Getting there...

Well, after a week of preparation at school, I can say I'm just about ready for the kids' arrival on Monday.

I say just about, because yesterday at 5:30, when I had to force myself to leave, I know that I still had a few things I wanted to move around. I figure I can do that on Monday after school, though.

The important things are in place. Desks are arranged the way they should be. Textbooks are inside desks. Accountable talk stems, math strategies, spelling words, etc are visible on the boards. Pencils are sharpened and in the cup. Air conditioning is... well, non-existent as of yesterday. But since my SCHOOL has A/C, my room apparently takes a back seat in the district's mind to all of the other schools that are entirely without.

I can sympathize with them. I mean, after all, they've only had 2 months and change to fix these cooling problems. Hopefully, they'll get around to me by Christmas break. Also, it's nice to see DISD not waiting till the last minute to make improvements to my school. There was a whole crew of guys painting the hallways this week, and I for one am certainly glad that they did not wait until NEXT Monday to start. Because setting up an 83 degree classroom swimming with paint fumes is one thing, but having to TEACH in an 83 degree classroom swimming with paint fumes AND students would have been horrible.

Thursday night, we had a Meet the Teacher night, and so I got to meet a few of my charges. I didn't meet anyone that seems like a holy terror, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Now I just need to type up my lesson plans, think through a few procedural things, and get a good night's sleep tomorrow!

It's SHOWTIME!!

a swing around the web

Now that I'm back from all of my world travelling (Disney World, anyway), and school is about to start back up -- shockingly soon for some folks -- I figured I better get back into the swing of blogging on a more regular basis. Not once per week, and guest bloggers at that!

So I took a look around at some other bloggers to see what they were doing.

Carol over at My Bellringers has jump started up the old Carnival of Education. This is something that really hooked me into the "edusphere" when I first started blogging -- I even hosted a couple (this one was my fave) -- and it's a shame it's gone away. But it's super fantastic that Carol has revived it!

Happy Chyck is (morosely) realizing how soon the new year will be upon us...

Joel at SYWTT is gearing up for the new year as well, with this great guest post and THIS great guest post!

As for me, I'm busting out my copy of The Cornerstone and brushing up!