Sunday, August 28, 2011

Here is a recap of my weekend in pictures!

Our Killough staff shirt that we get to wear on Fridays!
 Fish tacos on Friday!!! YUM! we ate fish that Lauren caught while she was in Alaska!
We then topped off the night by watching Fright Night!!! --NOT a fan of scary movies!!
 Grading journals at the pool!!! With this hot weather it is nice to have a water to chill in!! 
 Making more delectables with the Big Boss that Mike and Stacey sent me! Who needs a Starbucks frapp???
 One for One...the TOMS motto. If you buy a pair of TOMS shoes, part of the proceeds go towards a pair of shoes to a child in a third world country.
 SO...remember when I said my pop exploded in my car??? It is ALL over my roof, steering wheel, passenger seat...and I even found some Diet Coke in the back seat!!!!!

 Funny picture....I left my chicken out to thaw.......Aleshias cats got to them!!! Look at all the bite marks!

Friday, August 26, 2011

First week of school!

Here are a couple of shots of the classroom! We jumped right into reducing and simplifying fractions. I LOVE color! So I make sure I always have colorful markers.... because black marker can get so dull! :o)
 More color! I also have a twitter page for my students to visit!
www.twitter.com/KochMickeyMath7
You do not have to belong to twitter to see this page. My goal this year is to post EVERY school day! If you want to refresh yourself on 7th grade math- go head and glance at it every now and then!
 Did I mention that I LOVE color?
We had the students do a collage about themselves Day 2 of school.
Here they are posted outside of our classroom!!!
 We did a class survey on Day 4 and the students had to make fractions with their results then determine if the fractions were close to 0, 1/2, or 1.  We had a lot of hands on activities this week to try and get our students excited about math!!!! We have awesome kids this year!!!

 Keeping an "I can" attitude in our class!

Journaling in math?!?!? HECK YES! We journal every Thursday!  :o)

A part of my new school year resolutions was to read kids Spanish books!!! Here they are! SO excited! It may take me awhile to get threw these....

Its funny because on Tuesday and Wednesday we had no AC or water at school....talk about hot. I encouraged my students not to complain because I was doing everything I could by buying a fan for the room and getting them water and ice. Here is a note that we received from our math specialist:

"Thank you for a great first week
You stayed enthusiastic through out the heat
Though the chocolate began to melt
We offer it with gratitude, heartfelt"

Notice: My Reeces is melted....still good!


It was an awesome first week and I am so excited to see whats ahead!  I am so excited to share a scrapbook of my life with you! :o)
Looking forward to a great weekend...leaving this week with inspiration!
-Sunshine

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

First day of school!

 I still get the jitters for the first day of school! This is the beginning of my second year teaching and I am SO excited for the new year! I am teaching with the same co-teacher in the same classroom so I "semi" know what to expect! Chelsi and I work so well together and I am ecstatic to teach with her again!
 Started the day off with a BIG pot of coffee and my Guinness coffee cup that I bought in Ireland!
 First day of school!!!!


 Stacy and Mike and the honeybees sent me a "Big Boss" and I was SO excited to use it!!!! Thanks SO much! It makes the BEST smoothies!!!!   :)
 I had to make carmelitas for the first day of school!!!!

 Can you see the quote on the board??? SUMMERS OVER, SCHOOL HAS BEGUN!!! This is my co-teacher Mrs. Mickey, and one of out students.
 Day 2 of school I made "peanut butter and jelly pie bars" I used my grandmas homemade jelly from Nebraska, and organic peanut butter, so they were not "that bad" for you!
 I wanted to try something new!! they turned out YUMMY! Thanks to BrownEyedBaker....you should check out her website!
 Our classroom!! Above our board I made a poster that says "An Attitude of Gratitude" We are trying to promote a POSITIVE atmosphere! It is only day 2 and the kids are catching on! So, as long as Mrs. Mickey and I stick with it -- there will be no room for negativity in our class!


Its going to be a great year!!!! I am SO thankful for EVERYTHING! :)
Buenos Noches
-Sunshine

Monday, August 22, 2011

My second to last night in Omaha. A couple of friends and I went to Jazz on the Green! I love Omaha and all it has to offer!!!
It was a beautiful evening!
We stopped by Red Mango to get some delicious yogurt!

 Kameron trying to decide on a flavor....too many wonderful choices! 
I decided on half Cinnamon yogurt and half white peach, loaded with TONS of delicious fruits!

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The walking bridge into Iowa.
A part of my bucket list is to be in 2 places at once! Check! :)


Sunday! The day to drive to HOUSTON! Mackenzie flew into town, her and Katie helped me pack the night before. We got up in the morning and hit the road at 9:30! We stopped in York to get coffee with my college friend Rita. It was so good to catch up- and it was nice that it was on the way. What an awesome way to start the trip!!!

On the road again!

We played MANY car games and they really helped to pass the time!!! We played "Hey Cow" "Yellow Car" and "Zip" We also noticed that in Kansas the country roads were in alphabetical order, so we started to guess the roads!! Of the 26, we got 1 right! "Acorn" Felt so rewarding....later we found out that the streets were all labeled on the Garmin...and IF one of us was sneaky enough we could have gotten them all right!!! We did not cheat though and we had an awesome time!
My poor gummy bears got caught in the sun! So Kenz and I had a gummy chunk! Still delicious! 
NO LIE....we saw SO many dinosaurs on our trip down. There must be many museums have the exhibit of dinosaurs this fall!!!

I thought this cloud looked like a dragon or dinosaur.....

Made it to Houston! We kicked off our first night with some amazing friends, Aleshia, Nina, and Karli and we went to Lupe Tortilla, which is one of my favorite Mexican Restaurants! The next morning came really early but I was FULL of excitement to see everyone!!!  here is my classroom (same one as last year, so I have ideas on how I want to decorate it!) Some NEW additions....5 computers for my students! Its going to be a great year!
I am so proud of Kenz, she dropped me off at school in the morning and then Houston had to look out because Mackenzie and the Corolla were in town!


After a very overwhelming day, I was craving pasta. So we found this amazing restaurant that had the BEST food and the BEST live music. I even got wine on the house! It made for an awesome night! Thanks Kenz!




Went to IKEA to get a dresser and a sewing table. It was quite an adventure setting it up...and I will take pictures of the finished product once my room is in order!

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2 b-e-a-utiful Smiling Killough Eagles!

KILO!.....EAGLES!!!


Mackenzie helped me babysit one of the nights she was in town. We had so much FUN! Becky had left us a delicious bottle of wine and chocolate ice-cream!!! It was nice to have a night in and relax before she left!! :)

I feel so blessed! I had the MOST amazing week back in Houston! Reminds me of why I am here!!! I will post more pictures of my classroom and my first day of school this weekend!!!
Much Love...
Sunshine