Halloween

Halloween this year was really low-key. We weren't sure if it was going to be canceled because of a Typhoon but it ended up being a beautifully balmy 80 degrees that night and the kids really enjoyed it. As you can see, Alex was Luigi (I'm sure I spelled that wrong and that Pete will come and leave a comment on how to actually spell that ;) Lalee was a butterfly, Zach (our close family friend) was a vampire and Becca was a princess / fairy.
We went trick or treating with some of the neighbors. Alex and Evan were absolutely thrilled when they realized Evan was Mario. Cool. There were a ton of kids out that night as they let many of the Japanese on base to trick or treat as well. It was rather crazy- I'll post a picture of the crowded streets when I get the right camera. The kids had fun and fortunately, they didn't end up with too much candy this year! Mom was happy.

Pics from my work

I took these pictures of my counseling office and classroom at the beginning of the school year. Of course the classroom has changed a bit since then ;) Just another snapshot from our life here at Okinawa.

Looking into my office from the hall

My desk

Moving around the room...



The kids all painted me pictures that hang that across from my desk. I love looking at them throughout the day.

Lalee and I painted this together so I would have something to match the other picture (below). We added Dr. Seuss's quote: You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can point yourself in any direction you choose. You are on your own, you know what you know. You are the guy who will decide where you go.

And just a couple of pictures from my classroom:

I have a map wall- for this unit a string lead from all the student's pictures to their favorite place in the world. Right now we are doing "snap-shots" of different ancient civilizations as we talk about them. It changes as periodically.

This is my graffiti will. Each unit the students have to find something (picture, new sarticle, comic, etc) that ties into what we are talking about in class and bring it in a present it. Trying to enhance that continual outside of the classroom learning thing. It always ends up looking different each unit and it's fun to see what the students find :)

If you all wanna see more, meander over here and I'll take you on a tour :)