Nerdy Excitement

When looking for websites to include in my 8th grade class's web search, I found a very neat website that I thought I would share with you.  For educators looking for interesting resources dealing with the upcoming election, the NY Times Learning Blog has some awesome ideas about how to encorporate the upcoming election into your lessons.  The blog shares a link to The Living Room Candidate which has a collection of old campaign ads and provides summaries on past elections. The site also gives statistics on the outcome of each election and provides a color coded map that represents how each state voted. 

I plan on using some of these fabulous ideas in my Computer Class for the older grades.  What a neat and different way to teach about the upcoming election, while also learning about the past!

Okay, okay I'll tame down the nerd level here... but seriously, you should check it out. 

Summer's Over

Summer's Over.  At least for me it is...we started school today.  After working every day for about 2 weeks to get my classroom in order,  I was excited to begin the school year!  What a big adjustment though, to go from not having much of a schedule all summer to being at work all day.  I know you're saying, "hey! I do that every day". And I understand, I did it too.... until I discovered summer break again.  Glorious, magnificent, wonderful summer break.  :)

Here are some pics of my classroom.





Sent this to my husband, just in case he needed some confirmation of my awkwardness...





My new favorite sign.  Enough said.





Kids pull a card and each one tells them something different to do when they are done with their work.  Different levels for all my different grades.





Rewards system.  They put a marble in the jar when their class does a good job that day.
 8 jars for both sections of 1st- 4th grade.





My attempt at leopard print.

I'm ready to go wild about computers this year!