Vacation

I didn't think the winter break would ever arrive. We had a hint of it on the 18th, with a snow day, followed by the crashing reality of having to actually go back to school on the 19th - with about 50% of the class/school in attendance! Oh, well.

Now I'm sitting at the cabin, and it's snowing, snowing, snowing........ It's starting to pile up, which is nice, since I'm inside. This gives me a chance to not think about school so much, to concentrate on knitting and embroidery, and to read the fat book I've been looking forward to . I might read the math book I brought so I can start thinking about fractions. STOP THINKING ABOUT SCHOOL! I AM ON VACATION, and really don't want to think about school until closer to next week. Back to knitting......

Summer - it's almost over

It's hard to believe I actually took the summer off. Except for two days in June when I went to school to complete contract negotiations, I did not get in my car and deliberately head west to go work in the library. Not once - that is a record! Of course, I was a bit occupied with my Walden class, so while I was not doing school work, I was doing school work. The last day of class is tomorrow, and we have a two-week break before semester four begins. In-services will be happening on the 27th & 28th, and I will probably go out to work at the beginning of the week, so summer will officially be over for me. We start on September 2nd.

What did I do on my summer vacation? I read a ton of books, worked a bit on a quilt I started a few years ago, continued with my current knitting projects, emailed, blogged, and hung out. Not a bad way to spend July (my new favorite month) and most of August. And when we get Internet at the Lake Wenatchee place, I will once again be free to roam the planet knowing I can do my Walden work at our get-away place. I had a great summer, but I'm starting to think about school again. That's always a good sign.

End of the year - again - almost

Yesterday was the last day of school, not so bad for a Friday, the 13th. As usual it was crazy, with a real lack of structure that I hate. I didn't really appreciate being ambushed with Silly String by a deranged looked future sophomore, but at least it matched my shirt. My fourth grade math students were a little nuts, so off to the computer lab we went for everyone to have a chance to try ClassChatter before the summer. I've gone high-tech since the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, and I started my kids on blogging. I'll be moving up with them, so hopefully when school resumes at the beginning of September, they will know how to blog using this particular web site, and will have had some experiences composing on the computer. From the looks of their first posts, we have some work to do! I managed to get more overdue library books back, not as many as I would have liked, but with fewer belligerent exchanges as in the past. Do they just not care that their book was under a cabinet, and someone else found it? What was the purpose of five weeks of overdue notices if so many kids ignored them? I need to do that better next year. But for now, school school is done..............but Walden University continues. In pursuit of higher education, I'm also going to school, but I have to say, I enjoy it, and the reward has been awesome ideas for my classroom as well as a complete change of philosophy as I become a much better teacher after 30 years in the business. See? There's hope! But in the meantime, I plan on writing my papers, communicating with my soon-to-be fifth grade math students, becoming reacquainted with my sewing room, and finishing the socks I started knitting a couple of months ago.