Adventures of Downtown Houston

I wanted to post some pictures of my new place and adventure to Downtown Houston, TX! :-D

First I will share pictures of my apartment. We don't have any furniture for the most part. I brought only what I could fit in my parent's van they loaned me.

Our very empty living room. Complete with fireplace.

(Not that we need it in Texas...)

The dining room with our patio furniture table....

Our breakfast bar and view into the kitchen

The kitchen

Utility room

The pantry

That wall would be where I would put a TV if I had one.

Our bathroom.

My bedroom.

My closet is huge!

So that was my new apartment. I like it here, its is in a great location and is gated. I am close to just about everything! I share my apartment with my roommate Nabil. He is also here from Ball State for student teaching. He's a great roommate and friend!

Patty, her boyfriend UJ, and I went drove downtown Houston, Texas to explore the city! Here are some pictures of our trip:

This is the view from I-45 South into the city.

Miss Patty's driving us on our excursion.

ooooh, shiny!

I was intrigued when I saw how huge this building was!

It has a mini museum, too!

Old time police car

Trooper bike

The memorial wall.

Miss Patty and her friend UJ.

We rode the train through the city.

I'm excited to start school next week. It will be the time for me to see how much I have grown as an educator. More pictures to come, stay tuned!

Welcome to Texas

So, it has been one full week since I have lived in Spring, Texas. I have had the chance to meet some great new folks and scope out my surroundings. I like it thus far, even though it is incredibly hot I would have to admit that I don't hate it.
Well, my activities that I have done involve Teacher In-services and a whole lotta movie watching.

I have watched:
Serious Moonlight **
Kate and Leopold ***
The Blind Side *****
The Lovely Bones *** 1/2
Dear John *** 1/2 (the book is way better.)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ****
Valentines Day ** 1/2 (predictable)
When in Rome ** 1/2 (cute but also predictable)
Precious ***** (This will make you cry, but a must see)

I have given them a Star rating as well those with the most stars I highly recommend.

So, what are some movies that you think I should see?

I start teaching the 23rd of August at Rayford Intermediate in Humble (pronounced without the "H"), Texas. I will be teaching in a 6th grade Deaf Ed classroom and I am not sure how many students I will have in class. I also do not know if I will be using American Sign Language, Sign Exact English, or Pigeon (Which is ASL in English word order.) I have been thinking about a lot of ideas for my classroom and for my LAMP project. The LAMP project is a huge lesson plan that involves a lot of meat and potatoes with standards, assessment, and documentation.
I have been thinking a lot on what sorts of things that I think will be a good fit for my students as well as me. One idea I have thought about, keyword thought, is performing through the art of music. I want to give my students a chance to show that they can be musicians if they want to be. No, this is not because Mr. Holland's Opus, or any other movie you can tie to this. It is however steamed off of the success and inspiration that D-PAN has given to me and many others. Now I have to figure out the meat and potatoes...
1. How to tie this to Texas Standards
2. How to figure out assessment for this...
3. How to connect music...the physics of vibrations or speed of sound to my students.

Any ideas?

With that I am going to do some research.