School. The Great Harbinger of Boredom

As The Hives are so good to tell us:

They say our summer vacation has come to an end.  
And that we simply have no more holiday to spend.  
They say no more barefoot no playing around in the pool.  
They say now it's time for us to go back to school. . . 

In what could very well be the crappiest First Day of School a tween girl could possibly have, Alayna woke up this morning with a horrifically swollen left eye.  She had been swimming in my dad's pool Sunday night, and throughout Labor Day it slowly began to swell.  We were assuming it was an allergic reaction to something she had come into contact with in the water - a bug bite, a scratch that got chlorine in it, something - but reassured Alayna as she went to bed the night before school started that it would look a lot better in the morning.  Rest assured, she was devastated when she woke up to this. 

An hour or so after waking up, shortly before Kris took the girls to school, the swelling had gone down a little, but not by much.  As a result, Alayna refused to take a traditional First Day of School picture (who could blame her.)

Abby, sans swollen eye.

In her classroom, excited to start third grade.

After school, Kris texted me this picture - the swelling had gone down further throughout the day, but Alayna was still pretty self-conscious about it.

Nevertheless, Kris was able to get her to take a sorta-First Day of School picture at the end of the day (though Alayna insisted on wearing sunglasses.)

Whatever.  I hate the First Day of School.

- Brian

A Spring Fling

Hey, America.

I get a lot of anxiety over all these trivial events my kids participate in through the community.  Whether it's a school play, a soccer game, a church program, etc. - I stress over getting a good seat, having the right lens on my camera, and whether or not I have enough battery on my phone to video record everything in the event I need to.

Now, the last couple times my kids have been in a musical at their school (a play, a concert, whatever the hell you call these things), I've arrived early in order to sit relatively close to the front of the assembled crowd in the gym.  I always find myself sitting in the second row, towards the middle of the aisle, which, as it is, is a pretty decent vantage point considering that the first row is always reserved for teachers and classroom aides.

At least it should be.

Here we have a great shot of the back of Jabba's head. . .

The bane of my existence are those people (see here) that waddle in late, and help themselves to an empty seat right in the very front row.  Frequently teachers are needed elsewhere and don't utilize their reserved seats, subsequently leaving a few empty seats, so these latecomers come in and plop themselves down DIRECTLY IN FRONT of those of us who were smart enough to arrive early and nab supposedly good seats.

I guess I was raised differently, but if I came in late to my kid's school thingy, and was forced to pick a seat in the very front row, I would NOT pick the seat directly in front of the guy holding an SLR and three different camera lenses.  Call me crazy, but that guy's there to take pictures.

Also, I'd be more careful about the food I eat - you gotta take care of yourself.

Anyway, here's my kid's stupid school thingy:

Alayna and her friend, Alaina.  The 3rd grade classrooms came into the gym to watch the 1st grade performance.  I had wanted to take a half-day for these concerts, but Abby's was at 10:30am, and Alayna's was at 2:30pm. . . which meant I was forced to take a full day off of work.

First Graders (Abby's in the front row, all the way to the right.)

Abby's BFFF (the extra 'F' stands for 'fairy,' so I'm told), Larkin, and Jackson, our neighbor from down the street.

After the concert, Kris and I ran a few errands before returning to the school for the Third Grade concert in the afternoon. . .

Warming up

Our seats were about the same as last time, except for this concert Alayna was at the opposite end of the stands, a few rows back.

Some genius decided it'd be a good idea to block Alayna and her two friends - both of whom are just about as short as Alayna is herself - with a bunch of monster-children that are nearly my height.  The result was that we got a pretty solid look at Alayna's forehead for the duration of the concert.  Which, as you can imagine, was pretty rewarding.  Definitely worth taking the time off of work.

Alayna and her crew, walking back to class, following the program.

Nice job, forehead.

- Brian

Back at 'Em

Okay.  I've discussed previously, on a few counts, the insanity that has been this year's Back to School season.  It's consumed us entirely, and this year is far worse than in previous years for Yours Truly because this time, for the first time since 2007, I'm starting off at a brand-new school as a 'first year' teacher.

And, unlike Brian of 2007, I know exactly what's in store for me.  So I'm all the more stressed-out over it.

I've included some pictures from my classroom as it evolved throughout the month, along with the finished product on the first day of school.  And, accoringdly, I also included pics Kris took of the girls' First Day of School.

So, without further adieu, here we go. . .

My new school's layout is a far-cry from a single, large structure: every grade level has their own, individual building, and there are separate structures for the library/administrative wing, the gym, the auditorium/band room, the cafeteria, etc.  It's all open air, which is cool now, but will probably be really, really shitty come winter time.

My classroom (the custodians, by this point in time, hadn't yet gotten around to moving all the old teacher's crap out to her new room. . .)

I like to think these signs were pretty effective. . .

I had to bring the girls with me while I set up my room on several different days over a two-week period, which was just as much fun as it sounds.  Here's a pic of when they stumbled upon our school mascot costume. . .

The Great Babysitter

The girls' new favorite obsession:  Harry Potter

Slowly making progress.  By this point, most of the other teachers' stuff was moved out (save for one wall that still had her posters over it), so I focused on the other three walls.

A few days later, with all the desks moved in and the other teachers' stuff all moved out.

The finished product:  primed for the first day of school.

I decided to keep my kids' artwork up on the white board to freak out my incoming 8th graders. . .

As you can see, my collection of artificial trees made the long trip up from my Florida classroom to be a part of my new teaching gig. 

An upgrade to my old ELMO doc cam setup - I look forward to using this as much as humanly possible in my new lessons

Remember that stool chair?  Yeah, Kris wouldn't let me keep it by my vinyl in the living room - despite the fact that it's vintage - so now it's up at the front of my classroom.

My work computer (and direct ancestor, former U.S. President John Tyler - one of our nation's worst)

The Command Center

Of course I rigged an old-school NES into my desk - c'mon.

(I'm a sucker for posters and maps.)

Sadly, I wasn't around to take pictures of the girls' first day of school, but Kris made sure to take a bunch of pics for your viewing pleasure.

Abby's going into First Grade this year

. . . and Alayna's going into Third.

Walking to school

Mandatory picture-in-front-of-the-school-sign pic

Abby, in her new classroom

Yours Truly, minutes before students entered his room for the first time. . .

- Brian