Yay for 3-day weekends!

Woof! Last week was soooo busy! Again it was another long and exhausting week, but overall I really still felt good about almost all of it! I had my second to last formal observation in reading on Wednesday and I think it went very well. I made up a dictionary scavenger hunt as one of the activities the kiddos were doing in small groups to give them some practice using the resource and they had fun with it :)

On Thursday two of the other third grade teachers (there are 4 of us) were out, and Sharla was also at a training, so it was a little bit of chaos trying to keep my (somewhat useless) sub busy with stuff and helping out the other two subs with the "where do we go now?" kind of questions while still keeping my own kids in check. The best part of my day on Thursday was at the end of the day, while telling my kiddos the gripping geological history of the Pikes Peak Region (along with amazing illustrations on the board)
Side note -- I think I am getting pretty good at the quick on-the-
board illustrations. The kids like them :)
Anyway... so after 2 billion years of geological history in about 30 minutes, I told them it was time to pack up and go home and they all said "awwwwwwwwwwwww!!!" I figure I must be doing something right if they would rather stay and learn with me than go home and watch TV :)

Friday was good... I'm hoping to make it part of my weekly routine to read a chapter-book to them as they (and I) just love it! I also read them a short book about Martin Luther King Jr. and I got all teary. For a second I was a little embarrassed, but then I figured they might just get an inkling of how important it is, even if they don't get the big picture yet, just from seeing how much I care about it.

So then I got a three day weekend. YAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYY!! I got quite a bit of grading done and planning for next week. I also slept, read a great book, went hiking with my puppy dog (my favorite part was stopping to smell that great vanilla-butterscotchy smell of sun-baked pine tree bark... Sherlock's favorite part was chasing squirrels), napped, grocery shopped, had lunch with the CC crew, and got a pedicure with my Marci :)

I think it's a good thing I got to relax a bit because this week I have a staff meeting after school Tuesday, my last formal observation in math followed by dinner at Marsha's (CC job advisor person) on Wednesday, and an after school event on Thursday. I feel tired already! Oh well :) At least it is a short week!!