And all good things must come to an end...

I know it is only mid July, but as far as I am concerned summer is over. My "summer" is the three weeks that I trek with my kids up to Massachusetts. While I have lived in Atlanta ALMOST longer than I lived in Massachusetts, it will always be home and I am thankful that I am able to go "home" for such a long time each summer. I am also thankful that my family has a house on Cape Cod. Here is my photo essay of "What I Did on my Summer Vacation"

While we were in Massachusetts we got to take a road trip to Maine and visit author Matt Tavares and his family and hang out in BEAUTIFUL Ogunquit, ME

We got to hang out with cousins - and they are just SOO cute

And explore on the beach for lots of COOL things - jellyfish, sand dollars & lots of shells!

and we got knocked down by BIG waves and FROZE in the 56 degree water (at Nauset Beach..where they spotted a great white shark the NEXT day!)

And we took a boat to the beautiful island of Martha's Vineyard

We made it to Fenway Park (although I didn't get to go INSIDE, but my Dad, brother Tim, Brother in Law Joe and my son James DID get to go inside!)

and what is better than eating ice cream on the beach while looking at this

So now it is back to work - this week I have been getting in gear - thinking of things for next year, starting order lists of supplies I need and getting the last of my web 2.0 course modules done. I can't believe that the new school year is almost here!

MY last day

I am getting ready to head into school for MY last official day.  Of course I will have to go in over the summer to do a few things, one thing on my list is to spend a day trying to figure out the new equipment they dumped in my TV studio this spring ("they" being the county I work in) but otherwise I am not obligated to enter this building until August!!

I have a post up at my school blog, check out the video, I found it on a blog I read, I love the expressions the kids use while singing!

And in weather news, if it does not stop RAINING here in GA I might go insane!

Technology Vacation

I am on vacation, I am at my parents house on Cape Cod - my favorite place to be - except for the fact that the house does not have internet access!! My dad has a card that lets him connect to the internet anywhere - but I do not (I am lucky I have a laptop!) so here I sit at the Dennis, MA public library porch using their wifi - while nice, I still wish I could connect from the house! It does amaze me how much I rely on cetain things - like wifi access and caller id - they don't have that at the house either (the main occupant of the house is my 87 year old grandfather, who is legally blind, so really, no need for caller id or wifi). They do have cable and a tv, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much, the cottage here that I grew up with didn't even have a phone - we had to use the pay phone up the street!

In other news we are having a fabulous time, eating lots of ice cream, playing mini golf, going to lots of Cape Cod Baseball league games and getting in some nice beach time. I also love to visit the many independent book stores that are here on the Cape - and as it happens EVERY year (or so it seems) Tomie DePaola will be visiting the Brewster Bookstore a few days after we leave the Cape - one of these days I will get to meet him!

Hard to believe that school starts for me in just a few weeks - I will be going back in the week of the 28th to do a little work and then "official" teacher work days start August 3rd - where did the summer go???

and no Massachusetts vacation would be complete without a Red Sox game - we almost didn't get to go, but my brother in law came through and we'll be sitting a few rows behind home plate on Saturday night - hopefully we can break the curse we had in April!

Summer Vacation!

Although I do hate it when people tell me how nice it must be to be in teaching, the hours , the vacations, how EASY it must be just to read books all day (ha!) and while I usually have a snide comment to make to any of those things - summer vacation is a VERY nice perk of the job! I just hope that our school district doesn't see this article, about a think tank in the UK who are proposing only a 2 week summer vacation, although I would hate to see out summer vacation be only 2 weeks, they do have a point about kids losing skills over the summer. (thanks to Jen for the link)

Now, I am doing some work this summer, taking a few technology classes, catching up on reading so I can do some great book talks come fall, getting together some orders so when I find out how much budget I have this year I can either order them or start cutting things out and also working on a virtual field trip movie/webquest on the Revolutionary War, specifically the Boston/Massachusetts connection.

First up is a trip to the library with my kids to get them signed up for the summer reading program and to check out some books - getting my 12 year old to read this summer is going to be tough, it is tough enough during the school year, but I am hoping one of these days I will get him into a book that connects to him and makes him WANT to read!

End of the Year Craziness

We are officially in the midst of the school year craziness. Awards ceremonies, textbook inventory, planning for next year and of course the end of the year crunch of getting all library materials returned.

As of the end of today we have 26 more (student) books to be returned (or paid for) and 5 school days left.  Last year the school had only 3 books that were not returned or paid for.... it's not looking good for us to break that record this year.  At this point, I'll be happy with single digits.

As the end of my first year here closes I am trying to reflect on what worked, what didn't and what I want to accomplish next year.  In a school this big, where I am the only media specialist, it is sometimes hard to do all that you want to do and I have found this out the hard way sometimes.  

*  I think that my storytime offerings were a BIG hit and that when I did something a little different, like science in the media center, the teachers (and kids) loved it.  

* My reference challenge worked out well for the 4th graders, but I need to get more 5th grade teachers on board next year.

* My changes to the morning news show were also well received (basically, I made it shorter), but I am trying to figure out a way to work with kids on a more project basis using video and video editing on the computer (using Windows Movie Maker, sadly, my district as a No Mac's allowed policy)

* I would like to work on staff development a little more next year, especially in the technology area since we are getting ready for a big shift in our technology (projectors in all classrooms and all new computers in the building).  

* I would also like to collaborate with teachers more on projects.  It took me half the year to just get all the teachers names right, never mind reach out to them to collaborate on things.  I think I have found out who the "receptive" teachers are and I will target them next year.  

* I am already working on next years Reading Raptors reading program and am in the process of contacting some authors for author visits to our school for next year and I am REALLY excited about that.

I will admidt that as much as I love my job, I am pretty excited to sleep in and get to tackle the stack of books I have been waiting to read this summer.  

Tomorrow I will post about my summer reading program and about my summer reading blog (for kids).

Summer is here!

well at least for me. So in honor of MY summer vacation and the opening today of our neighborhood pool, I give you the poetry of Mr. Summer himself, Jimmy Buffett: