December of 2008:
After being hired to teach 5th grade, I began what is now a huge part of my life.
Last year at this time I was frantically trying to clean-up a classroom. Trying to get rid of age-old things and do my best to organize manipulatives, books, baskets, the classroom library, tables, desks....you name it. Planning reading groups, math instruction, science centers, etc.
But this year...I'm enjoying my time off.
My classroom still has not been "de-junked" of everything..there are still a few drawers I haven't had time to go through yet. But overall, I'd say I've made some progress.
Being on B-Track, I have 4 weeks off in December. What a great month to get some time off!
I spent most of last week subbing for another 5th grade class--which would have been so much more enjoyable had there actually been lesson plans! I can wing it for awhile, but by the 3rd day I was done.
I'm down to 3 weeks left. Which means I can think of it as my break is
1/4 of the way gone...
or...
I still have 3/4 of my break left (this one sounds much better!)
Anyway...here's part of my to-do-list while I'm off-track:
- get oil changed
- get tires rotated or possibly purchase new "snow" tires for the winter (i'm hoping mine will hold up though)
- Write Christmas letters to students and actually mail them
- Watch Harry Potter #6 (again) & The Proposal
- Go running more at the gym
- Work on a cute Christmas Craft w/ Wendy
- Plan a Persuasive Writing Unit (anyone have some good ideas here???)
- Do some fun things with people in my ward~
Of all those things (although they're not complicated)... I can cross one off and hopefully add more things like this:
On Saturday night a group of us from my ward went to Temple Square to see the lights. Although the actual "light seeing" didn't last long--it was still a good time.
*F.Y.I. the "good time" does not include the terrible winter storm we followed
from Salt Lake all the way to Provo. *
Well--I'm off to bed in hopes of better weather and crossing something off my list tomorrow.
