High School English Classroom

There are never any pictures on Pinterest of High School classrooms. I am a Pinterest junkie and quite upset by this. There are always elementary classroom links. Do high school teachers just not decorate? Or is it that they are not on Pinterest? Well, here are some pics of my classroom. It is not yet finished, but we are getting closer!

This is my favorite corner. We are studying Romeo and Juliet in my 9th grade class and all of these posters were hand me downs from other teachers.

The colorful bulletin board is a mystery. No idea what to put there.

This the front of my classroom. The posters are literary terms.

My personal corner! The chinese lanterns were leftover from my sister's wedding.
I like anything that adds more detail to my room!

The wall of shelves is a blessing and a curse. The previous teacher left them very unorganized,
so I need to work on that area!

Trying to decide whether to leave the glass open or cover it with posters.

Back to my corner. Unfortunately, it is a very small room with no windows! Trying to make it work the best I can! :)

There is my classroom, so far! Do not get me wrong, there is still a ton of work to do, but it is already looking more colorful! I have used cloth on all of the bulletin boards, as the school does not have the colorful paper to tack on. Stay tuned for more update!

Classy

My creativity is running low, today, hence the lame post title. I am heading into my classroom, again, to try to tackle the bulletin boards some more. Hopefully, I can make some more headway! It is looking pretty good, if I do say.

Just finished leftover eggplant parmigiana for lunch and it was delicious. It was a 'skinny' recipe, so it is a lot healthier than the traditional recipe!
On that note - I have lost 3 lbs! That is halfway to my goal of 6 lbs! I may up it to 7lbs, though, since my shopping trip has been delayed another week. I am going on August 18th for my school shopping trip! We have to wait for Thomas to sell a car before I can take the money and run! LOL. I cannot wait for that first paycheck I will receive!!!!!
I have been drinking lots of green tea and eating a grapefruit everyday, along with watching what I eat more closely. I have also cut out almost every drink other than water and green tea. I love juice, but the sugar content is terrible!
Sorry for such a short post, but I need to get dressed to head to town. After I work in my room, I have to attend a contract meeting. I am not sure if I am eligible to vote, yet, but I do want to know what the new contract entails! :)

"Healthy is the New Skinny," RIght?

Exercise and Diet. Two things which I do not enjoy, that is, until I see results. Then, I am all about it!!! :)
This past year, I have tried to be more careful about what I eat and it has paid off! I am exactly 10 pounds lighter than I was at this time last year! No, I am not going to tell you what I weigh, but I will say that it is still not quite where I want to be. So, my new plan is to finish off those last few, pesky pounds before school starts. The goal - 6 pounds in 6 weeks. I feel that this is a healthy goal and within reach!
I have always despised diet and exercise plans because they were never quite what I wanted, so I made up my own, today! :) I printed off a blank calender page and dated for the next six weeks.Each week has a goal weight and a daily exercise routine. I am wanting to focus on getting more fit and not just losing pounds by dieting. So....
The diet routine is still a work in progress...Last year, I was able to cut out all sugary drinks and (most) alcoholic drinks and that accounted for over half of the ten pounds lost. Now, that I do not have that 'quick fix', it will be a bit more difficult. We rarely eat out for dinner, and I do not keep junk food around the house. I believe my overall goal will be to include more fruits and veggies in my diet and drink more water.
Well, that was probably more than you want to know and you are most likely bored to tears. LOL. Hopefully, recording this goal will help me stick to it!
I will let you know how it goes.....

Mrs. Langenwalter - English Teacher

My goodness, I haven't updated the ole' blog for quite some time! Yes, I am finally and officially, a high school English teacher. Holy Cow! :) I will be teaching 9th and 10th graders, including some remedial reading courses. The reading classes are really exciting because I hope to eventually have my reading specialty certification. This will be a great foundation! I start a 3-day in-service, tomorrow, which will cover the new Common Core Standards that will be implemented this year. I am quite excited to learn more about these standards, because, to be honest, I know nothing about them. Another exciting bit is that  I was able to see where my classroom will be! The other teacher hasn't moved out, yet, but I hope she will, soon! As soon as I can sart decorating, I will try to get some pictures on here!

Other than that wonderful news, things have been fairly quiet. Thomas did lose his job, but we hope that GE will get their act together and finally call him in the next couple months. Until then, he will be working for his dad at the BMW shop. I will be headed to North Carolina in just a few days to attend my sister's wedding! I am not so crazy about the flight, but I am sure it will be a blast once I get there! Many pictures to come! Oh, we are still Figure 8'ing it! Our next race is Saturday night, which is great, except that I have to drive the 4 hours up to KC as soon as its over, for my 7am flight. Fun stuff!

Here is a picture of me in the 'race car'!

I usually like to have more pics, but I guess I haven't been very good at that lately! I will work on that for next time! ;)

My Dreams Have Come True......

...I am now a Figure 8 Race Car Driver!!! Okay, just kidding. Well, I AM a 'Figure 8 Racer', now, but I also accepted a teaching job!!!!!! Yippee! :) I am just over the moon about gaining this position in the town that I wanted to. In August, I will start teaching High School English. I interviewed for the position one week ago and was called on Monday with the job offer! I was so excited I could barely speak when the principal asked if I would accept. I said yes, of course! It is just so exciting to think that I will be planning my own lessons and decorating my classroom, soon. Awesome!

Alright, back to the Figure 8 Racing....The car that we have kept up with in the blog is the one that I raced on Saturday night. It was the biggest adrenaline rush that I have had in years! Going in to the arena, I was scared to death and almost chickened out, but after a couple laps, I was having a blast!!! I even placed 2nd out of 5 cars, which isn't bad, considering I expected to be dead last! Our friend took a video and I cannot wait to see it. Thomas and Derek also raced, and placed second. We left with a total of $50 in prize money. Maybe we will go pro....just kidding!

Here is my 'pit crew'. They are trying to quickly replace a tire, in between the boys' race and mine...

Here's the car after our night of racing....only cosmetic damage! ;)

 

Below is not the best pic, quality-wise, but you get the 'picture'.....

We have all been enjoying the nice weather and leaving all of the windows open! The critters love it!!!

What else? Not much has been happening in Burden. Unfortunately, Thomas will most likely be getting laid off in a month or so, but it is okay; we have backup plans! :) I suppose that is about it, for us. We will be racing again in May, and I cannot wait! ;)

Woodcarving

I am needing to get enthusiastic about carving! LOL. The animal shelter has the Wine Tasting coming up in April. Since I'm on the board, I should probably contribute something, right? Well, what better to auction than art? So, woodcarving it shall be. However, I have trouble getting excited about carving something that I NEED to carve. Make sense? Now, I just have to decide what it is I would like to carve. I basically have a month and a half to come up with something. I am going to attempt to make some bottle stoppers to go with the whole Wine theme, but I am tossing around the idea of finishing this cowboy that I am working on. He is much more impressive, and I feel as though he would sell better. I know my grandma prices hers over $100! Mine are nowhere near that fabulous, but I am sure I could put an estimated value of about $70 on one....That doesn't mean it will sell for that much, but its better to overestimate, I suppose.....Anyhow, with that being said, I am headed out to the farm where Thomas is working on the Figure 8 car. Hopefully, being out in the country and outdoors will help keep me inspired! :D

Well, here is a flashback to my first relief carving, ever. I finished it when I was 18, I think. Still one of my favorites! :)

The T-bird

Okay, folks. We officially have a T-bird. Thomas isn't the biggest fan, but I LOVE IT!!!! It is a 1971 T-bird and has suicide doors! How awesome is that?????? Anyhow, we have driven it, but it has a few transmission issues. It HAS been sitting for over ten years, but he ran some gas thru the carb and put in a new battery and she started right up! Woo Hoo! Anyhow here are some pics of the 'green machine'.

 

Awesome isn't it?

Oh, here is my little dirt bike that Thomas bought me for Christmas. It now has a new seat and I am just waiting on Thomas to fix the tire and we will be good to go!

:)