Can It Be True? I'm Back?

Can it be?

I have found my way back to the computer?

I feel like I have been in the big city and got stuck on the HOV lane and zoomed right past my destination and had no way of getting back to it.

Welcome to the first few weeks of a new school year. Yes the insanity has started I am in the drivers seat for a new school year. As you might guess, I became preoccupied with preparing for the year around the time of my last blog entry. (August 11 I think.) At that time I began going to school and preparing the classroom and getting things together. In elementary school this can take a while.

Teachers contract start date is one week prior to the first day of school for students. But when there are mandatory meetings, trainings, and open house, there is precious little time left to work in your room. y the time you are at the first day you quickly find out that you will have a "First Day" for the next 5-10 school days. This is because all of your students do not come on the first day. They will straggle in and then when it appears that you have them all, the district begins to send transfers to our campus. Our campus often receives transfers from campuses that have too large of an enrollment. Because of this the teachers often have to rearrange and change because their numbers increase.

Add to all of this the two weeks of Olympic coverage and then two weeks of political conventions and the start of the football season; and quite frankly, I was pooped.

Speaking of the Olympics and the conventions, "How about the great performance by Micheal Phelps and the great speech by Sarah Palin?" Awesome job by both!

But now I'm back with a vengeance. Maybe not actual vengeance, but I'm back and it's great.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

bhorst


Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

FIELD DAY-If You Plan It, They Will Come

Today is our annual Field Day at school. The theme of this years field day is The Olympics. All of our activities have an international flair. For example, we will have Ireland’s Potato Race, Greece’s Torch Relay Race, and China’s Dragon Race. Those activities sound pretty straightforward and actually make sense.

BUT,--------Is it just me? What is it with Portugal’s Popcorn Machine? I thought popcorn was given to the world by Native Americans, not Portugal. Perhaps it has to do with Chapter 5 of the report, "Savory Snacks in Portugal to 2010".

Then there's Italy’s Balloon Toss. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the French the first in the balloon category. I know the event is using latex balloons and not hot air balloons. But the first rubber balloons were made by Faraday for use in his experiments with hydrogen. There is more information on balloon history at Balloon HQ. I never saw a mention of Italy. Although I suppose they could have introduced the use of animal bladders and entrails as balloons in antiquity.

Finally, there's Australia’s Marble
Grab. Australia has got some marbles. they haven't lost them yet. (Sorry! I couldn't resist.) Their marbles are actually named Devils Marbles and they are huge. I'm sorry but my babies aren't going to be able to grab them anytime soon. Check out these pictures of them at Australia Marbles.

Forecast for today is HOT and HUMID, high around 92. There was a slight chance of rain but now I think that has passed. Regardless of the weather, fun will be had by one and all. After all, we will be outside running and playing and getting wet tossing all of those Italian water balloons. Maybe they will be filled with Perrier water as a concession to the French who kindly gave the world the hot air balloon.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.