MIA apology...

Wow, this past few weeks just hasn't gone the way that I'd anticipated.  Our family is dealing with a very stressful situation.  My father in law has been fighting hard, but is losing his battle with cancer.  I struggle to handle these types of things, as anyone does I'm sure.  I'm not sleeping well, and when I'm awake it's all I think about.  My husband is the type of person who tends to bottle things up, and is the complete opposite of me, so I'm keeping my thoughts to myself quite a bit.  Our boys know what's going on, but they are young still, so I don't think the gravity of the situation has set in for them yet. If you are a person who prays, our family, especially my mother in law and father in law, could really use them!  I know this is very personal, but I wanted to explain why I've been so sporadic lately with my posts.  I promise to work harder on getting them out from now on!
      Now, in school related news...I am the QUEEN of procrastination!  I have always been this way.  All through undergrad and grad school as well I would always put off assignments until I had the least amount of time left to complete them.  I tend to work well under pressure, so I've managed to deal with this quirk of mine.  When it comes to prepping for back to school, each summer I am at home reading new professional books for all the great new strategies and approaches I want to bring to my classroom and my teaching.  This summer has been no exception.  I started out with a very ambitious reading list, and while I haven't tackled the entire list, I have knocked a few books off of my to-read list.  I read Notebook Connections, and Notebook Know-How both by Aimee Buckner.  I absolutely loved them both.  I found them so practical, and so easy to bring right back to my classroom to enhance my teaching.  I am really looking forward to using so many of Aimee's strategies with my class.  I also read Guided Math.  I have to say I definitely thought the book was going to be different.  I think I was expecting a lot more in there to take right back to the classroom, and I found the book to be a lot of rationale and research behind teaching math through the small guided group work approach.  I am pretty sure I was only disappointed because I had done a lot of research on this approach on my own towards the end of the school year before this summer, and had already wrapped my head around many of the ideas presented in the book.  All that said, I did get some great ideas from reading it, so I was glad that I had it ion my list.  I'm looking forward to incorporating this approach to teaching with my math curriculum.
     Along with my procrastination, I also tend to get overly ambitious with what I put on my to-do list over the summer.  After school got out I needed to purchase a new rug for my classroom as ours was disgusting well worn.  I happened to come across a decent sized rug at Walmart for $20 that I decided I could live with would work well.  I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's a black and white rug.  Nothing in my classroom currently goes with black and white, so take a wild guess and try to figure out what I have spent my summer doing?  If you guessed redesigning my entire classroom decor then you are correct!  So, I'm going with a black, white, and teal color scheme, and I have been creating and purchasing things for my classroom to go with my new color scheme.  My husband's response to this was "Why do you have to change your room theme every couple years or so?"  (Picture him saying that with the most puzzled look on his face.)  ;)  I have managed to snag some good buys, and have a lot that I plan to share soon, so stay tuned! =)  And, if you made it this far with me I thank you, I actually found this to be theraputic in a way!  Also, I just realized that when I wasn't looking I reached over 50 followers!  You are all amazing, and I will have to think of something to do to thank you! ;)

~Heather~