Lame?

I feel like nothing super interesting has been going on lately. I chill. I read. I write. Throw in a little cooking and cleaning. That's it!

Today I finished the book Bed of Roses, which was okay, but not great. I liked the story, but I found myself skimming a bit more than reading, so I can't say that it was a favorite. As soon as I read the last page, I immediately picked up The Girl Who Played with Fire. I had read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo last year and liked it. When Mr. Sneaker went to London a few weeks ago, he brought me the last book from the series, but I hadn't yet read the second (Fire). Fortunately, when his mom came to visit last week she had just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and was itching to read the last one. We traded because she is coming to visit again in a few weeks and by that time I will be done with #2 and ready for #3.

Not too much teacher stuff has been going on lately, but I did read some chapters in my book Literacy Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students which is very interesting to me. I keep my trusty highlighter and Post-it flags with me as I read because I keep coming across great quotes that I know will be useful as I write my papers this coming year for my program.

I also started collecting some images of cute classroom ideas I have come across on many of the teacher blogs I love. I am thinking of putting together a binder with sections for classroom managements ideas, reading, math, awesome books, writing etc so that I can go back and remind myself of all the great ideas I have come across from all you wonderful teachers out there! I have noticed that many teachers use a particular classroom theme that is incorporated in many different ways in their room. I like this idea, but I can't really think of a theme I would like to use. I feel like it should be appropriate for Kindergarten, but it should also reflect my personality. I briefly thought of having a theme related to baking, yet I don't want to promote sweets. In any event, I want to have a different color or maybe animal for each of my groups as one way to keep them straight (I will have two Kinder sessions). A sports theme of some sort could be cute and I know someone who might be able to help with that (hubs!). One of the ideas I had to use with a sports theme is the "goal post."  I used to have a huge cylindrical post in my first grade room that was a huge hindrance to room arrangement and I thought I could put it to use by having my students write their goals on soccer ball cutouts and we could post them on the "goal post." I have not yet seen my new classroom and hopefully it is post-less, but I will have to do some thinking about the whole theme idea.

Do you have a classroom theme? 

Do you have any theme suggestions for me?

I am thinking sports, garden, cooking, or places around the world, but those are just general ideas and I would have to come up with a lot more creative ways to carry the theme throughout a classroom management plan, classroom stations, etc. I think I will be able to make a lot of decisions once I see my classroom and the other two Kinder classrooms. I am not a very visual/spatial person so it helps me to see an idea in action before I can create my own. Does that make me a copycat?

I haven't posted any pictures lately, so here are a few from earlier this week (prior to all the lazing around!)

Grandmother Sneaker came to visit with my mother-in-law this week and she is 94 years old, yet still traveling around the world! They went on a Mediterranean cruise and then came to see us. Grandmother speaks fluent German because she lived here when she was a child, so she really enjoyed speaking to the locals and visiting Nürnberg with us.

We went to the market and got some fresh berries. 

MMM!