more new school

Monday our staff had the privilege to walk through our new school and see the progress. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

The stage in the cafeteria was a big surprise to everyone.
We thought we would have to do a lot of fund raising not
only for our new playground equipment.

This was our other surprise. We knew we were going to
have places to plant but no clue they would be so big.
It was like early Christmas for one of our kindergarten teachers.

My new classroom! The desks look a little funky;
but it's beautiful!

Our Library. Well this is just the front desk. There
were too many people wandering around so this was
the only shot I could get.

Conference room. The chairs look comfy

Principal's office but I doubt he will spend much
time there he is always visible.

Front desk in office

Our staff lounge, yay!

Anniversary

This weekend is my 1 year anniversary of becoming pet parent to Mocha. Even through the struggles of house training, she has brought so much joy into my life. I can hardly wait to get home from school each day because I know she will be waiting at the back door for me.

Saturday, October 24
Today I got this wild idea to trim Mocha's hair myself. I think it actually turned out nice. Of course the rest of the evening she wouldn't come near me unless I had food or treats.
She tolerated me messing with her hair pretty well but was not very cooperative for photography.
It's a good thing I blew off the bath for the evening, because then she really would have been running from me.

New School Progress

We are still on schedule to move to our new school the week of Thanksgiving (we will begin classes there November 30). Here are a few pics of the progress. Despite some of the negativity and pessimistic attitudes I am excited.

Long Time!

Wow! It has been so long since my last post. It was a busy summer and definitely did not slow down when the school year started. In my eight years of teaching this year's first week was the roughest I have had. I think my class finally began settling down about the 6th week of school, but it was short lived (still have some behavior issues to work with).
While all that was going on I also had some medical issues to take care of, but I think I have all that under control. God has definitely given me situations where I have had to learn to fully rely on him.
Praise Him!

Today Mocha and I took another bike ride but she didn't cooperate for the camera. She did like the ride however.

Before take-off, but of course she didn't want to look at the camera (or she was trying to comfortable).

This picture was sooooooo funny. I couldn't get her to look at the camera so I had to turn it around as if I was taking a picture of both of us but I really only got her (thank goodness because I looked awful from being sweaty...ick!)

New Ride!

While I was in Phoenix I got a basket for my bicycle (as suggested by one of the residents in Showlow at the RV park). Mocha was not too sure about it at first but she seemed to enjoy her maiden voyage today (forgot to take pictures sorry). We didn't go far (just down the street to get laundry change at the car wash). I had to put a cover on the basket because her little toenails were getting caught in the holes of the mesh.

Summer Fun

Recently Mocha and I went out of town to Phoenix and Showlow, Arizona. Mocha especially enjoyed the new scents in Showlow. I don't know that she was too thrilled about meeting other critters or people.

Enjoying the cool climate of Showlow

In this picture she discovered princesses bone; it's bigger than her head

Exploring other interesting scents

Yum!

check out this link

I hope this works, because I have never tried submitting a post with a link. Anyway the article about teacher of the month will be in tomorrow's paper.
paloverdevalleytimes.com

Progress and Delays

Yesterday several Appleby staff members were called into meet with our superintendent about the progress about our new school. The good news is the carpet will be installed in a couple weeks and at this time they are in the process of installing the cabinets. The bad news is the school will not be ready for us to begin the new school year in August. They have proposed that we do the complete move Thanksgiving week. In the meantime they will begin moving our portable classrooms so some of us will teach the first trimester in cubby hole classrooms (oh boy). We have been told however that we may have access to our new classrooms at some time during the first trimester and there is a possibilty that we will have new furniture when we do begin using our new school (fingers crossed).

This is the ceiling near the Kindergarten classrooms; with skylight windows

this is what my classroom will look like minus all the construction material etc.

Each classroom facing the playground has a door leading out to the playground; very convenient (I was able to make my request and requested one of the classrooms in this picture and the picture above)

The following pictures are of our cafeteria, very spacious with future promise of a stage. We have local businesses working to raise$$$$.

This is the food service line. Our kitchen was built very large with the future in mind (our district kitchen).

School's Out!

Yesterday was the last day of school. Because summer school is not a go, I will have 2 months to relax and rest. The news of no summer school was bittersweet. I was disappointed that I will not have that extra check but relieved that I have more sanity time. Of course I am beginning my break being sick. I had a sore throat Thursday afternoon but it seemed to be better yesterday. It seems I relapsed last night and now I barely have a voice. It's a good thing I don't need to have a voice for worship at church. I am involved with sound and projection. As long as I don't have a fever I am good to go.
I will probably do a little traveling this summer and try to do a little cleaning around my apartment. I want to get rid of some things in my guest bedroom so I can actually get to the bed. I hope to also develop a workout routine. I have a gym membership but have not been consistently using it (only once since January to be honest). Perhaps the exercise will help the heel pain I have been experiencing.
In the meantime I need to finish packing my classroom. Though there is no guarantee that we will be in our new school in August we still have to box up everything before checking out. I am hoping to be finished by Wednesday. I have some things I will bring home and some I will store at a friend's. What a job!

Teacher of the Month

At a recent Wednesday assembly I was named teacher of the month. I was given flowers from the previous teacher of the month, will have my picture in the local paper with my students and the principal, and get to use a special parking spot through the end of the year and into the next until the next teacher of the month is acknowledged.

A picture like this will be in the local paper sometime next week. I will post a link when it comes up. I also made prints of this picture for each one of my students.

our field trip

This was three weeks ago but now that school is out I have more time to update my blog which is still out of date. Anyway in May we had our annual third grade trip to the Living Desert in Palm Desert, CA. Anyway this student took to this little critter, I was more inclined to look at it and take the picture. I am not a big fan of reptiles (tortoises and turtles are ok), in fact I sent my group into the reptile room with the other chaperone. The kids had a great time, and behaved pretty well but wore me out keeping up with them.

This fox is about a year old

Group photo. Wish I had taken one of the other group from my class.

Another view of the fox cub

This is Linus, I remember seeing Linus last year at their show.

I don't remember the name of this serval. They do a great job training and caring for their animals.

This little guy is pretty cute, but not a good friend for Mocha:)