Back to school blahs

Sunday has finally arrived. I know that I should be happy, grateful, THANKful to have just had a nice, long, relaxing break from school. Still, that doesn't change the fact that it is now the day before I have to go back to school (and have morning duty this week to make getting up even earlier!), and I'm wishing the break was longer.

Before break, we were studying geometry, creating and identifying 2- and 3-dimensional shapes. We made a flip book for logging 3-D shapes and did a little scavenger hunt around the room for examples. ie, a whiteboard eraser is a rectangular prism, a chair leg is a cylinder, etc.

I sent these flip books home with the kids over break and told them that their homework was to cut out pictures from newspapers, magazines, store fliers, whatever that showed examples of 3-D shapes in real life. They were to glue these pictures inside their flip books and then bring them back for display.

It will be very interesting to see how many flip books I get back tomorrow. I have to say, I'm really not expecting much. A lot of my kids have trouble bringing back homework or signed papers from the night before, much less from 10 days before, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if I only get about half of them back, and of those half, several are half-assed.

Oh well, in the meantime, if anyone is interested, I have set up a blog for my bride-to-be and me. It's got a little slide show and that's about it right now, but you might just see a softer side of Mister Teacher.

I hope everyone had a great break, and good luck in getting back to the grind tomorrow!

Things to be Thankful for

Hey everybody, welcome to the first day of Thanksgiving break!!

I know that some schools are still in session through Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, but the Dallas school district for the past few years has combined the Thanksgiving holiday with a couple of staff development days so that if you got your mandatory training done over the summer, you get the whole week off!

So I thought I'd be a little interactive here. I want to know, what are you thankful for this year? Please leave your response in the comment section and/or post to your own site.

Personally, I am thankful for the following things:

• Well of course, the fact that the 10 day break from school and the kids is finally here!! (Can I get a "Whup whup!!")
• A beautiful, loving, wonderfully bubbly fiance
• A new wallpaper picture on my phone of Nutcracker Darth Vader
• Incredible friends and family
• The fact that I've returned to playing volleyball without my back breaking in two
• The 2 most awesome sci-fi schows on TV right now -- Flashforward and Fringe
• Turkey and stuffing
• SOME students in my class that actually listen to what I say and apply it
• Black cherry vodka and Mountain Dew (I call it a "Black Mountain")
• My health and job security

I look forward to seeing what YOU are thankful for this year!!

It's almost break time!

Only one more day till Thanksgiving break!! I don't know about the rest of you, but my plans are to sleep in, take care of a few errands, sleep in, eat lots and lots of turkey, sleep in, eat some more turkey, and sleep in. In that order.

This week's Mr. Teacher column is titled, "da Teacher Code," and it was inspired by my recent bout of entering grades at the end of a 6-weeks period. Check it out, and see if you've ever used any of these codes.

The Carnival of Education is being hosted by I Want to Teach Forever this week, and my article about a 3rd grade forger is featured under the section "Something to make you laugh and cry (besides "A Christmas Story")." Lots of other good articles are there, along with a clever little holiday theme.

We got an email from the head custodian earlier this week that all of the student desks needed to be cleaned out this Friday so that the custodians could move the desks and clean the floors over the break. So obviously we can't take the stuff out of the desks and put it in stacks on the floor, as that would seem to defeat the purpose. One option is to have each kid take all of his folders, textbooks, etc home over break with a gentle request that they bring them back the following week. Yeah, I'm sure that would work.

I guess it's locker time...