One Down, Thirty-Five to Go

First Day of Kindergarten

What's up, Fanbase.

With the first week of the school year behind us, I feel like we finally have ourselves a chance to catch our breath somewhat.  These last five days have been a whirlwind.

So far, Yours Truly hasn't had too bad of a time at school.  Honestly, once the ball gets rolling, teaching two classes (Ancient History, Media Productions and Design) isn't too bad. . . but prepping those first couple weeks - for two classes at the same time - is a total pain in the ass, folks.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  I despise back-to-school planning with a passion.

Anyway, school aside, this week was pretty boring (not teaching anything but rules and procedures, which is just as boring for teachers as it is for students), but now we've got ourselves a weekend afoot.  Not much has happened outside of work lately - once we all get back to the house, we're all too tired to do anything worthy of talking about.  It's been like that all month, really.

Here's a few pics from around this week, though - just to be nice.

Alayna flashes her new Hello Kitty lunchbox on her first day of school.

Abby discusses the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria with her congressman. . .

Alayna's Classroom

We were a little nervous about Alayna not being prepared for Kindergarten - that first week of school can be hard on a five-year-old.  Then we saw what she was supposed to master by the end of the first nine weeks (most of which she can already do), and we felt a hell of a lot better.  Not surprisingly, she was quickly placed among the top students in her class.

Cupcakes (mine's on the left, Abby's on the right)

At the Optometrist's office for our annual vision test/contact replacements.  Why we decided to schedule it so we both had appointments on the same day, thereby requiring to bring our kids into the optometrist's office, I don't know. . . 

Strolling out of John Young Elementary - Alayna's been a big fan of her school so far. 

Remember when I was talking about how we had to push Alayna's calorie count up to 1200 a day?  Yeah, that's been a total blast.   I had to take her to the Florida Hospital of Kissimmee (where Abby was forced to get staples nearly a year earlier) for a Bone Age Reading.  As it turns out, Alayna's bones are those of a four-year-old, so we have to keep up the high-calorie diet and get another reading in six months, by which time it should level out.  We'll see.

Kris?  TEXTING?!

Seriously.

This week I've been picking Alayna up from school (that'll change next week when Kris gets out earlier).   Just so you know, it was not raining.  Not even close.

At Chic Fil-A, getting a reward ice cream for a week's worth of 'green smiley faces' in her planner from her teacher (which I guess means she's been behaving herself at school.)

- Brian

Mr. Hough's Fantabulous Array of Classrooms and Contractual Obligations

I inherited a new room in the Media Center. . . 

Hi kids.

It's 'Back to School' season and everything, and if you know any teachers out there, I'm sure they're keeping you pretty up to date with their 'setting up my classroom' reports.  God knows I used to do that. . . back when I had one, single, solitary classroom to prep before the onslaught of students.

That was before I ascended into full-blown multi-tasking juggernaut mode and inherited three classrooms to rule over.

Home away from home. . . 

Yes, readers, Yours Truly owns three classrooms.  Or, as I like to call it, an Educational Fiefdom.

Not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but I inherited our school's Student Announcements last spring, and when our new principal came in this summer, he made it known that the course would soon be a full-fledged STEM program.  This meant, of course, that I had to become certified in Technology Education (more to come on that later).

Now, as you may or may not recall, I'm somewhat a 'big fan' of Ancient History.  I find the subject ridiculously under-appreciated.  Considering my passion for the subject, the new administration decided to split my workload this upcoming school year between Advanced/Honors-level Ancient History and my new course, which is called Media Productions and Design.

Alayna finds some treasure in my room

Double planning, yes, but I'm looking forward to the chaos.  I've been teaching Social Studies for nigh on seven years now, so the small change may just be a breath of fresh air.  Who knows.

Anyway, the real reason for this post was so that I could show off my fancy new digs.

Check it out:

I generally head back to work the first week of August - about a week before other teachers start to come back, and two weeks before we're officially supposed to start back.  This allows me more time to set up my room and start lesson planning without feeling rushed.

Before I could move all my crap into my new room (the other teacher hadn't moved out yet), I had to temporarily store it in my Studio. . .

The lighting rig. . .

The 'Control Room' (the door to the left leads into the A/V Room, the doors at right out into the Media Center)

. . . I have a lot of crap.

The A/V Room - that big, black tower of outdated crap in the center is being removed - eventually I want to set up a series of tables and computers and turn this room into an editing room (and no, that's not peanut butter smeared onto the wall in the background - someone ripped down a whiteboard and left the glue)

I have a few tripods.

The A/V Room, opposite angle (you can see the Media Center through those windows)

Looking back towards the Studio

Sixteen unused and unopened 23" LCD Monitors and their wall mounts.  Nobody's using them, so guess who gets them?  Booya.

The Cannonball came along with me one day while I was setting up my room to help out watch Alvin and the Chipmunks via my SMART Board.

My Ancient History Classroom (opposite the Media Center from the Studio and A/V Room)

Mr. Hough's Command Center.  I snagged the desk hutch from a teacher who didn't want it over the summer, which was an awesome find 'cause there are only two or three on campus.

You can't really see it, but I hooked up an LCD Monitor to a CPU (on the floor.) I also inherited a black mini-fridge (next to the CPU, behind the chair), which is AWESOME to have.

The door to the left leads into my closet. The random blue lines on the white board are what we in the educational field refer to as a 'board configuration.'  It is meant to please administrators.

That window behind my podium is an emergency exit - me and the guys at work use it frequently whenever we want to exit out of the Media Center without running into annoying teachers.

Student Computer Center.  Coming soon: the computers.  NOTE: The poster at top right is a Demotivational poster - I'm not that lame as to have a real one of those.

Student Resources and a Nintendo.  The usual.

Eventually this will be where I post grades, as well as my Student Data Wall

I use the ELMO Projector whenever I want to draw something for the class to check out.  I run the laptop and the SMART Board run through it, so it makes the whole technology-in-the-classroom thing a breeze.

I rigged my projector on a rolling cart underneath a table, and adjusted the keystone setting so it doesn't project all skewed.  This way it's not sitting in front of the room, blocking students' view.  I was pretty impressed with myself.

My Closet

This isn't my classroom library - these are the spill-overs from my Home Library (each shelf is at least two or three rows of books deep.)  I can't store these at home without Kris killing me.

Tea Station.

View from the closet door

Professional Development.

- Brian