It Was a LONG Two Weeks...

but it's finally finished! I attended a two-week teacher training sponsored by the inservice center at a nearby university...and required by my local system. I will get a stipend ($100/day), and a box full of teaching materials and tools for my classroom; the stipend will pay for my trip next month to a Teesha Moore journaling workshop! Well, it will pay for MOST of my trip, and the rest will be a gift to me from me. I am very excited...it is in Washington (state) and I've never traveled that far away in the United States (I went to Germany almost eleven years ago). I am traveling alone, which makes me a little nervous...but NOT nervous enough to skip the trip! The workshop starts on a Friday evening, and I'm arriving on Thursday evening so I'll have some time to look around, and take lots of pictures. I have already booked all my reservations, so now I need to hunt up my "big" suitcase and start making lists. I think the suitcase is in the attic, stored there after our move a couple of years ago, but that will mean a trip up that pull-down ladder...hmmm...

The workshop was interesting, even though I didn't learn a lot of new teaching techniques. I have been teaching the same grade and subject for all but one semester of my long (32.5 years) teaching career, and I have always worked for principals who expected excellence from their teaching staff. I have been blessed to have supportive principals who allowed us a great deal of input, as long as we were able to justify our decisions and back them up with research data and the resulting student successes (on standardized tests and in higher math classes). I did pick up several new technology "tricks", and received some positive feedback and encouragement from younger teachers, who seemed to value my ideas and opinions. I spent time with four of my favorite colleagues, and got to get better acquainted with a relative newcomer to our staff. In addition to the stipend, I received enough continuing education credits to assure the renewal of my certificate, which should be due for renewal one year after my planned retirement date.

My great-niece is coming tomorrow to stay with me until Wednesday. Her parents are in the midst of relocating so that her mother (my niece) can do a required internship for her doctorate, and the baby (all right, she's two, so she's on her way to being a big girl) will stay with me, her maternal grandmother, and her paternal grandparents while Mommy and Daddy get the new house ready. Let's see...we'll go out for breakfast, go up to my sister's (her grandmother) in the evenings to swim in Grammy's pool, go to Blockbuster and get a new Elmo video (and maybe a Blues or Barney video...I prefer Blues) to watch before bedtime, ride in her wagon, and see if she's finally big enough for her tricycle. What a nice way to end my summer vacation...