical term for what happened, but I don't exactly know what the issue is.  "Blew her knee" should give you enough information to know that she is in pain and is physically unable to continue normal levels of activity.  After an initial meeting with a doctor, she was told that Chicago was a no-go.  At the end of a tearful phone call, I assured her that the trip would happen, even if it meant that she would have to swallow her pride and allow us to push her around in a wheelchair the entire time.  She felt a little reassured by that.

After a second opinion with her primary physician and a cortizone shot, she was given the OK to go.  And so we went.

Since this trip was initially about what Brother wanted to do, it shaped up to be largely a trip about all things Chicago Cubs.

Our flight out of Omaha was delayed, so we didn't have as much time the first night as we had initially thought we would.  We went out for a late dinner and spent the rest of the night in our hotel room.

The next morning, the first item on our agenda was a tour of Wrigley Field, otherwise known as "The Friendly Confines."  My mom didn't think she could do all of the walking that the Wrigley tour required, so she and my dad just sat at the McDonald's across the street and had coffee.  Don't feel bad for them - they ended up meeting some people from Ohio who wanted to dicuss Nebraska's future in the Big 10, which is a favorite subject of my dad's.

Waiting for the tour to begin.

Please excuse this interruption:  You'll notice that my hair is either in pigtails or a ponytail in all of the pictures from this trip.  It was rainy in Chicago the whole time we were there.  I don't mind the rain at all, but my hair does not do well when wet.  Thus, the pigtails or ponytail.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

You should know that my brother loves the Chicago Cubs.  He has been talking for months about how excited he was to be going on this trip.  I've been to Wrigley several times before, so this wasn't anything new for me, but I loved getting to watch him experience it for the first time.

Hanging out in the bleacher area

Climbing down for a closer look

Sitting in the press box

Sitting in the Cubs dugout

Acting like he owns the place

During our tour, it started raining, so we got to see the groundskeepers in action.  The field went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

The tour was very informative and very thorough, and I enjoyed it very much.  After the tour, the rain stopped, and we headed to Harry Caray's Tavern for lunch.

Standing with the Harry Caray golden statue

As we waited for our food, Brother wanted to show my parents the pictures he took during our tour.

They tried really hard to act interested.

After lunch, we went to Millennium Park to buy bus tour tickets.  Since my mom was injured, we tried to plan things that involved very little walking.  My family enjoys history, so we thought that going on neighborhood tours would be a fun way to learn about the history of the city.

Our first neighborhood tour was in Southern Chicago in the Hyde Park neighborhood.  We saw:

President Obama's house

Mohammad Ali's house

among many other things.  Our tour guide grew up in this neighborhood, which made the tour seem very authentic.  I wish I had taken more pictures of everything he showed us.

Then, we went on a tour of the Western neighborhoods.

My parents on top of our double-decker trolly

Brother got really sick of me asking to take pictures

In the western part of Chicago, we saw:

Chinatown

Little Italy

Greektown

Chicago is a richly diverse city, and I loved seeing how definitive each part of town is based on its people and their cultures.

My favorite stop on this tour, however, was Harpo Studios, home of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

My family was gracious enough to get off the trolly and let me walk around the Oprah Store.  Of all things to buy, I ended up with an Oprah waterbottle.  Frankly, I didn't need another t-shirt, I couldn't think of any use for Oprah stationary, I didn't want random Oprah decor on my bookshelves, and God knows I won't get good use out of Oprah workout clothes.  A water bottle, however, is something that I use every day.  Also, it was only $6.50, which is a reasonable price for a water bottle.

Anyway, Harpo Studios was our last official stop, but we got to see lots on our way back to Millennium Park, suck as:

The rush for the commuter trains to the suburbs

The set for Transformers 3

We took the train back to our hotel to "freshen up" a bit and then headed to Blue Man Group.  I was not allowed to take pictures during the show, so here are some photos from online of their shows to give you the idea of what an incredible show they put on:

This show was incredible!  I love shows like this, but I was nervous as to whether or not my family would like it.  They ended up loving it and have already started talking about going to see them at the Leid Center when they come to Lincoln.

After the show, on our way out the door, I was asked if I wanted to get a picture with one of the Blue Men...

The answer was yes.  I only wish that the rain wouldn't have ruined my hair, which is the worst part of this picture.  Oh, well.

The next morning, my brother was way nervous about getting to Wrigley on time.  So, for the 1:20 game, my brother and father got on the train at 9:30.  For those of you who don't know Chicago well, it took them approximately 15 minutes to get there by train, which put them there more than three hours early.

Meanwhile, my mom and I did some shopping on State Street and on Michigan Avenue.  I much prefer shopping to standing in line waiting for gates to open.  To each his own, I suppose.

Dad and Brother were the first fans through the gate.  Are you surprised?

Mom and I showed up much later with H&M and Macy's bags in hand.

We had pretty good seats:

And got to see popular musician B.o.B. throw out the ceremonial first pitch

Without giving you the boring play-by-play, I will just tell you that the Cubs won!

And my brother got his wish of getting to sing the "Go, Cubs, Go" song in Wrigley Field.  He even took video footage of it with his camera as he was singing.

I don't even want to think about what kind of mood he would have been in had they lost.  I braced myself for it all day because the Cubs have NOT been doing well lately.  Not at all.  In this series against the Brewers, they lost their first game 18-1.  In baseball, that is an awful spread.  Out of nowhere, they pulled off a 15-3 win, which made Brother very happy.  And in my family, if Brother is happy, everybody is happy.

We ended our night at Navy Pier watching the fireworks show that takes place every Wednesday and Saturday.  I'm not a huge fan of fireworks, but I am a huge fan of getting to watch the sun go down over my most favorite skyline in the world:

All-in-all, a wonderful vacation with my wonderful family.  I am very blessed.