Back to School Photo Contest

What can be better than have the students become the teachers?  I love having my upper-level German students become the docents or teachers for the day at the Dallas Museum of Art.  Auf Deutsch, naturally!

We started the "Saint Medal on Your Backpack" tradition last year when my oldest went to Kindergarten and we will do it again this year! The kids pick a Saint to pray for them and watch over them at school. Of course my son picked the "Superhero" Saint Michael to go with his superhero Batman backpack!

The reason we exist; not just the center of our classroom but the center if everything we do.

The library and media center are ready.  Now, where are the students?

Before we tore down the old VPA (Visual and Performing Arts) building, our art students worked with the artist group Sour Grapes to “decorate” the building for its final days.

The sign says it all.

This past Tuesday was tech-rific for the freshmen.  We had to get them all set up on the computers and wifi.  Bring your own laptop, kids!

That shirt.

This is the view out my classroom window. I teach in a small but beautiful school (74 students from P-8). The golf course behind us adds to this idyllic view.

This summer I painted a section of a classroom wall with dry erase paint. The students will be able to write Tweets on it for our class Twitter page, use it for brainstorming, or just have fun with it.

At my school we took our school pictures on the first day of Kindergarten. My mom had me picture perfect, with a pretty dress, a nice hair cut, and a brand new backpack. The day before I chose to cut my own hair and the only fix a hairdresser could make was giving me a bowl cut. So instead of a picture perfect first day, I look like a little boy.
As a teacher I'd say this fits pretty well: Nothing that is planned for the first day of school will ever go the way you want it to, in fact, you might want to cry at how completely opposite it turned out, but one day you'll look back and laugh at what came of it.

If I can’t take my students to Germany, I’ll bring Germany to them! Skyping with native speakers makes a world of difference.

While I have only been at Bishop Lynch High School for 12 years, I’m proud to be part of its 50^th!  The celebration continues through this September.

This picture definitely shows my Irish roots. Each morning the students hit the "Learn Like a Champion Today" sign on their way into class and they hit the "Study Like a Champion Tonight" sign on their way home.

This is my bulletin board and shows my priorities pretty well - love God, love my students, love thee Notre Dame.

I love decorating with ulterior motives. Recruit Like A Champion.

Teachers from the Notre Dame ACE Academies at a PD on running records! So excited to get our students back in our classrooms next week!

An ACE 21 (left) and his kid sister (far right) enthusiastically posing for the annual “1^st Day of School” bus stop photo with their friends!

I love gearing up for some awesome performance assessments like the ones I had and still remember.

The head is for our dreams and goals. The eyes are for how we want others to see us. The shoulders are the weights we bear. The hands are for what we like to do. The heart is for what we feel strongly about. The stomach is for what we like to eat. The legs are for where we want to go.

I always knew how to rock a bandana... and a Post-It note on my pocket to make sure I got on the right school bus at the end of the day.  I made that mistake more than a few times in kindergarten.

This is the message my students will see when they begin 2nd grade on Tuesday.

My mom always took a "first day of school" photo on our front step. I am sure I protested at the time, but it is entertaining to look back on all of them now and see how we grew over the years. Now, I like to take "first day of school" photos of my students and see how they change over the course of the year.

(This photo is of me [left] and my sister Kelly [right] rocking our Little Mermaid socks on our first day of Kindergarten.)

Today (August 14^th) I begin my 15^th year of teaching! I’m ready for the new German students.

I give my mom credit for getting 17 years worth of first day of school pictures, but this was the last one she could get us to pose for.

Casey McCluskey ACE 8
Malcolm McCluskey RLP 6

The devil has no chance!