It's the Good Stuff

I totally would not be surprised if it came out that all these years Starbucks has been putting mood altering substances in their coffee. Not surprised at all... because Starbucks ='s instant happiness. I love it!

Anywho. Got my new specs in yesterday. I wasn't sure if I liked them when I first put them on, but I wore them all day today and I can safely say, they're my new faves. Solid black frames with red on the inside and little cut out flowers all down the sides. Super cute. I'm a fan. I've been wanting to go back black for a while now. These will do nicely. (www.zennioptical.com)

Secondly. I wore myself OUT today at school. Even after P and I did all the heavy lifting last night! It's exhausting setting up a classroom. And even more exhausting when you're putting up bulletin boards and your stapler jams every third time you use it. My door was shut and I was cursing. It was not a pretty sight. I wonder if any other teacher has ever used an electric staple gun on a bulletin board? Because I'm highly considering it.

Lastly, I've been thinking about something lately in regards to getting my room ready for the kids on Monday morning. Last year in one of my continuing ed classes, we watched a Harry Wong video. For those of you not in education, Harry Wong is the guru of all things grade school. He is the Jesus of education. If he says it, you take it on faith and you do it. Because what he says works. By the way, if you are just starting out in the teaching profession, or just considering it, get The First Days of School. Study it. Carry it with you at all times. Never let it leave your side. Do EVERYTHING it says. It is your Bible. I didn't have this book when I started teaching, and I can't figure out why in my three years of being a Secondary English Education major in college, nobody ever mentioned this guy or gave me this book. When I finally came across it, after a year of teaching, it changed my life.

So anyway, in this video Wong said, Why are we even here in our classrooms? To help children learn. To inspire them. To encourage them to be lifelong learners. How many teachers do you know who hang their diplomas in their classrooms? I can safely say none. And I'm in and out of classrooms all day every day. So this year, all three of mine are going up. (I'm making copies of course. I wouldn't risk the originals. :) But I tell my kids all the time about how I pretty much got kicked out of like 4 schools before I found one that worked for me and one where I was inspired to get serious about my education. And I let them know that they can achieve whatever they want to whenever they want to. And now, I can point to that shiny little gold sticker under my name on my BA diploma and say, See that? It says Cum Laude. That means I graduated with honors. You can do that too. And remember how I struggled so much my first years of college and even dropped out a year? See that diploma with the BIG RED writing on it? That's my masters degree. You can do that too.

So there you have it. It's life. And it's the good stuff, for sure.