Back to School

Hey gang.

Well, it's that time of year again: Back to School.

To say this process was an arduous one would be one hell of an understatement. . .

In years past, the last five years at least, I've been able to knock out my Back to School crap in a day or two. Since I've been on my current team and have been in the same classroom for the last five years, I've been able to set up my classroom so that it's ready for students on the First Day of School in a matter of hours. Nothing to it, just move the furniture around, set my desk back up, and unpack all the stored items from their summer lodging in my class cabinets.

Another angle (from the vantage of my desk.)

With the retirement of my old ELA teacher, at the end of last year, I inherited her much bigger - and much better - classroom. It's the same size as my old room from when I was on a different team, from 2016 to 2020, which I missed dearly. For the last five years I've been in a much smaller room, and the cramped space made maneuvering around the room with thirty or so students in it a total pain in the ass. Now I once again have some breathing room, and space to stretch out. I also replaced my old tables and chairs with individual desks, which contains kids better and suits my lecturing style.

The downside of this room change, of course, was that I had to set up everything from scratch. And it took FOREVER.

The view from my outside door.

My Command Center (and yes, the skull in the cabinet is real.)

I started setting my room up on July 28th, almost a full week before I usually start the annual process of heading back to work. I had to map out my room and hang up all my decor, figure out how I wanted to organize all my new furniture, and install new lights (two 100ft strands of those deluxe Govee lights I have all over my house.) Also had to purchase like five or six rolls of premium bulletin board paper (well, it's more like vinyl than paper) that was pricey but holds up better than standard, colored paper, and measuring all that to fit my boards took a ridiculous amount of time.

The end result of all this work, however, was one hell of a bad-ass classroom. It turned out so well that over the course of the first couple weeks staff returned to the building, I'd have other teachers - even from other grade-level buildings on campus - pop in to check it out. The way I look at it, since I spend more time during the work week in my classroom than I do at home, I want it to feel as cozy as humanly possible.

Anyway, when the First Day of School finally rolled around, we didn't get the traditional 'First Day' pics with the girls. Kris had to leave for work before they did, and so she tasked the girls with taking their own pictures this year. Didn't turn out as well as they would have if we would have taken them, but they were pretty hilarious so we didn't care too much.

So here you go, folks - the Houghs' annual Back to School post. Enjoy. . .

The Promethean Board (like a giant tablet) that serves as the board kids will look at to take notes from.

The board by my main classroom door (those maps are obligatory evacuation documentation for like fire and tornado drills, etc.)

Class bins for my students' Interactive Notebooks, my classroom library, etc.

Art supplies, teaching resources, etc.

Kris managed to get one pic of the girls as she was leaving for work and the girls were leaving to get some First Day of School coffees from Bigby. You can totally tell Abby is Hough'ing out here.

Alayna took this pic of Abby at the school. That's about the best we got of her this year.

Alayna doesn't have to go to school until noon each day, since she does online college courses all morning, so her boyfriend Sebastian managed to take a pic of her when she swung by his house at some point in the late morning.

Aaaaaand an MHS Varsity Pom Team pic at the beginning of their first practice of the regular school year (because of course they started practicing on the First Day of School. . .)

- Brian

The Last-Minute Endeavor of Carving Pumpkins

Welcome back, fans.

So Kris and I totally dropped the ball this year as parents.  We totally put off the carving of pumpkins until the very last minute, and even then we didn't even bother with purchasing pumpkins to carve ourselves - we just settled on picking up two for the girls at Aldi and called it good.  After our huge costume party on Saturday, and Halloween itself approaching in a couple days - not to mention how swamped we've all been with school and work and all sorts of extracurricular bullshit - we just didn't have time for it this year.

Abby recreates the Halloween where she open-mouthed a pumpkin.

Anyway, we finally got around to carving pumpkins with the girls today.  The day before the girls gutted them out, and then the actual carving part happened tonight.  It took two days because we only had, like, half-hour windows at night in which to do this.  Alayna has fallen way behind in school, and has consequently been spending hours a night catching up on homework and classwork she didn't get done in class, and we told her she couldn't carve pumpkins until she finished it all up.

I suppose that makes us shitty parents, but. . . so does a whole bunch of other stuff.  And CPS still hasn't come to take our kids away yet, so I guess we have that going for us.

So yeah.  Here's some photographic evidence of this year's Halloween parenting fail.

Enjoy.

Hammin' it up for the camera.

The gutting process begins.  This was the majority of Evening #1 right here - the bulk of the carving wouldn't get done until Evening #2.

Definitely not the kids' favorite. . .

The Dog was super into this process, though.  Who the hell knows why.

Seriously. . .

Meanwhile, down in the basement, Alayna continues to slug away at her missing Social Studies homework.  Note the lack of pumpkin carving going on here.

After awhile, though, we decided that she had had enough schoolwork for the night, and made her go upstairs and take a shower before she, too, got to start carving a pumpkin.

Abby's is a 'mummy.'  No joke.

What's with all the lines?

Kris' advice goes unheeded.  No surprises there.

There's a running theme in these pictures, folks.

Here we are at Evening #2, picking up where we left off the previous night.  Alayna chose to make a 'devil' pumpkin this year, and so I helped her draw out a quick design that was simple enough for her to carve.

Whoever invented emojis must be just swimming in money at this point in time. . .

Abby's sorta-Mummy pumpkin.  Or not.

The finished products, all lit up and ready to roll for Halloween. . .

Alayna turned her pumpkin around so it could cast a creepy, demonic visage across the wall of our Dining Room.  Because she, like her father, has a dark, twisted sense of humor.

Oh, look.  More weird kid faces.

So yeah.  There's our half-ass attempt at being involved parents.

- 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