I am HOT...IN MY CLASSROOM!!!

Where have I been?? 

Let's see....on Tuesday I had my first experience with Netflix. I watched at least 5 episodes (in a row) of Law and Order Special Victims Unit. I am kind of addicted. I also went to the Cubs game. Cubs did horrible (as usual), but the food was good!

On Wednesday, I went back to my classroom!! I have been crazy busy since then. I have also been crazy HOT. Why? There is no air conditioning! None! It's a long story, but we are in the process of getting brand new units so they aren't going to waste time fixing the old ones. Word is, it won't be until the day before school starts that the air will be fully installed and up and running. The temperature in my room today was at least 85. I opened doors, bought my own fan from home, and wore shorts and a tank top. Didn't really help. It is  REALLY hard to work in there. Today, was the absolute worst. My hair was dripping with sweat. Not good. Despite the heat, I still managed to get a lot done. I know you want pictures, but I am just not ready, yet. :) Tomorrow, I might give you a little preview. 

Here are some pictures of what it looked like on Wednesday:

Even though I love working in my room, I don't think I can manage the heat too much longer. I plan to work in my room tomorrow and come back next Tuesday. Then I am going to do everything else from home. We don't have to report to school until Monday, August 13th so that gives me time to gain my sanity back. 

I already have first day jitters and it's only August 2nd. I couldn't sleep last night. It might have been  because of the caramel mocha iced coffee that I insisted on getting from Dunkin Donuts, but I highly doubt it. All I kept thinking about was my classroom. I ended up waking up at 5:23 a.m. That's just insane. I really need to relax a bit. I know I am not the only teacher who feels over whelmed all ready...so I guess that makes me feel a little better!

Remember those book shelves I told you about in this post? Well, my dad is coming to school tomorrow to put them together for me. I am so thankful for him! I am hoping it doesn't take him too long because I am only planning on working a couple of hours in my room tomorrow. My sweet teammates are supposed to be coming to work on their rooms, too. Much to my advantage, I was the only one of my teammates who has been working on their room since Wednesday. It's always nice to be a little ahead. :)

So, a bloggy friend told me a different way to remove permanent marker from things that are laminated. Write over it with dry erase marker and then erase. Well, I tried it for the first time today and IT WORKED! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing.  I've been using nail polish remover since the beginning of my teaching career and it was messy and time consuming. You don't know how much easier this makes my life!!!

Our local teacher store has a lamination special at 50 percent off. For the whole month of August, it is 38 cents a square foot. THANK YOU GOD!! Here is what I got laminated yesterday:

See those tiny circles? I know you're question is probably what am I going to do with those tiny circles? I will share, soon, don't worry! The question I have for you is how long do you think it's going to take me to cut those out???

I got my class list and I have 17 first graders! OMG! My first year I had 27, the last two years I had 24, and now 17. It really is a blessing. We are expected to get a few more between the 4 of us teachers, so I am thinking 20. That is still amazing. Don't you agree? What are your classroom numbers looking like this year?

By the way, I noticed that my pictures weren't showing up on my last Monday Made it post. I updated the post and you can check it out HERE.

Have a great night!