July

Could someone please explain to me how June walked so quietly out the door and July has arrived? Can it be that I have spent an entire month doing...uhh...well...let's see...nothing? And by nothing, I mean NOTHING. I have spent most of my days sleeping late, wearing my comfy pjs all day, reading books (not one of them educational), watching Dr. Phil and Lifetime movies and eating grapes. And strawberries. And nectarines. And more grapes.

Clearly, I am a teacher who enjoys her summer.

June is a "de-stress" and "de-school" month. June is a necessary mental health month. But as happens every summer, when July rolls around, I start getting excited about the new school year. At this point, I am not quite ready to start TEACHING 5th graders all day every day (not to worry, that is always an August excitement!) but I am excited about DECORATING, ORGANIZING and SETTING UP my classroom.

In honor of July's arrival, I was able to turn off the tv today, put "real clothes" on and go to our local "teacher" store to get a few things for my new (I am moving to a new school after eight years at my old school) classroom. You know you were meant to be a teacher when you walk in to one of these stores and you just want to cry from all the happy. The borders! The locker tags! The calendars! The stickers....oh the stickers! THE NEON SHARPIES!! The store I go to is called Teacher's Heaven... and boy oh boy is it!!

Before going to the store, I decided to use a red, black and white theme and incorporate polka dots. I am so happy with the things that I was able to find and plan to go to my classroom next week and start putting everything together. A few days of pjs and Lifetime left and then it's time to turn my attention to polka dots, bulletin boards, labels, folders, buckets and baskets for a while.

Until then, could someone pass the grapes?

Nicole