It's been a busy and tiring couple of weeks. For the most part, all of my classes are going pretty well. I have one section of 5th graders comprised of 9 boys and 3 girls ... I feel sorry for the girls.... The first week we started with ten boys and 3 girls, then decided to move one of the boys to see if it would help. Sort of helped.
Anyone know of a place where a private school could get a grant or some kind of funding to purchase 40+ new computers??? We desperately need new computers in the lab, and 4th grade up classrooms need new computers as well. It's getting pretty ridiculous - especially knowing that the Common Core testing ... on computers .. will be starting this year.
I'm down to maybe 14 or 15 somewhat usable computers out of 23 in the computer lab ... 9 of which are fairly consistently working. Makes for fun times when you have a group of 17 who are trying to use the lab at the same time.
Anyway...enough of my computer woes..
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I've pretty much spent all of my library budget I was given for this year. But I'm pretty darn happy with what I was able to get for it. 
I bought ten back jack chairs (chairs you can use on the floor), lots of shelving organizational materials, and some books too. We have five of the chairs already here and in use (a sixth one is here, but was defective - the company is sending a replacement, the other four are on order now.)
I wish I could post pictures of the kids - on Thursday I had 11 first graders. I showed them the chairs and explained how they worked. Excitedly they all came to get one - but of course there wasn't enough for all of them. Instead of fussing and arguing, they came up with a priceless solution - one child sat on the side with the cushion, and another child sat on the side w/o the cushion. The 11th child sat on my rocking chair. All were very happy and read quietly with their stuffed animal/object for a good 15 minutes. 
It was just too precious.
One other note from the library, then I'll move on.
I gave the 5th and 6th graders their list of possible book projects for the Reading Bingo game I'm doing. (They get a Bingo i.e. read 5 books in 5 different categories - they get a choice of a poster from the book fair or a $5 gift cert for the book fair.) One of the projects is for the poetry category - to complete that category, they must choose 3 substantial poems to memorize from their chosen book. I had at least three students choose and memorize a poem before class was even over. At one point, there were six different students with a book of poetry reading and working on memorizing - including someone reading from Emily Dickinson.
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I am looking forward to Monday night with great anticipation. NE will be arriving! He'll be here through Friday morning. I'm taking Wednesday off so we can do things in the area - maybe go to ABQ and I can show him my elementary school and some of the houses we lived in.
It looks like he has a sixth cat ... About a month ago he picked up two stray cats that from their behavior did not seem like they had any street smarts (in other words, not cats used to being outside.) He posted found ads on Craigslist. The girl cat's owners responded within a few days, but the male cat has had no response. NE took the male cat to the vet on Wednesday to get him scanned (microchip) and tested. Negative and negative. He's going to give the Craigslist ad another two weeks before calling it official ... that he has a sixth cat.
If we do eventually end up getting married someday ... we sure will have a houseful of cats!
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Financially ... I've been doing okay I guess. I have managed to almost cut out my fast food spending the last two weeks (helps not going into town!) Yesterday I did go into town for groceries, as well as to get a mani/pedi.
I made the daily goal every day for the month of August for Swagbucks. Just yesterday I cashed in for a $15 AGC, and I have more than enough for the 5 $5 AGCs for September. I know I won't make the daily goal for the month of September, but I'm not going to worry about it.
It's hard to believe what my networth is right now ... that electric car stock ... wow. I keep seeing reports saying that it's going to tank - that it's overvalued. But then it just keeps going higher and higher - even when the general stock market is going down. I was telling NE last night that I wish I'd bought 100 more of the stock back when it was only $22/28. I just didn't want to put too much money into something my uncle was raving about .. too many eggs in one basket. In hindsight, this would've been one of those times where it would have worked out well (I've already sold enough stock to recoup my initial investment - back when it was at around $100. It's now nearly $170.)
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Oh, almost forgot one piece of library news. We might be having an author visit!! If so, it'll be the first one I've personally arranged - or at least set into motion. It is a native american author who lives in AZ and wrote a series (3) of books based on Navajo culture for middle school kids. Please cross your fingers and toes that funding will come through for this - he's giving us a big discount on his usual fees, but it'll still cost some. It would be SO exciting - especially if we can arrange for him to be here the week of the book fair.
Checking In :)
August 31st, 2013 at 05:07 pm
August 31st, 2013 at 06:30 pm 1377973827
The organization where I volunteer has gotten a couple good leads on grants through APA.
This wouldn't cover all of your needs, but you could try starting a Donors Choose project for 1 or 2 new computers. My sister just got an iPad for her classroom thanks to a funded Donors Choose project.
P.S. - The first poem I memorized was Forgiven by A.A. Milne. I still remember the first verse.
August 31st, 2013 at 06:42 pm 1377974532
I'll check out America's Promise. As far as I know though, donors choose is only for public school teachers, otherwise I would've jumped on that a long time ago.
That's neat about your first poem.
August 31st, 2013 at 09:00 pm 1377982842
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August 31st, 2013 at 09:31 pm 1377984672
The author visit sounds great. They are so lucky to have you trying to set that up.
August 31st, 2013 at 09:37 pm 1377985052
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