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:)