Time to Relax?

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind.  First it was the Wisconsin Inclusion Institute in Wausau then the Kieve-Wavus Educators Conference in Maine which was topped off by two days in Boston.

Returning late Monday there was little time to rest.  Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with meetings and "catching up" in the morning and school registration from 1-7pm both days.  In addition, Tuesday evening was spent at church for a leaders meeting and travelers meeting for next summer's trip to Kenya.  All great stuff, its just a lot in a short amount of time.

Thursday was an exciting day with the culmination of our first ever 6th grade orientation led by our 6th grade team, LMS, school counselor, and director of teaching and learning.  To show appreciation I wanted to buy them lunch, then I started adding people in - summer custodians, office staff, IT staff, team leaders, and any other teachers in the building that were working that day.  It was a great time to socialize ahead of the school year.

Thursday afternoon was one of my favorite meetings throughout the year, team leaders.  I have so much respect and admiration for our team leaders at EMS; I just love spending time with them and listening to their passion for teaching.  At 4pm even though we were not through the agenda we decided that it was time to call it a day.

Thursday evening was family time and Friday we headed north for Jodie's family reunion.  We were able to secure the executive suite at the hotel, it was awesome.  The hotel has a nice Mexican restaurant attached to it to go along with a nice pool area with water slides.  The kids really had a blast.  As the kids were watching their movie at night I started to read... and read... and read.  I've caught the reading bug again.

Since Friday I have finished the book, "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell and "Creating Innovators" by Tony Wagner.  I have almost completed "The Practicing Mind" by Thomas Sterner and have started "Curriculum Integration" by James Beane and "World Class Learners" by Yong Zhao if there is time after finishing those I will be on to "Creative Thinkering" by Michael Michalko.  I am a binge reader.

Also fired up today to move forward on an exciting new project possibility.  This week I was visited by a friend who had been working on something and after she shared it with me, I was pumped and started talking to others about it.  This is another big piece in a world class school.  Stay Tuned!