Happy New Years Teachers!

I think for educators this weekend is really New Years, so enjoy. It might still be 80 degrees and humid here, but it is time to go back to school! I have spent the week setting up my classroom in a new building (my entire classroom including students, paraprofessionals and about 1/2 of my professional team moved with me). The new building was, well, a dump. It has promise though and I think things will be great (provided I get some chairs in the room by the first day). I have some new ideas I will be trying out and I'm excited about my thematic units.

Coming next week I will return to four to five posts a week (time to curb my summer addiction to Second Life). I will have lots of pictures of the new classroom and some of the organization and classroom management ideas I am trying. I will also have more of what people have come to expect in terms of website links, educational products, AT and AAC reviews, and more.

For now I will leave you with my back to school play list from iTunes:
Music
Hit Me with Your Best Shot - Joan Jett
It's My Life - No Doubt
Me and Julio Down By the School Yard - Simon and Garfunkle
What If - Lucinda Williams
If I Had a Million Dollars - Bare Naked Ladies
People are Strange - The Doors
No Cheap Thrill - Suzanne Vega
High Hopes - Doris Day (Seriously, I'm in my early thirties and I have Doris Day on my iPod, don't ask!)
Bonus Track - Welcome Back Kotter Theme Song

AudioBook
Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire - Rafe Esquith

(This is a wonderful and inspiring book. One of the things I loath about books like The Freedom Writers or even the Torey Hayden books is that those people left teaching! They don't do it anymore! Rafe Esquith is a teacher to the end, not a writer or professor using classroom teaching as a stepping stone. He also endlessly touches upon each of my core beliefs one after another. Things like the true test of a students behavior is how they are when you are not there. Way to go Mr. Esquith!)