Memories

Since I have nothing original to write, let's play a game:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Professional Development Conference

I went to my first professional development conference in Denver this last weekend. It made me feel like a grown-up! I had a good time with the other teachers from my school that went and the best part was the conference was actually full of valuable information! Imagine that! I am really excited to try to affect change at my school and be a positive force for good. The conference was all about how to build a collaborative working relationship with other teachers. May seem obvious, but teachers tend to get stuck in the rut of "my classroom, my rules, my curriculum". I think working collaboratively with other teachers will definitely make me a better teacher, and I hope that I can give something back to them as well. Plus, I hope to make my work place a more positive place to be!

Happy 4th of July!

Here is Claire, our youngest niece peeking out through the swing.


Here's Jared with the purple mountain's majesty in the background.
Here's Carson....too cute for words.
Travis eating his ice cream.
Daniel..the future convict!!!

Okay, and the following text was supposed to appear BEFORE the pictures, but I can't figure out how to fix that.

I know that it has only been a few days since I posted, but Scott took some really cool pictures at the park yesterday. Kristin is noticeably absent as she went out of town with a friend's family. I will post current pictures of her later.

We spent the beginning of the afternoon at the park with my brother's family, and then went to our house to play rock band. Then we went to my parent's house for BBQ. After that we opted to skip the fireworks and just go home. I watched the Boston Pops concert/fireworks on TV. It wasn't the same, but better than nothing!

Hope you all had a Happy Fourth of July!

Another Month Gone

Well, another month has gone by so I guess it is time for me to post again. The last month was nice. Summer school turned out to be a very cushy job. After students got booted for attendance reasons, we ended up with 5 sixth graders, most of whom were well behaved. I only covered about 1/4 of the curriculum, but I guess that was better than nothing as every student improved on the post-test. So I feel good about that.

I've been putting off posting about this until things got settled. It took us about a week, but we finally ended negotiations for a new house. If all goes well with inspection, appraisal, and getting the loan, we will close August 15. Which is after school starts, so we'll be starting the school year with a move again. I actually start August 4, but don't get students until the 11th. The biggest problem is that the kids will be moving school districts, and school starts in both districts before the 15th. So do we start them in the new district or the old district? I'm leaning towards the new district; I'm just afraid that we'll start them and something will go wrong with the house!

The house is a rancher with a basement and has 5 bedrooms, 3 on the main level and 2 in the basement. It has 3286 square feet! We're so excited to have so much room. I'll post pictures after it closes...no need to jinx the deal!

D'enouement

Well, I did it. I got through my first year of teaching. It was pretty anti-climatic after all the counting down, etc. The last day of school was good. We read the "Phantom Tollbooth" to our students, so we showed that movie and did a little comparing/contrasting to the book and that was that.

The most exciting thing that happened was that all of the math supplies were moved out of the room they were in to mine. Except I didn't really have any place to put them. So they just got dumped all over my floor. So I spent the last contract day sorting and putting them away. I had help from lots of my friends at school so it really went pretty quickly. We found newspapers from the mid-nineties and an art curriculum book from 1959. Pretty much don't need those anymore. But I got it done and it actually motivated me to go through some of our stuff here at home. Not that I've done that yet, but I will this weekend and next week. Maybe.

Summer school starts on Monday. I'm actually pretty excited. I think that it will be good for me to be on my own for a few weeks before I'm on my own for a year. I say "on my own" because my co-teacher and true mentor will not be there for me to lean on next year. It makes me a little nervous. She was sooo fantastic and always had great ideas. I've written them all down, so hopefully I'll still remember them in the fall.

The day after school ended, we went to Utah to meet our friends Lonnie and Michelle and their kiddos and go camping and riding. Michelle and I stayed behind and went to dinner and the movies. That's my kind of camping! All was well until the last five minutes of the last day of riding at which point Scott had a bad wreck and sprained his ankle severely. The ER doc thought it was broken, but the orthopedic doc said not so much. So until he has his CT scan next week, we don't really know what's wrong with it. All I know is it's the pits that he can't walk and drive a clutch! :) But I will take that over the alternative...we are feeling very blessed that despite the severity of the wreck he is alive and relatively well.

I Can't Believe It...

TWO DAYS LEFT. Amazing. I thought this year would never end. Really. And now here we are with just two days left until SUMMER VACATION. Of course, I'm teaching summer school. That's actually a pretty sweet deal because I'll only be instructing for about 140 minutes and get paid for 240. Nice. We'll see at the end if it is worth it. My summer continues to get shorter and shorter though. I'm going to a PLC Conference in July. I'll be going to Professional Development classes starting Aug 4. Then my contract starts Aug 6. Then we get kiddos on Aug 11. BUT ENOUGH...I'm not thinking about that right now. Right now, I've got two days to get through. Oh and to all the parents out there who have children telling them that they don't need to go to school on the last day...they are right.

I was speaking with Julie this weekend about the end of my first year and I must say that I've really accomplished a lot. I must say I'm rather proud of myself for holding down a full time job and not going crazy in the middle of the year. Although I was tempted to do so. I have had many many people make this year bear-able for me. Thanks to everyone who listened to me whine, gave me suggestions, and just all around supported me. I really appreciate it.

Congratulations to Adam!!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Adam's college graduation. While this a feat in and of itself, it is especially amazing for Adam, my brother, who is a four time brain cancer survivor. He is alive against all odds and despite all that he has been through he was able to finally finish his Associate's Degree of General Studies.

I admire him and his courage, but don't tell him nearly enough. He is a pretty amazing guy. So here's to ADAM!!