Just Stop

Wednesday brunch

Shizuka made mini frittatas.

Jon made pancakes.

We had mimosas, berries, chicken sausage, and tater tots. 

Its was a celebration of thanks for friends.

Thanksgiving things

My demonstration on the right, Hafsa's drawing on the left.

My eighth grade students, with Miss Clayton, my wonderful office partner, in front of our ENL bulletin board.

Mur is two years old!

Anna’s big birthday

We went to the Daily Refresher to celebrate Anna's birthday. It's a weird name for a weird bar. If you want food, you have to go outside and buy it from their food truck. Weird.

Potluck

Dog sitting

This is Mur. Google Caucasian shepherd dogs to see more about this breed.

The dogwood tree votes for fall

The steek is cut.

So, this is how the cone shaped object turns into a triangular shawl. This is the biggest piece of knitting I've ever done. The cut edges are on the left and bottom of this picture.

Finished!!!

These 8th graders worked on and off for over a week on the Donut Puzzle. It has 300 small pieces. This is a difficult task for a bunch of kids who are experts at video games. Slowing down our brains, and w-a-i-t-i-n-g so long for this result wasn't easy for them. They had to work together and help each other, which is not the norm for their usual school work. I love their happy faces!

All time record!

This was the day of the school open house. I was exhausted when I got home.

Cherry tomatoes on the vine from Liza’s garden

I think she got tired of picking the tomatoes one by one! Here's my weekly lunchly dose of vitamin C.

A 36-piece puzzle

They put it together in 20 minutes. With much discussion. These kids are from Tanzania and Puerto Rico.

I Can Write My Name

Hafsa is from Yemen. 

Writing on a board is much harder than on paper.

Potluck September

Okay, so, this month we had dinner at Jon and Shizuka's. She made the fixings for sushi, but we rolled it up in the seaweed ourselves.  

Anna and Matt

Shizu and Jon

She's got some really cute chopstick rests.

I brought this fruit salad to toss over angel food cake.

Here's the little pan in which Shizuka makes the scrambled egg sticks all the exact same size. 

Liza’s sweater

My friend, Liza, designed and knitted this charming sweater. It won a prize in a local fiber arts festival. It was inspired by the old buildings in Riga, Latvia. 

Seen on Scio street

This is an urban mural near my school.

What’s on Instagram today?

These were from Mr. Barber's very reluctant 7/8 grade writers.

Sometimes I wish I was still teaching students who had grade-appropriate academic skills, but today these kids made me smile.

I did two loads of laundry today

These stairs are no longer my enemy.

Our new school

We had three days of 'Summer Institute' training in the new building this last week. It was a breezy day when I took these pics.