Mission: 4 weeks of school; Status: Complete

Well I have survived four weeks at a new school and it seems to have gone pretty well. Since last blog entry Jason and I were gearing up for the new school year and trying to survive being broke. I'm happy to announce that we are still together and we got paid on Friday. YAY!!!!

Man, I need to blog more frequently because I forget things!!! Well here I go and try to reconstruct the last couple of weeks. The first week of August we had pre-school professional development days and working on our class rooms. That was some work, I can tell you. I'm still not satisfied with my room. I need some curtains and plants to make it look homier (is that a word?) The professional days were ok. Some were boring some were good info. The next week started school. Yeah, August 11th. Holy Mackerel. It seems like it's getting earlier and earlier!!! The first couple of days were fine just because we weren't doing "school work." We were just getting to know each other. THEN we started school work on Wednesday. It's nice to be in a bigger school and have other social studies teachers available to sort of compare how you do things and where you should be in the curriculum at a certain time, etc... I'm also in the West Wing of the building where it's really quiet and where junior and senior lockers are located. It's not as chaotic there. I've got some great teacher neighbors and they have been a tremendous help and super nice!!!!

Ok, back to school. My schedule goes like this: 1st hour - planning period. This has some advantages and disadvantages. 2nd - 4th is Government, 5th is US History, Lunch, 6th - Gov. and 7th Psychology. It's interesting that there are 5 classes before lunch but I like it. That means there's only two classes after and they go by really quick!!

The only snag I hit in the first week was that I had no Psychology books. They were in the school somewhere but the principal was gone and he was the only one who knew where they were!!! The next week I got them and there weren't enough!!! AAAHHH!!! It's been only this past week that the additional books came in that were ordered. YAY!!! That first week, I had to wing it. Ugh! OHHHH!!!! and my feet hurt SO BAD the first week of school. Now they are fine...I guess they just had to get used to it...poor feet.

The students in my classes for the most part are excellent. We have some interesting conversations about music and the journal entries I have them write at the beginning of class. The last one being the top 12 worst movies of all time. I picked 2001: Space Odyssey. I will never get back those two and a half hours of my life. There are a few students who keep me on my toes and test my patience. But I think for the most part, most of the kids know I mean business. Sometimes they will say, "but Mr. McMullen doesn't do it that way." And I always reply, "but I'm not Mr. McMullen, am I!" I think they think that we are a novelty because we are married and they are having fun with it. I do enjoy working at the same place as Jason. We drive together and sometimes eat together. But it's not like we are spending all day together. And we understand why we are tired and commiserate together about certain idiosyncrasies of the school and students. It's nice.

My concern about my teaching, and I think I will always have this concern, is how to make what I'm teaching about relevant and fun. I know I can't always make the Civil War fun because that period really wasn't fun but it is relevant. Friday we were taking notes in US History class but before we started, I told them that other things were happening during this time, not just the Civil War, so I started listing off stuff happening around the world during 1861. I saved the best for last. The first flush toilet was patented by Mr. Thomas.....Crapper. No joke. They thought it was hilarious. I do too. But now they know where the term "crap" came from. They learned history!!!! Yay for me!!! I hope they will remember SOMETHING about my class (not necessarily crap ;)

I now have a new friend...I will call him Mr. Bo Jangles. He is a mouse. A mouse came and visited my Psychology class last Thursday. He ran in to my storage closet and I thought I had him trapped there but Friday while I was grading papers after school he ran from the closet, behind me and behind my desk. Every once in awhile he would poke his little head out and say hi but if I moved he would scamper around the corner out of sight. *Sigh* I hope he doesn't make a permanent home there. Hmmmmmm, I hope it's not a she.

In other news:

Labor Day weekend was semi-restful. Jason's parents came over for the weekend and we just laid around. It was great! We did nothing!!! Monday we met Jason's sister and her boys for breakfast at IHOP and then played at the apartment for the day. I made cookies, we played Scategories, the kids played in the pool. It was fun. But Jason and I were tired after everybody left. I think we went to bed at 8:30. No joke.

This Friday Jason and I were scheduled to work in the concession stand at the first home game of the season. We actually had a lot of fun. We got to interact with the people of Sulphur and with some of our students and parents who helped us. We were soooooo tired after though. We got home about 10:30. The next morning we got up to go to Waurika, OK to watch Devon (nephew) play in his first football game of the season. Then we went to Comanche and chilled a bit before Bryce (other nephew) had his eighth birthday party at their church. It was Kung Fu Panda themed. We had a good time and ate birthday cake and ice cream. I think I have decided to have small birthday parties at home for my kids. It was a pretty major event. Bryce raked in the money and presents. He got a Stormtrooper helmet that talks. It was cool. Jason and I left that evening because we have so much to do today, including buying much needed groceries, doing laundry and creating my lesson plans for this week. I thought I would throw in a blog too.

OH! We have received our Wedding DVD and it's pretty cool. We are waiting anxiously for the actual pictures. Hopefully we will get them soon.

ALSO: You can check out my school website, to see what kind of cool teacher I am.