What would you do if you lost everything?

I am in my 6th year of teaching and I have to admit, over those six years I have amassed a lot of teacher "stuff." At first I didn't have anything--so when veteran teachers offered me stuff they were purging from their classrooms, I took it. Yes, I became a bit of a hoarder. Over time, I bought and made more stuff of my own.   Now I have too much stuff.  In fact I have so much stuff that I had to brings tubs of it home to put in storage here until I needed it, because I ran out of room in the closet,  And  I have been banned from placing any more of my stuff in our grade level storage closet. In fact, I think they started locking the storage closets this year because of ME!!!

But the point of this post is not me confessing that I have too much stuff....it is to highlight that right now there are thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of their students with any stuff. Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast US pretty bad about a week ago, and while the news is covering the power outages, and people without homes, when those situations get resolved, the kids will have to go back to school at some point in that area, and they are either going to go to a school that has been wiped out of supplies and classrooms with no materials (or limited because most were damaged/lost) or to a totally new location because their school is not usable. Years of teacher created materials, supplies, tests, study guides, bulletin board items, etc. have been lost. Many  years worth of hard work and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of materials are gone.

Last night on Facebook, I came across this post and it made me so proud that I am a teacher.  Because when times are tough, whether it is in your classroom, school, community, etc, teachers by nature of their profession and the compassion they have for students and each other, band together and help put.

Laurah, at The ESOL Odyssey is heading this effort up. She reached out to fellow teacher bloggers (especially those who are also active members of the TpT and TN community)  with a plea to help those teachers, students and schools hard hit by Hurricane Sandy. She has a link on her blog for those teachers who NEED help too. So if you are reading this and you can help out or you need help, please click on the appropriate link below and fill out the requested info.  Fellow bloggers, please blog about this to help us get the word out...there are almost 75 teacher bloggers signed up already to help where needed.

If you a teacher in on of the areas hard hit by Hurricane Sandy and you  need help (supplies, lesson plans, materials, etc) click the icon below:

If you are a teacher and a blogger and you are willing to help out by donating materials...click the icon below:

If you blog about this, please do not forget to go HERE and link your blog post up with The ESOL Odyssey blog.

Thanks for reading this and let's help these teachers, students and schools out..... 

November Currently....

I missed this last month because the end of September and the beginning of October was such a blur. SO when I saw Farley over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade post this on Facebook, I headed right over and got to work. This is hands down one of my favorite things about blogging...I love reading everyone elses and sharing my own.

Never done this? Here's the scoop. Head over HERE to grab a blank one of these:

Then use Powerpoint or my absolute fave...PicMonkey to modify it with your own
info.

Here's mine....

I don't know about you, but I am kinda sick of the election and all the attack ads. I am ready for this election to be over and done with. But that said, I am looking forward to having Tuesday off. I plan to sleep in, go vote, come home and bake chocolate dump cake and make chili for our staff social on Wednesday.

I am heartbroken watching all this coverage of the damage to NY and NJ that Hurricane Sandy caused. My heart goes out to everyone affected, but most of all to my fellow teachers who have to do double duty getting their personal affairs in order, and will have to face their classrooms and schools that have been damaged, plus be a rock for their students who have been through this horrible tragedy.  Keep them in your thoughts and prayers and if you can, donate to the Red Cross relief efforts. 

I admit it, I am addicted to sweet stuff. And despite the fact that I had access to tons of Halloween candy this week, I really did not eat a whole lot of it.  Now, I wish i had a big bowl of Reese's cups because I am craving something sweet to go with my coffee. What I really want is a piece of iced lemon pound cake or a raspberry bar fro Starbucks. Maybe I can convince my hubby to run through the drive-through while he is out patrolling the city today (he's a policeman and on duty today).

Have you see this video? I used it as an activating strategy for my lesson on the presidential election this week. My students LOVED it, and begged me to play it over and over again this week. I have a feeling that I will be playing it more next week too. I am a little obsessed with Ron Clark and RCA right now....and have been every since I heard him speak a few weeks ago. What? You didn't know I went to see Ron Clark? Or that I got my picture taken with him? Check it all out in my post HERE.

Now go one over to Farley's blog and get your CURRENTLY on......