All Dressed Down with Nowhere to Go

...and that's a good thing!

I love Friday evenings at home. After a busy week, giving myself Friday evening to loaf around the apartment with a good movie or book is the best reward. Saturday night is better for going out--and Friday is perfect for catching up on my "me" time.

Another successful week at the new job. I am thoroughly enjoying working with my "teenies" (the kindergarteners, 1st and 2nd graders) and my "tweenies" (the always-exciting preteen set of middle school). The little kids are a lot of fun. We've been doing a lot of singing with motion. The kindergartners are still very young--barely a month into school, so with them, I'm just hoping to reinforce the motor skills and some of the things they learn in their classroom. We've been doing a lot of "game" songs like The Farmer in the Dell and Itsy Bitsy Spider, and we also spend some time singing about colors and animals with my finger puppets. It's something I saw a really good elementary music teacher do, and I just had to bring it here with me. Let me tell you, the kids love the finger puppets!

It's good to be back with the younger kids. I enjoy their energy and their innocence. They don't have that "I hate school" mentality yet...well, we had some "criers" for a while, but they're getting better as they get used to going to school and being away from home and family all day.

Even my middle school kids are, for the most part, really fun to work with. They definitely take a different teaching style than the teenies! But I've had a lot of experience with this age group, and I actually, sorta...like them. : P

I come home from work every day feeling satisfied that I'm in a good place. I'm getting to know my colleagues and we have a good rapport. The 7th/8th grade team had a collaboration meeting the other day, and we kept coming up with more ideas for integrating VAPA with the core curriculum (in this week's case, 8th grade social studies)...which explains why my students will be designing a school seal and money in the next week.

So, things are good. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I might do some shopping--suddenly it seems all of my blouses are too ragged for work. I suppose that's the Back to School ads getting to my head. Still, there's a Shoe Pavilion nearby...I'm tempted to publish this blog and get in my car.

I'm finally getting my cable TV tomorrow. I waited a few weeks, and then there was a glitch with Comcast, so instead of coming last weekend, they're coming tomorrow. I missed the entire Olympics, but NBC is posting everything on the web, and I find I'm happy going back a day or two later and watching the videos...sans all the commercials.

And that, as they say, is all for now, folks. : )