Sunday, June 17, 2012

Finally summer vacation!

Well summer break officially began for me yesterday, because I spent all last week in math training.  My first morning off yesterday consisted of LL photos for my two youngest, a t-ball and junior (that's the 13-14 yos) game, and a birthday party my youngest went to.  All of this was accomplished before noon!  My gas tank is always teetering on E from all the driving around we do.  Last night we did an early Father's day celebration for my amazing husband Greg.  He chose Maggiano's for dinner.  I think the last time we were there was Mother's day 2 or 3 years ago.  Today we are doing a cookout at my brother's for lunch, thus the early celebration last night.  My family will all be there, except my dad who is up north remodeling the bathroom and bedrooms of the cabin. I am blessed by all the amazing men (and boys) in my life!

I will no doubt be spending countless hours watching baseball this summer.  All three boys play Little League, little will be playing t-ball, middle plays minors, but also is on a select tournament team, and big plays juniors.  My husband manages both of middle's teams so we are VERY busy with baseball all summer long.  Good thing I love it!

I have lots of training days scheduled for school this summer.  With our new Carnegie math implementation last week we had a full week of training, two days on Carnegie and three days on personalized learning.  I also will attend a five day institute to deeper understand the common core domain of ratio and proportional relationships for grades 6-8 the last week of July.  In August I have two days of training to become a lesson study facilitator and I will spend a day analyzing school data as a member of our data retreat team.  I am also on the K-12 committee that will spend the next year looking into standards based grading.  We have two days of meetings this summer, but they overlapped my Carnegie training so we have a meeting in July to get caught up on everything the committee did.  Thirteen days of training this summer.  There are also sub committees on compacting and assessment that developed from our training week,, but thankfully one of my coworkers agreed to be the 7th grade rep.  I think thirteen days over the summer is plenty.   I should be a lot smarter or at least more prepared by the time August rolls around!

In addition to getting myself ready for our curriculum shift to Carnegie, I also plan to do some professional reading this summer.    I ordered the following books from Amazon and they should arrive tomorrow:  
Guided Math
How the Brain Learns Mathematics
Research-based strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher

I am really looking forward to joining a book study on Guided Math and a post or two will be coming on that this week, once my book has arrived and I have time to get caught up on my reading.  The other two books sounded very interesting to me and I cannot wait to read them and make adjustments in my instruction  based on the knowledge I gain.

We have a very small window of opportunity for a family vacation between summer baseball, golf, sports camps, swimming lessons, and football practice that starts the second week in August.  We are planning on the same vacation we took last summer which will be going up to my happy place AKA Door County and then going to a waterpark in Green Bay so the guys can watch the Packers scrimmage.I am hoping to be a little more productive this summer working on some Pinterest inspired projects.  I have the supplies purchased for a few different projects (that I had intended to do this year, but never found the time to complete) so it's just a matter of taking the time to put them together.

I plan to spend as much time at the pool with the boys as we possibly can.  There is nothing better than spending the afternoon chilling at the pool and this summer Cooper is able to swim on his own.  That means I do not have to be at his side constantly.  It will be a much more relaxing summer at the pool for me than ever before.

Where are all of you in your summer vacation?  I know poor Kate is still in school until the 20th.  Can anyone top that?  Some of you have been out for weeks.  I hope you are all relaxing and enjoying yourself amidst all the blog hopping and pinterest searching you are doing for new ideas for the 2012-2013 school year.


3 comments:

  1. Hi Sherrie:
    I am so glad you are joining the Guided Math book study! See you there!

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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  2. Hi Sherrie!

    I teach 6th and 7th math in NC and am interested in your book study. Is it open to anyone and do you all do it on Twitter? Also, it sounds like your summer is booked, but a large group of progressive math educators have started their own math conference by math teachers for math teachers. It's free - you just have to get there (in St. Louis) and pay for your hotel ($79 a night). We have a FB group and a website at http://needaredstamp.wordpress.com/. It was started by math teachers on Twitter but it is open to everyone.

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    Replies
    1. Julie anyone can join the book study. I should have a post coming soon with a link to info on the study. That math camp sounds so awesome. I went to a Ed Tech unconference in May and it was just amazing. I would love to go, but I think that overlaps with my middle son's All-Star games and then the following Monday I do a one week training on Common Core. I am definitely intrigued by the concept. I wish I knew someone in St Louis to make it more fun and affordable. I would love to go for sure, but not sure if I can swing it this summer. :(

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