Sorry for the delay in updates (especially sorry to you Auntie M! :) ) – I have been just a TAD bit busy ;)
It has been an EXAUSTING but GREAT first two weeks!
The first week was lots and lots of “get to know you” stuff, followed by a week of integers!! I had someone take a few picutres of me teaching today in my school t-shirt, which I thought you might enjoy! :)
Kids taking their first math quiz! :)
This kiddo was giving me the run for my money today!
I will put more up soon! :)
Spent some time today in my classroom, planning for the kids first day tomorrow! I can’t believe I’m finally going to be Miss. Buchheit! :) I’ve been wanting to be a teacher since I was old enough to recognize a chalkboard, and it is really exciting that the time has finally come!
Here are a few pictures of the “finished” classroom…. finished for now at least :)
Kiddos nametags and schedules all set up on the desks! :)
U of A diploma and state standards for the first quarter!
Classroom rules!
Daily learning objectives, essential questions, agenda and homework ~ check, check, check check!!!
AND when leaving today, I didn’t even realize you can actually see the fire in the mountains from my school!
On my drive home from work today, the sky looked very hazy! And as I got closer, I saw that there was a big fire in the mountains behind my apartment! It was really really scary looking. The news says that the fire is almost out, though thank goodness! http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10741578&nav=menu613_2_6
This is the view from my middle school, one view it is smoky but if you looked a little further East, you can see the mountains clearly and even some sunshine (the picture on the right)!
Still driving home and still noticing the sky looked hazy!! (Don’t worry, I wasn’t taking these pictures) =) At about this point I noticed that I could smell burning, and told my friend Marisa with whom I was carpooling: “I sure hope that isn’t my car!” Luckily, it wasn’t! :)
And then WOW! It was all of a sudden it was obvious that there was a big fire in the mountains!! It monsooned last night, and as it turns out, lightening from that storm hit the mountains and started the big fire. These pictures don’t even begin to do justice to how big and scary this was! The burning smell was EXTREMELY strong in the car, and I can even smell the burning faintly in my apartment! Yikes!
Here are some clips of the lightening I videoed last night:
Yikes. What a day…. and now it is storming and the news are giving warnings that we have an “extreme” storm coming, and to avoid driving if possible! Time for me to sit out on the patio and watch… but before I do.. here are a couple of pictures from school today! Today was “open-campus,” a day where we invited all future students and parents to come meet the teachers and find their classes. I met a ton of parents and students, and didn’t get much done :) Oh well, it was worth it!
Put up some sports flags under the board :)
Bullying bulletin board!
Still have to do something with that bulletin board by the door!
Matching picture frames… will put pictures of the kids soon!
And more pretty skies after a big monsoon!!!
I spent 6 hours today shopping for and attempting to put together my classroom :) Here is what it now looks like!!
Before……. After…..
Before……. After…..
I don’t have a “before” for the picture on the right, because it was just a blank wall :) Envision the rest of the border and the words “Who needs math?” I am then going to put several mirrors on the board, and students are going to create sheets the first week of school sharing how they used math that week. Then I’ll post them around the mirrors! :)
This will eventually be an anti-bullying bulletin board, it still needs a lot of work! Not sure why the picture on the right is fuzzy :( But you get the idea!
And a few pictures on my drive home! The view on my drive home is AMAZING! I drive down a long hill that overlooks a huge amazing mountain range. Makes me happy :) It is a great way to end a long day!
I went to my classroom again for the first time, seeing it FINISHED, which was SO exciting!!!
I obviously couldn’t leave it like this :) So after some re-arranging….
And some help from my friend Marisa…
It is looking a little bit more like an actual classroom :)
My desk! I don’t know why these pictures are fuzzy :( I’ll take more next week!
Now I just need to learn how to actually use the smart board behind me :)
Front of the school :)
Yay!!!
And here you can see a monsoon coming in on my drive home! I LOVE this time of the year…. we all of a sudden get SMASHED with rain, wind, thunder and lightning. You can see on the left it is raining and black, and on the right it is clear and pretty. So cool.
Now here are some more monsoon/weather pictures from yesterday… the sky was GORGEOUS!:
Then when I looked to the left, it was BLACK out!
Crazy. But just in case you’re wondering “Wow! How does their kitty Peach handle these storms?!” well, she doesn’t mind them at all!
After a talk on her cell phone and some TV watching, she fell right asleep. Such a tough life she leads!
