My Summer

This has been a summer much like the summer after my first year of teaching, way back in 1995.

I can sleep late, because my kids are big enough to take care of themselves without me (back then I had no kids).

I don't have any place to be on most days.

And the coming year has many uncertainties.

I have been discontent most of the summer. For reasons out of my control (and many others') I ended last school year without knowing which classroom I would be in for the coming year. That goes for all of the teachers in my school.

I still do not know. And I do not know when I might know. The not knowing has been harder on me than I expected. 

So, while many of my bloggy friends are planning color schemes, bulletin boards, and classroom layout, I sit doing nothing and the discontent grows.

There have been some good days.

***My trip to Minneapolis in June to the National Ag in the Classroom Conference.

***Weekly planning meetings with my teammate. We are mapping out the whole year! Perhaps not exciting to some folks, but we were constantly behind last year, because we did not know where we were going.

My favorite piece of our planning is this... 

We did this for each nine weeks. It is a document to give to parents at the beginning of each quarter to see what is coming, and then again at the end to see what has been mastered. I'm excited to share it with parents at Parent Information Night (and throughout the year).

I got the idea from Jennifer at Rowdy in First Grade. She generously shared her document with me (THANKS!!!) and my teammate and I reworked it for us. We were thinking of adding everything from the CCSS, but that would not be an overview for parents, that would be overwhelming.

So, we need to make one more, for us. With EVERYTHING on it. Won't take too much time, because of the start we have.

***Blogger meet-up in Ohio. Yes, I am a Kansas blogger and I road tripped to Ohio for this awesome meet up. My BBB (best bloggy buddy) was setting up a gathering, so I arranged my family vacation to go (not really, but it did work out!)

When I arrived at the restaurant the hostess looked at me with a smile and "how may I help you?" I responded, "I'm meeting some people, I don't know them, or how many of them there are." She was so kind, "Right this way." When I got closer, I recognized Julie and my heart relaxed a bit, and what a great welcome she gave me.

Left to right we are:

Me

Emily @ Curious Firsties

Julie @ First Grade Critter Café

Jessica @ Tales of a Teacherista

Kate @ EduKate and Inspire

Brittany @ The SuperHERO Teacher

I had so much fun with them. What I learned: Frixion pens, calendar folders, writing rubrics. Pretty cool that I was already a follower of Emily, Julie and Kate, so I blog-knew them. Jessica and Brittany were great, I follow them now too (and all of their TpT stores). Am I the only one without a store? I would much rather buy than create, maybe next year...

I have 15 (today not included) days until my first official day back. My goal is to keep busy with paperwork, smile, and wait patiently for news of the classroom.