Day 183

Today's bow tie was gifted by the good folks at Forage. Check out their stuff here. I can't wait to check out the Alice Austen House with the fam tomorrow! 

Day 171

With three school days remaining allow me to indulge in some celebratory points this week ...

Earlier this week I found out that 100% of my students passed their NYS Math Exam. Once the official scores are released, I'll look to celebrate some other highlights from the data.

Last month I challenged my 6th graders to create their own cardboard arcade, inspired by Caine's Arcade. Yesterday afternoon, the kids pulled off quite a display of creativity. Please take about 4 minutes to check them out here.

Today's bow comes from the wonderful world of www.xoelle.com I have a great project from Xoelle to reveal tomorrow so stay tuned! 

Day 167

Have I told you how much I enjoy incorporating my instagram photos into this blog? I do. The filters shed a different light on the photos I normally take during this adventure, and allow me to see things in a new perpective. There's wisdom in looking at things from different points of view, and that's what I was given when I initially thought, TGIF. My trainer, God bless him always pushing me out of my comfort zone, said GTIF. In his terms, he means Get Tough it's Friday. In other words, don't slow down when you come to the end of your race. Muster up the strength to finish your week in strong fashion. True rest will come on the other side of eternity. For now, I must fight on.

Today's bow was a generous gift to keep me fighting the achievement gap in style. A thousand thank yous to Xoelle who is commited to fightin along with me every month until this challenge is over. Back to the trenches ...

Day 22

Ah, Sunday morning. That's my lovely wife's finger popping into the frame at church as I took some quick pix of today's awesome bow tie courtesy of my new friends at 80spurple.com. Check out their collection of men's accessories (and more) here. This one's a pre-tied beauty from Ashton Michael and features a d-ring buckle closure system in the back. Pretty nifty, right?

Pictured below - the Vasquez boys also wearing their own bow ties. Both Javi and Lucas are wearing clip-on versions of a pair of customized ties created by Elle over at Xoelle.com. Luis is sporting a black/white plaid number that I found in a Hot Topic in Santa Monica last year.

Day 7

So what does a veteran teacher of 12 years end up doing even on Saturdays? He lesson plans! Sometimes I even lesson plan to some music and sing like I'm in the shower when I get writer's block. Here's a sample of what my iPod played: No Doubt, Michael Buble, Robin Thicke, Calle 13, and Pedro Fernandez. Eclectic much? Yup. 

So my new friends Shauna and Stephen Alterio over at Forage sent me this lovely pairing of bow ties yesterday that I just HAD to start wearing today. Also, I finally get to wear another one of Lily's readers. We must have about ten readers that we share between the two of us. Good times. Enjoy the weekend - I can't believe it's 60 degrees in NYC!