A Little More of My School Room

This is the front of the room. 

The posters are about the 1930s.  My 10th graders are reading To Kill a Mockingbird.

See the poster in the upper left-hand corner with the flames?  It was made by a student who died so I'll keep it there until I retire. 

This is the side opposite the windows.  It contains a bulletin board on which I have Hamlet projects and Afghanistan posters because we're reading The Kite Runner in my World Literature class.

This is the area behind my desk at the front of the room.  It looks messy but everything is in its place.  The bins on the right contain vocab for all three classes that I'm teaching.  And the papers in front of each bin are extras for each of those classes.

Can you see Kylie on my computer?  It makes me smile every time I look at it.

I posted this picture on my 365 blog, too.  This bulletin board is next to the windows.  I designed it a few years ago to resemble a scrapbook.  Each year I add a little bit to it. 

The Wife of Bath in the lower left-hand corner was drawn by a student about ten years ago. 

The guy on the right is supposed to be Hamlet.

I love Vermeer, don't you?

On the top there are two VCR cases for Shakespeare movies.

Towards the bottom in the center are a few pictures of my husband's tuna.  The boys love looking at these.

The book in the middle is a pop-up Shakespeare book.

And my friend, Anne, sent lots of the little extras. 

England Journal: The End

After two nights in Plymouth and a night in South Hampton we headed east toward Portsmouth.  We started the day with a ferry ride to the Isle of Wight and really enjoyed our visit there.

On the way back to Portsmouth we could see all the ships in the harbor that were there for the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar.  Even the queen was there but we didn't see her.

Dressed in the same colors again!  We honestly didn't plan this.  In the morning, I'd go into the bathroom to take my shower first then come out with a towel around me so she could go in and shower.  While she was in there, I'd get dressed.  She'd end up dressing in the bathroom and when she came out, we'd crack up at our matching ensemble decisions.

It was so cool to tour this battle ship!

Then it was on to Brighton Beach.  Now, I'm a beach person and I just couldn't wait to see the ocean.  Wouldn't you know, the weather turned cool and rainy after we'd had a week of unusually hot temps.  And I couldn't believe what the beach was like: stones about the size of eggs.  No sand!

We had a hotel for two nights right across the street from the ocean so that was nice.

Don't laugh!  Yes, we wore the same outfits, again!

We made our way back to London after stopping at our last castle.  I was kind of getting castled out by this time.

We had one more night in London and went to Mamma Mia!.  Great time!

When we got to the airport, I realized that I hadn't gotten anything to take home to my husband.  So, we went into the duty-free shop and I got him this scotch and he was thrilled with it.  I bought it because of the poetic description.

And how crazy that a double decker bus and the tube, which we'd ridden on, were both bombed just 5 days after we left!

England Journal: Part 3

I LOVED the Lost Gardens of Heligan: beautiful paths, flowers, veggies, jungle.

On the same day we went to the Eden Project, a group of geodesic domes  containing different weather zones.  It was a really cool place but we were so tired form the Heligan Gardens that we really couldn't appreciate it.

Then we went back to Plymouth and had fish 'n' chips for supper overlooking the harbor.  Dottie was hoping we'd get back early enough to visit the Mayflower Museum since her ancestors came over on it, but it was closed, unfortunately.

This image was hundreds of feet tall outlined in chalk on a hillside.

Dottie and I had a habit of unintentionally wearing the same colors.  The bus driver called us the Terrible Twins.

Tomorrow we move on to Portsmouth and Brighton Beach.

England Trip: Part 2

After a couple days in London, we headed out to see some of the country.  The first stop was Stratford on Avon and, of course, I was excited to see Shakespeare's home.  It was pretty commercialized but still cool to be there.

This is in Bath at the Roman baths.  I definitely did not want to take a bath in that water!

The second day on the road. 

Love the names of all the little hamlets along the way.

We mostly just visited a bunch of neat towns.

We stayed in Plymouth for two nights.

I'll have more pictures tomorrow of Plymouth and the places we visited while there.  I ran out of sun today for taking decent photos.

England Journal

In 2005 my friend, Dottie, and I took a trip to England and I kept a journal. I'd never traveled overseas before nor had I ever kept a travel journal. This was before I'd ever done any scrapbooking or mutimedia crafting.

As you can see, I wrote way too much on each page and should have used a pen so it would show up better. Plus, I left no room for pictures.

First Day: We arrived in the morning, got checked in, then went exploring.

Everything was so beautiful. Being from a town with about 10,000 people, the hustle and bustle of London was different and exciting.

Day 2: Busy but fun!

Here are some pictures to go along with that day:

That darn fanny pack around my waist makes it look like I have black panties on over my capris!

That's all I've photographed so far. I'll add more soon.

The Week

Received two Postcrossing postcards this week.  They come in clumps.  I probably won't get one now for a couple weeks.  I love the four stamps on the one from Shanghai.  And the Chinese writing is exquisite!  I had to make the postcards and messages smaller but the stamps are the originals that I gently lifted off the back.

Lots of crazy color combinations on this page: gold, green, pink, orange, turquoise.  Oh, well!

Last Weekend

Kylie drew the kitty.

A Kylie Weekend

Here she is coming out of the grocery store where she didn't get the huge gumball she wanted.

Here she is happier as we walked to the store.  She knew Grammy would get her a treat!

Nothing like a playground to make her happy!  Snow or no snow!

Getting ready to go down the slide.  Grammy refused to walk through the snow to get to the play set so she used her zoom lens to get these pics.

Where Does the Week Go?

It's already Friday and I've been working on Monday's page all week.  A little here and a little there.  Seems like I had something going on after school each day.

A Postcard from Paris

I'm liking this Postcrossing thing.  Yesterday I got two in the mail.  Kind of exciting!

My mom is being moved to a rehab facility.  She's still in a lot of pain but they are giving her meds for that and she has a good attitude.

Mom

Here are some pictures of my mom:

Left to right: my mom's dad, her sister Yolande, Mom, Dad, my dad's brother Bob, and my Dad's father.

Mom and Dad at someone's wedding before they got married.

My mom and I about 5 years ago when she was going through her treatment for cancer.

This one was taken at last Christmas in Florida.