OMG how could I forget???

At our meeting today, we found out that our school met AYP!!!! We met with 100% test takers. We met in reading and we also met in Math!!! This was a huge undertaking, but we met in all of our 9 subgroups!!! We had been on "the list" of schools not meeting AYP, on year 4 of corrective action. Year 5 brings restructuring, so since we met this year, we don't move on to year 5. If we meet next year, or with this year's test..we come off the list all together!

Believe me...this was a schoolwide undertaking and a huge accomplishment. I need to tell all my Road Runner friends...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the grindstone

Today it was back to the grindstone. Yep, today teachers had to report and students come tomorrow. First for one hour, then more meetings. Wednesday it is the full day and then from now on. Thank goodness for Labor Day! I'm sure I'll need it after this week.

This is where I teach. Roosevelt Elementary in Cicero. We are a very high minority school, and district. There is not any school in the state with such a high Hispanic population than our district.



I have to say though, for as many looks as I get when I tell people what town I work in, these are just kids. Many tear your heart out with some of their stories, but all in all, they're just kids. Many people don't understand that. They are usually the ones who have some prejudice and can't look past nationality. I really enjoy working here. I don't think there is any other district in my local vicinity where I would be getting a free Master's degree and for each year, ending with my fifth year, one of my student loans is forgiven. I receive a specific percentage each year, but I only have 2 years left. If I had not worked in this district, I would have never been asked to be on the Oprah Show when they did Oprah's Favorite Things for teachers.

After asking myself for years, "what do I want to do when I grow up?" I finally figured it out. It's amazing how much you can do and how things come to you when figure out God's plan for you. I have always felt like it took a while to find my calling, but now I'm there.

I guess reflecting on how much I've gotten from teaching, it's really hard to consider it "the grindstone".

Wednesday already??

Wow this last week of vacation is flying by. I guess I've put off way too many things and now I'm trying to cram them all into this week. All of that and the regularly scheduled stuff for this week too.

Ok, today I went to school, took Brian, to take some stuff in and started working on reorganizing my classroom. I am no where close to being done either.
I went to pick up my new glasses. I don't know that I'm happy with them, but thankfully Lenscrafters has a 30 day guarantee. I got transitional lenses, but I my old glasses were as thin as they could be and had an anti-reflective coating on them.



I'm working on my portfolio again. I also need to write out some postcards for my new students and also would like to work on a new scrapbook page.

So I'm going to finish eating my General Tso chicken with shrimp fried rice and try to get my stuff done. I guess I should consider laundry and watering the flowers outside, but they were calling for rain.

Ok, I admit I have a bit of a shoe obsession

But I'm not Amelda Marcos or anything. I just like to find some really cool and comfortable shoes and go with it. I'm certainly picky in heel height, color, style. You know like almost any girl is. Well in Vegas we went to the outlet mall. I walked into the Clark store and started looking. I've never worn Clark's before. I do think that my grandmother used to wear Clark's. She always wore clogs or mules. Well I was strolling through the 8.5's and I found a pair but they were too big. Wow these must either run large or true to size and others don't. I found a pair sitting on the endcap and thought those look cool. Well I swear they were made just for me. They fit like a glove. Like I stuck in my foot and they melted right onto my foot. Well melted is a good word, it was Vegas after all and it was about 105 degrees.

Well anyway I bought 2 pair, but this pair I would consider getting in another color. I've had so many looks and comments. I actually have a pair of pants that almost match them perfectally and I had a shirt that I had bought and never wore that looked super with the pants too. That was my outfit today!

Ok, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. The brand of my shoes is Privo. They write it like this Pr!vo.



Anyway I just got to say I LOVE these shoes!!!!

Vegas was Good!

We are home from Vegas, yes I know I didn't blog that we were going to Vegas, sorry, sometimes things get a bit hectic and the blog gets put on the bottom of the list.
We stayed at the New York New York. We had air conditioning problems and had the maintance man up and after it started blowing warm air, we called and told them move us and upgrade us too! We had a bigger room, so nice too.

We did not see any shows because I the ones the boys could see were very, VERY expensive and the one Don wanted to see was 18 and older. I just didn't think it was fair for us to see a show and leave them to fend for themselves. I felt we did that enough when we went to the casinos and they went to the arcade, pool, roller coaster, The Palms to get autographs of the tattoo artists on tv show Inked. That made them happy. I know they didn't get to see the Dizzle, the one person they really wanted to, but one guy was nice enough to come out and give them an autograph.

We walked and walked and walk several different days. We made it into almost every big casino on the strip. We didn't make it into the Aladdin. We didn't head much further north on the strip beyond the Wynn. That place is amazing. My favorites where I'd love to stay again are Mandalay Bay, Mirage or the Wynn. They all had lush plants, and seemed so relaxing not hyped up like some of the others. The New York was non-stop action, flashing lights and lots of walking around all the time.

We went to Hoover Dam. That is so remarkable. It was HOT! Hotter than almost any heat I'd ever expereinced. It was amazing to think there were men with belts hanging from ropes and had a few tools and a helmet and that was their equipment to work on building this. We rubbed the toes of the winged men, but I think it took my luck away. I was winning before we went and losing after. Don on the other hand, he turned into the big winner.

So were home. Don got an email from one of the casinos offering a deal with our member points and asked, "Can you take a couple days off in October?" Ummmm No not if we want to go on the 10 day Carribbean cruise over winter break. Not book but believe me, I'll keep ontop of that one.

So now that we're home, I have laundry to do and I have 2 days of training for school on Monday and Tuesday. We have a union meeting to go over the tentative contract Monday night. I should also get my classroom put back into some order, we'll see 4th graders are always good about wanting to help.

Ok way too much in this blog entry. I'm done.

Razr Bling

Ok, I've had this in mind for about 2 weeks. I made these three little bead charms one Sunday morning and had to find the cord. I found the cord late last week and after making a comment on Holly's Blog about my pink Razr or what my dad calls my "Sissy Phone", I mentioned I was putting some bling on my phone. Well today I got a nudge to get it put together from Holly herself. So I put the bead charms on the cord and the cord on the phone. Now I've officially pimped by phone! I'm sorry the photos stink, I used the point and shoot digital not the Rebel. You'll get the idea. Maybe I should sell these so you all can pimp your phones!

I've got a little bug in my ear!

It's not a bug, although it does look like a little silver beetle. It is my new bluetooth hands free device. Well I can't say it's exactly mine; Don got it, he couldn't get it connected with his phone. Well neither could I but since I'm a female I didn't mind looking up some directions. I found them and found out that this little ear piece needed paired up with my phone. I offered to fix it up with Don's phone but I don't think he really cares. Hey, I offered once I'm not offering again. This one has black, mine had a darker silver more peuter color than black. I would have LOVED it to be pink! Pink to match my RAZR. My dad calls my phone the "sissy phone" because it's pink! Hey I'm the only girl at my house I deserve a litte pink here and there!

I found out that if I record names into my phone, I wouldn't even have to dial, I could say something like "home" and it would dial my home number. Hmmmmmmm if someone really ticked me off I could record something quite obscene as their voice tag. Nahhhhh that's not too nice, I wouldn't really do anything like that!

So now I'll be one of those people walking around and it will look like I'm talking to myself. So just don't think I'm a bit wacko, I'm probably using my little silver beetle.

I've been working on adding some bling to my phone, so when I get it done, I'll take a picture and add that here too!

Spilling my secret

At the beginning of the week, I was honored to have received a p-mail or private mail at one of my favorite hangouts, DigiShopTalk. The email was an invitation to join Cindy Simon's Creative Team. I was excited! I cannot tell you how that made my day. I hesitated to toot anywhere because I didn't know if I should shout it to the world yet or not, so I quietly put up my little banner in several of my siggys at several digital boards where I hang out.





I thought I'd post my newest scrapbook page created with Cindy's Manhattan Loft digital kit. Thanks Cindy I am so honored and excited that you asked me to join your team.