MAKEOVER MONDAY

[Ramblinrose]

Sadie... You go girl

So happy for you Kathryn that your son is coming home. I wil be visiting my son at the end of the month. Haven't been able to hug him in since Thanksgiving.

Ducky..double yuck. BTW, I was a teacher for more than 20 years and a while back I took the organizing ideas I learned from P&P and incorperated them into my classroom. My teacher's desk became my "sink".

Somewhere I believe I have all my "routines" and such written down. That also includes my proceedures I used in my classroom. I set up a weekly schedule as well. It wasn't until I started doing it that my classroom became truly organized.

The first year of teaching is all about making it through the year...I had the pleasure, and sometimes not, of working with interns and practice teachers. I must have done a good job because the College of Education from my two universities kept sending me new "teachers" to train. I was also asked to mentor "new teachers" within the schools where I taught.

I don't know what your classes are except you said you are teaching math. I taught 6-9th grades...Sped Ed, history, science, writting, reading and how to keep your sanity. If you are interested, I will look for my classroom setup...I taught many teachers "how to work out of the box" and PM them to you.

Got all my reservations for our Sept. trip done. Took a bit longer than I expected but now I can concentrate on some other things I need to do.

Yikes...just looked at the time. I need to eat lunch before I do anything else...

Cya'll later.....

[Twins' Mom]

Home again - signed cks at the temple and talked to secretary, on to body work where hopefully some aches and pains were worked out of me, then went by WF, where I ran into dh picking up a late lunch. He won't be here for supper but I am making salmon for myself. I am trying to get back on track w WW, after such a big socializing/eating weekend.

I think I am going to visit dsis tomorrow - dmom and dbro have expressed an interest in going but I don't think that dmom realizes how far it is....

-clear kitchen counters and clean up
-empty the dishwasher
-call dmom about possibly visiting dsis tomorrow
-start a to-do list for next week - must get dd's room cleaned up for house guests
-take out kitchen garbage

[helia]

Got the groceries bought and put away. Dd16 is at her oboe lesson. I'm at the nearby cafe. Will work on a todo list before we leave and prep for tutoring tomorrow while I'm here.

Your travels sound like fun, Rose! . . . Hehehe! It is difficult to not call you Cowinkie. . .You certainly seem like quite the expert and very organized classroom teacher! Many of my kids' teachers throughout the years have had student teachers and I suppose other sorts of teachers-in-training in their classrooms. As a parent, their presence in the classroom always inspired my confidence in the classroom teacher - except for the one time at the middle? school when the student teacher was proclaimed by my child to be a better teacher than the regular teacher. That was a clear exception, though. . .

[Twins' Mom]

Coming back through with that round done....

-water plants on front porch, dead head geraniums
-clear the kitchen table
-make the bed
-refill meds containers
-start a load of delicates in washer

I am also downloading the update for iPhone.

[Twins' Mom]

And done again. Also folded some laundry around the way and straightened up the MBath.

-turn on the grill
-start potatoes
-water plants in back
-take garbage out to street
-move lawn chairs off of front porch (from watching fireworks down the street on July 4)

[Harmony]

Checking in...

Swept and mopped all the floors around here. Looks way better.
Reconciled a bank statement and dealt with another day's stack of mail.
Rolled the garbage can back to its spot.

Checked progress of several projects on county website. Printed off some pages. Handled a few phone calls.

That's it so far. DH is very late getting home. Wondering what's going on.

[dearduckyducky]

I don't know what your classes are except you said you are teaching math.

I am setting up for my second year of teaching sixth grade math and science. I feel pretty organized for the classroom itself. Though I would always appreciate any advice! For math I am going to be using two new curriculums that I have to mesh together plus my usual math workshop that I do once a week. For science, I am given pre done kits to use. I also supplement with a few units of my own. I'm rethinking my Rube Goldberg unit for the first unit of the year. I really enjoyed it last year, but I want to make it more of a learning unit and less of a fun science activity.

TADA!
more cleaning done in the basement
two more loads of laundry processed through
DS13 to a friend's
dinner in the oven
"planned" for next school year for a bit (ok, I read teacher forums. That can be planning though, right??)

Next up….
work on math planning for a bit

[lucylee]

Hello, everybody!!! I feel like I have returned from the dead. * whew * I am still hacking and coughing, and I only slept two hours last night, b/c this steroid shot has me bouncing out of my skin... but it's a good thing. I took a two hour nap yesterday after I got back from the doctor and since then... my ta-da's look like this:
Last night
* watered plants
* s/s kitchen, washed dishes
* laid out vitamins for the week
* went out to eat w/dh
* went to Wmart
* watched movie w/dh (his Father's Day gift, a Will Rogers movie -- Judge Priest, circa 1935?)
* bedtime routine (for the first time since middle of last week)
-- make-up off
-- brushed/flossed teeth
-- meds
-- Bible reading
-- laid out clothes for today
-- checked cards for today
Today so far
After playing on my phone all night long and playing mind games to try to go to sleep and having complete soundtracks of songs running through my head...
* s2s
* visited new donut shop in town which closes at noon, so you know I'm not going to get there very often
* changed oil and rotated tires (well, not physically, myself, of course -- the shot isn't THAT strong)
* went to post office
* picked up lunch for self and dgs (we shared a pizza & donuts)
* played w/dgs
* washed and hung to dry 3 loads of clothes (dgs seemed very happy to help me put clothes in dryer)
* called allergy doctor for refill of shots
* called state troopers office & paid speeding ticket via credit card
* called daunt and talked an hour (this is not the mother of the cousin who passed away, but my uncle's -- ddad's brother's --wife, whom I also had not talked to since the funeral)
-- found out other daunt is in FL w/her two sons and their families, and yes, other dcousin DID expect me to be invited to 4th of July, said her mom was taking care of telling my mom & me, so it is very understandable that I never really got a clear message on that... AND found out that daunt has a hard time managing her voice mail system and other daunt can't explain it to her, so that is why she misses so many calls
* talked to dbil twice re: sale of dmil's truck & van, etc.
* called dmom but she did not answer

So glad Kathryn & RR are getting to see their boys soon! I can't imagine ds being so far away from me. I know y'all have missed them!

So Ducky is a teacher, too? I had forgotten that. (Ducky -- in case you don't remember me, I just retired in May of 2012, after teaching 9th grade English 30 years.)
RR included teaching

how to keep your sanity

You know, at the funeral dinner, my dcousin's husband was kinda teasing me & his son, telling me that his ds & the son's gf both said I was their favorite teacher, partly b/c it was easy to get me off the subject. I've heard that criticism before, and I don't deny it at all... but I kinda feel like some of the lessons when we were "off" the subject were maybe more important than the ones that were in the textbook, you know what I mean? Dcousins children maybe didn't need those lessons b/c they had good parenting at home... but sometimes I just sorta felt "called" to share some life lessons in the midst of all that grammar and literature, and I think -- I certainly hope -- some of them were listening!
BTW -- are y'all doing Common Core? It just started here after I retired, but it certainly seems to be requiring a lot of workshop time, etc. from my teacher friends. I'm not convinced it's all it's cracked up to be, but y'all know... if there's one thing I hate, it's change...

Harriet, I definitely agree that

"To teach children to clean, you must clean WITH them."

and that was one of my biggest mistakes w/ds. Now he nor ddil apparently have much inclination to clean... but I keep reminding myself... NOT MY CIRCUS...

OH. MY. GOODNESS. (((Ducky))) I just saw who the "child" is who is NOT cleaning at your house... Oh. My. Goodness. And I thought I had bil problems... Oh. My. I imagine irritating is putting it extremely mildly.

Can't cuop properly... too far behind and dgs is protesting the pack-n-play... must shift gears around here. BBL, maybe!

[Sadie]

Checking In

Been keeping up with the laundry twins and cleaning. Got the kitchen and the entry way swept and mopped. It's been awhile since it was swept and mopped so well, it was not a priority for the guys.

Sat down to take a break and read for just awhile and Dsister-inlaw called. It was at the perfect time. She is expecting a severe thunderstorm and wanted to talk with me before it hit. Was able to share the news about Dson-18's procedure.

Am cooking dinner now. DH and Dsons are helping a friend move, said they would be gone for about an hour. Many hands makes it go faster.

[Ramblinrose]

Working on my genealogy and need to take a break.

Trying to take pictures of pictures...best shots show up on my phone, but I cant tell what will happen when I try to print them. Will process both iphone and camera shots and then compare before I spend more time making myself crazy trying to do this. May just slip the originals out of the album and carry them with me.

Clouds are closing in and beginning to bunch up which makes me believe a storm is on the way.

Thanks for the compliment Helia...sometimes teachers get student teachers that we know should never be in the classroom...those are the toughies to handle. P&P truly made a huge difference for me with my classroom organization skills. I ended up color coding each class...I am very visual...and other teachers began to notice a huge difference in my classroom...ie no more piles of stuff. That's how I got started helping other teachers. At one point there was actually a site like we have here in the village that was specifically for teachers using P&P. Don't know if it exsits any more.

At one point I had to put a sign on my door letting my friends/teachers know I was working and didn't want to be disturbed. I talked to them ahead of time so they didn't think I was being snobby...but I am so ADD that I need my time to be uninterupted so I could focus on my work. Other teachers picked that up and we all had avatars for lack of a better word to hand on our doors letting others know what we were doing. Its really easy to become side-tracked in a teaching environment....just ask Lucylee, believe me she knows

Hey Ducky...just saw your post. Didn't realize this was your second year of teaching. Yep you're well on your way ...

Lucylee...I know about being sidetrack while teaching a lesson, but you're absolutely right...my students said the same thing about me. I don't know how to teach without life lessons. If you ask any of my kids they will tell you three things about me....Never lie to me, never steal from me, and don't bother me when I have a headache.