Not too late to blog about it. It's only October 28th, you know...a quarter of the way through the
school year. Probably why I have time to blog now. Because I don't
have grading to do. That, and the fact that I was supposed to be at
jury duty tomorrow so I had to make sure my lessons were 100% planned
for Monday. Then I got a nice little email saying jury duty was
canceled, so now I have to go in to work anyway. Oh well, at least now I
kind of have a free weekend. I was looking forward to sleeping in
though. :( Anyway, here's my room!
I love all the color!
Board for displaying student work, my Word Wall, and calendars
Word Wall
Cute little bags for supplies that Grandma Nobles made for me this summer! I have gotten sooooo many compliments on them, especially from old students who come to visit. ("Miss, why didn't we have these last year??") They have scissors, scissor protectors, glue, index cards, and markers. The only drawback is that the kids are too lazy (incompetent?) to put the caps back on the markers, so almost every bag has stains on the bottom now, but they're still holding up. I haven't tried washing them yet. But maybe this will just be something I have to ask for every year for my birthday. (Shh, don't tell Grandma.) ;)
Calendars and work for when kids are absent
Front of the room, and yes...that is the famous swag bag hanging on the closet door
Best. Poster. Ever. I point to it often.
Other front corner
I changed it to this about 2 weeks ago when another teacher gave me a bookcase, so I have more room for all the binder crates.
Stupid objective that is a waste of time, agenda, homework, and attendance
Awesome poster that I made over the summer in a word document then had blown up
MacArthur bulletin board
My personal space :) Students: noooo touchie.
My "Happy Bulletin Board." I only put stuff on here that makes me smile - no school stuff allowed. And yeah, I decorated it myself. :)
Books and Princess calendar I'm waiting to put up in January.
I bought it because of this GORGEOUS picture of Belle (pshh, as if I needed another reason to buy a Disney Princess calendar)
Magnet Mom bought me :)
Supposed to be inspiration for my students...but all they say is, "Miss, your name used to be QUIGLEY?!" And they can never say it right.
Probably the most important thing on my desk...but my devotionals and continual to-do lists are close seconds
I changed my Word Wall! First time since last year. I'm not kidding, I was really bad at this last year (and this year until now). It's just always that thing that gets put into the "yeah I should do it, but I have more important things to do right now" category.
Outside, door open
Outside, door closed
Best thing I ever made...."Where is Mrs. Hooker?" I made and laminated the arrow, then super-glued a magnet to the back so I can slide it along my metal door frame to let kids know I AM STILL AT SCHOOL I JUST HAD TO PEE (errands), SO DON'T LEAVE. YOU STILL NEED TO RETEST THAT 7% TEST GRADE YOU GOT.
I've re-thought this several times since school started. I'm considering adding a "Here...But don't come in" spot.
For Lee's birthday, we all pitched in to buy him tickets to go see the Dolphins play against the Texans on September 9th. We were both excited to go (it was the first game of the real season), but the Dolphins lost horribly. Sorry, Lee. :( Here are the highlights...
Enter Dolphins.
Enter Texans.
This scared me. When the game started, they showed these bulls running through the streets of Houston crushing Dolphins players. Violent!
This guy's big hairy leg was touching me practically the whole game. He
did NOT understand the concept of personal space. Ick...
He stood up and danced every time the Texans scored a touchdown (except the one time I was trying to capture it, of course). And when he bends over...butt graze on my arm - GROSS!
Despite hairy leg guy and the Dolphins massacre, we still had a good time. :)
~Hooks
P.S. This post is dedicated to Jessica Kelly, who inspired (threatened?) me to keep writing. ;)
Ok, so I should stop making blog promises because I can't seem to keep them, but here's a poem I wrote that should hopefully hold you until the weekend...
School has started and I'm ignoring things again...my blog........that toothpaste stain on the bathroom rug.....
I have scheduled time this Saturday to catch up though. Yes, even finishing my summer vacation posts, which will of course be backdated so I don't look like a total slacker in future years. ;) This weekend?
Friday night volleyball and football games - first of the year!
Saturday - grocery shopping, school work, Verizon to update phones, Math work party, and blogging! (Actually, that list is looking pretty daunting now...)
Sunday - Lee's birthday present: Texans/Dolphins game. Probably doing more school work because I will procrastinate the day before. Maybe more blogging?
We woke up leisurely at my gramma's house and were on the road by 10:30. We had an 8-hour drive ahead of us to Pennsylvania and my little sister. The trip was relatively uneventful, except for a truck we saw with this wacky advice...
Rachel had made us a nice dinner, and we went to a frozen yogurt place called Kiwi. They had 16 flavors available in 8 machines (plus the twist of each machine flavors) and tons of toppings. The different thing about this place is that you serve yourself! You choose a bowl size and fill 'er right up. You're charged by the weight of your yogurt/toppings. Pretty neat idea... We went to the library, rented The Lincoln Lawyer (I had just finished the book), went home, and watched it. Then we went to bed.
June 13-14:
Rachel had 2 days off, but Jake still had to go to work at Wegmans. So of course we had to go see him...and eat lunch there! It was so nice to be back at Wegmans - one of the things we miss most about New York. That night, we went to church and had the pleasure of being in Jake's young adults class. We played Catch Phrase then studied a chapter in James.
I had to get some bloodwork done on Thursday, and the nearest lab my insurance would cover was about 40 minutes away in Altoona, so we made a little day trip of it. We went to Wegmans again (why wouldn't you?), got subs to eat later, and headed out. When we neared our destination, the GPS took us down a dead-end gravel road in the most run-down part of town and told us to turn right.... Uhh, you mean into the river? Or do you think there is some way we can magically fly up onto the bridge 30 feet above us? We finally found our own way to the bridge and then arrived at the wrong location anyway. I took a nervous poop, then we left to find the real lab. When we finally arrived, the technician was out for lunch. Now let me tell you something...I HATE giving blood (hence the nervous poop). I was fine with it in high school, but once I got a little older it started to really bother me. I'm talking nausea, feeling light-headed, fainting - the whole 9 yards. So waiting for the technician to get back only made me more nervous. Jake told me that he would get me a Frosty and Lee said I could buy a new watch if I made it through without fainting. Once the technician was able to take me, she was pretty gruff. Not personable at all, not looking at me when she talked, answering my questions with 1 or 2 word answers, you get the picture. When she moved me to "The Chair" I finally said, "I'm not so good with all this stuff." I told her that the last time I gave blood, they had trouble finding a vein in my arm. She looked at me, must have seen that I was already turning pale, and then started talking her head off trying to keep my focus on something else. She told me that she could take the blood from my hand instead, and it wouldn't hurt any more or less than taking it from my arm. I said ok, and she began, blabbing again about something or other, and asking me what I did for work. Less than 30 seconds later, she said I was done! I didn't even have time for my hearing to become muffled (my go-to first sign that this is going to be a bad experience). I got all bandaged up, and we peaced out of that joint!
Josiah's dream finally realized?
In more ways than one...
We went shopping at the sketchiest second-hand shop I have ever seen (Rachel's pick). There was a guy sitting about 6 feet from the entrance in a lawn chair watching an old tv. The place smelled like cat pee, probably from the litter box sitting right next to the door. I could barely stand the smell, so I didn't even get much past the entrance before I told the other three I would be waiting outside. From what I hear, the guy that owned this place could have been featured on the show Hoarders. I wanted to shower in the worst way after I left. Gross. Then we went to a few normal stores like Gabriel Brothers and Sams Club.
On our way back, there were several sets of rumble strips in the middle of the road. There was no logical reason for them to be there, and they were only in the right lane of the highway. Lee and I had already driven over them on our way in to State College, and we told Rachel and Jake that we thought they were supposed to make some sort of song. They told us we were crazy, but there was a sort of melody when we drove over them! I googled it later and while I didn't find anything on the Altoona highway itself, I did find out that those sort of things exist! Here's a video about Honda's Musical Road...
When we got back to State College, we wrapped Ben's wedding gifts we had got that day. Later, we had a campfire and Jake made us one of his delicacies...squirrel!
Good picture to end on, right? By the way, I never got the promised Frosty or watch... Figures.
