Shopping

Today, I was suppose to go to a birthday party.  However, my foster sister had another BBQ at her home.  Since there have been several people sick, I went to the BBQ.  I also decided to stop by the teacher's store to pick up a number line.  Well, the store was still out of stock, however, that didn't stop me from spending.  In the end, I spent about $204 on teaching materials.  After the BBQ, I went to the mall to do some "Back-to-School clothes shopping (leaving about $350 poorer).

First Day

Well, First Day has come and gone.  Just a few random thoughts before calling it a day.
On the last day of teacher prep day(the day before the students arrive [about 2:55pm]) a group of (three) student teachers came to my classroom (in the midst of me trying to get my room together).  They came to introduce themselves and let me know that one of them would be working with me.  I was already stressed out trying to get my room ready, not have my lesson plans, so that wasn't good news.  I called my principal to beg out of "the help".  Luckily, she saw the positive of having the extra help.  After the first day, I realize it might be a good idea to have the extra help.

Oh, luckily, my class size has shrunk just a bit.  Now, my register is 27 students.  Yes, it is still a big class, but (for me) 28 is the magic number between large and doable and overcrowded and stress inducing just thinking about the number.  AND, having the student teacher for half the school year will be nice (I think).  I've had college students who had course-work to do.  It has been a toss-up (some are better than others).  This one seems to be very eager.  She was pleasant and professional.  On the first day, she arrived at 7:30am ready to help. 

The first day I was stressed for the usual reasons, but mainly starting the new year with new students.  The day before, I was at the school until about 9PM trying to get the classroom ready.  The first day went very smoothly (even for my lack of preparation).  Due to the holidays that were coming the following day, about 1/3 of my students didn't show up.  Here in NYC, the following two days are holidays, so no school.  When the day finished I wanted to spend one hour for classroom prep work, and one hour for paperwork, but I was soo tired, I didn't really do much of anything of substance.  However with that said, I was very happy that I resisted the old habit of loading up my shopping cart with teaching materials with the promise of spending part of the weekend planning.  This time, I took only a couple of books and materials (just enough to plan for the coming week).  No as of this moment, I haven't touched that bag.  I pretty much slept away yesterday and  today. 

Diet and Exercising
At the moment, the plan is to start on Monday.  My bike is still in the middle of the living room (unused).  I also need to clean my apartment, it is started to get dirty again.  Luckily, not even close to the way it was, but if I don't start with a cleaning routine, it is going to get that bad again.

Infinite Crisis - A Novel

I almost forgot.  I finished reading Infinite Crisis - A Novel.  The book took a long time to get started, but once it did I enjoyed reading it.

Quick Entry

More shopping.  I went to the teacher's store near me.  I needed a classroom number line.  Well, I picked the wrong time to go.  I was expecting the place to be very crowded, but it wasn't.  However, the placed was fairly picked clean.  I made a list of things that I wanted to get, but several of the items were out of stock.  Unfortunately, that didn't stop me from spending money I don't really have.  I ended up spending another $225.  I really need to get a handle on my classroom spending.

Exercise
So now that my exercise bike is up, what's the plan?  Starting tomorrow, or Tuesday, I will return to my (modified) liquid diet until October 31st.  Right now, I'm only looking at short-term.  Anything longer will seem to unrealistic.  Actually, my original plan was to do the liquid diet during this summer, but we know how that turned out.  Well anyway, the thinking is that if I can stick with the diet and (stationary) bike riding for the 8 weeks, I will be motivated to do another 8 weeks.  If I stick with some kind of workout routine until January, I'll join the Y.....yet again.

Finally!!!

I finally put together the exercise bike I bought back on July 16, 2010.  I'm going to try the (modified) liquid diet (along with some exercising on my bike and rowing machine). 

Problem?  My back is bothering me a bit.  This past week along with trying to get my classroom together, one of the APs at my school asked me (and another male teacher) to help another teacher with moving some things.  On Thursday, it was moving 10 ~12 large plastic bins of science materials upstairs to another room.  On Friday, it was helping a new teacher move 75 classroom chairs from the rented U-haul parked across the street to the third floor (no elevator).  The new teacher said that the chairs were given to her if she was willing to move them.  She said her plan was to just use 16 of the chairs and donate the rest to our school.  She must be a new teacher if she thinks she will ever have a class with only 16 students in it.  I didn't say anything, but I was thinking it.  Not to mention the chairs stored....never mind.

Anyway, my back was feeling okay today.  I didn't even pretend that I would do anything.  I slept the day away.  I was feeling okay, but the discomfort returned when I moved the box containing the exercise bike (disassembled) from the hallway to the living room.  I'll have to be careful.  I'm already exhausted with one more "setup day" to go.  This year there is no weekend to buffer the setup days from the first day the students arrive.  On Tuesday, I'm going to have to make sure I don't do any heavy lifting.

Well, I gotta go.  Tomorrow, I will have to return to the teacher's store to make a couple of purchases.  I forgot I threw away my old classroom number line.

Preparation - Day 5

Somehow my blog entries for my preparation days don't seem to add up, but I'm too tired to care.

Today was the last day for unofficial preparation.  And I'm still not done.  This coming Tuesday is the official day teachers have to report to school.  So, this year will be starting like all of the others; I'll be playing catch-up.  The AP at my school informed me (as a group of us were leaving the building) that there will be a 3 hour PD (professional development) on Tuesday.  Therefore, half my day will be gone.  The very next day the students will be arriving.  The following two days school will be closed.  On the one hand I'm happy, but on the other I'll be playing catch-up.  I will try to use the following week to stay afterschool and do the planning that I thought I would have started before the students arrived.  It would have been so cool to to start school with my entire year mapped out.

Preparation - Day 3

This will be short.  Today was more cleaning.  I arrived about 11AM to start cleaning and reorganizing the main storage closet in my classroom.  I was (once again) bothered by the idea of just putting things back, and hopefully getting around to cleaning and organizing at another time.  I know that if I don't do the cleaning and organizing now, it won't get done.  So although I'm somewhat annoyed that those around me are all ready set up, and my room still looks like I arrived yesterday, I'm pleased with myself for cleaning out my closets and cabinets.  I think I've done all the cleaning I need to do.  Tomorrow, I will try to get to my room by 8AM (something I haven't been able to do for the last three days), and do as much setting up as I can.

Preparation - Day 3

More of the same.  Oh, and I received my class list....

if everyone shows up....

I'll have....




32 Students!!!