Banana and the bat

Today is little Ruth's Birthday

A week ago my mom and I went to target to pick out the little hot dogs costume.

We decided to pick out two in order to see who choose the cutest one

I picked a bat costume

 The wings would bounce around when she walked

My mom picked a banana costume

I hate to admit it, but I think she may have picked the better costume.

She looked like a yellow smurf walking about the house

Dilemma Silemma

I have a bag of essays sitting in my car right now.

They need to be graded.

Unfortunately, I have zero motivation to open any of their writing folders to grade.

I am partially a little scared as to what I will find in their written papers.

On the other hand, I know that there are a couple that only managed to write a paragraph or two instead of five.

I think I will adopt this method of grading essays...I wonder if anyone will have a problem with this?

Fallish Saturday

//A FALL DAY IN FLORIDA WILL BRING YOU\\

pumpkin festival

farmers market

salvage yard

7:30 bedtime

WARNING: DEBBIE DOWNER AHEAD

Yep, that's right it's 7:30 and I want to go to bed.

What makes it even worse is that today was a duty day;

no students and I am still exhausted!

How sad!!

This whole teaching three different grades in Language Arts is starting to wear on me and it's only the end of quarter 1.

Last year, I taught the 6th grade curriculum to all three grades thinking that I would loop curriculum's for the next two years (7th this year and then 8th next year). Well, I am not exactly sure how this happened, but I somehow talked myself into teaching all three levels this year. 

What was I thinking?!? 

Teaching 6th is not that bad. I am basically repeating what I did last year.

7th is new territory.

8th is mainly writing with some grammar and literature sprinkled in.

What makes it even worse is that I am the type of person that wants to give 120% in the classroom and I am feeling that I have to divide what I use to do in threes. I am going in three different directions at the same time.

Oh and lets add in all the responsibilities of an ESE teacher on my to do list.

Well it's 7:50. I suppose I will now go read and probably be out in five minutes.

Here's to a great start of quarter two

Mocha Coconut Frappuccino Cupcake

My sister made this delicious cupcake a few weeks ago and I knew that these unbelievable delights needed to be re-created.

VARSITY TEACHERS

this treat will be in my classroom to help make grading a little sweeter

Recipe can be found here at How Sweet it is

The smell of toasted coconut is ever so wonderful

Home-made frosting is a first and of course combined with coconut makes it even better

Marie Antoinette could not resist a bite

You must be warned that you cannot consume this treat without some milk

October Birchbox

This month's Birchbox theme is Prep & Finish

Ahava

Rich Cleansing Cream

Befine

Lip Serum

Laura Geller

Spackle Tinted Under Makeup Primer in Bronzer

Orofluido

Beauty Elixir

The Laundress

Delicate Wash

I am pretty jazzed about the Spackle, Be Fine and Ahava

Delicate wash...not so much

Kicking Buckets

First off

I would like to apologize to any "bucket fillers" that might be reading this.

I also have a confession to make

 The first time I heard about this whole "filling the bucket" idea I all of a sudden had the urge to throw up and go kick some buckets over.

Perhaps its the middle school teacher in me, but the filling the bucket just seems a little "fake"

Now do not get me wrong I encourage students to be respectful, show kindness and thought fullness to others around them, but I am not going to all of a sudden praise them for doing something that any human being should do.

The quote by W.B Yeats captures how I feel about bucket filling

//Side Note\\
people are unsure if W.B Yeats actually said this quote

10 on 10: Classroom edition

Well 10 on 10 has invaded the classroom

Today we had our monthly writing prompt...so be prepared to see a lot of writing related photos

//Side Note\\

Trick of the trade pull a camera out and students start writing.

Magic?

While students were writing away I was typing my fingers as fast as I could to complete my progress reports. Fantastic news...I finished them ALL and stuffed them in envelopes...all thanks to my wonderful teacher aide!!

Writing goals to reach on progress reports

Cap Erasers are a must on essay day

8th graders started the day off "write"

I can not wait to see how they perform on FL writes!

Writing portfolios are used to document student's progress as they grow as writers.

I enjoy watching and hearing students reaction as they look back on their past essay.

6th grade fumble

They write where they feel comfortable

Showing off some progress

 7th graders are starting to get the hang of this whole writing thing

Goal

//LINKY\\

Pink on the feet

One of the best things about October is that everything is Pink.

Hip Hip Hooray for Breast Cancer Awareness month!

 I attended a Pink Heals Tour event that raises awareness for breast cancer. This tour features pink fire trucks that have a name of a survivor on each truck. People have signed the fire trucks for those that have been affected by breast cancer.

//Side note\\

I had an unexpected event happen at school that related to breast cancer awareness. 

//That is all I am going to say\\