I was just rereading my blog and I saw at one point I apologized for not posting for a few months.  Folks, it's been three years!  A lot has happened in the past few years that have tested me as a person and as an educator.  I've actually thought about this blog from time to time and there probably would have been times when writing a post or two would have been therapeutic.  But you know how it is---you put things off, other things seem more important, and life gets in the way.

The first year (2014-2015) was not one my best teaching years.  I was afraid to take risks.  I stopped flipping my Psychology class which I had been working towards flipped mastery.  I tried to keep a low profile at school.  I wanted to be invisible.  But---personally, I did start taking better care of myself.  I started the process towards becoming physically more healthy and since that time I have lost 50 lbs. which, for me, is a pretty big deal.

At the end of that school year, there was a big shake up in my district and ten percent of the teachers were transferred to other buildings.  Although I was not transferred, my schedule was changed for the 2015-2016 school year.  After teaching US History Inclusion for ten years with the same teacher I was going to be teaching on-level US History.  Instead of teaching Psychology, I would be teaching Advanced Placement US History.  

There were two really big changes that I had to deal with: 1- I had worked with my inclusion partner since he was 21 years old.  We were partners.  The idea of teaching US History without him was not only a little overwhelming but also sad.  2- The other change that ended up impacting my life both inside and outside of school was teaching AP US History (or APUSH). I taught APUSH my very first year teaching as a complete novice of 22.  I had no prior training before jumping into teaching it and had gone to my old high school AP teacher to help me out.  It was a different test in 2001 and a different time. Now I knew what I was getting myself into.  I had very high expectations and as a result I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself.  Because of all of the things that had happened during the previous few years my confidence was shot.  I think that it was a combination of the students sensing my insecurities and the fact that they were a difficult bunch that really put the icing on everything.  Let's just say that I came home and cried on occasion.  It was this year, more than any other where I really considered leaving the teaching profession.

When we were asked about what we would like to teach for the following year, I asked to have inclusion back and I got it!  Only snag was that my partner decided to leave the district.  In July I got my students AP scores and surprisingly they did well!  I wasn't a failure.  I entered the 2016-2017 school year with some new confidence.

This past year was GREAT! My new inclusion partner is young and up for new ideas and even has red hair too!  It's cool that we can be pale force together! ;) APUSH was pretty awesome too.  I got away from direct instruction as often as I could---this was something that I was afraid to do the previous year with the amount of content I had to cover.  My biggest achievement was organizing my first field trip (I promise to blog about it later).  I took my APUSH students to Ellis Island and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  It was an amazing experience!  

Now I feel like I am reemerging back into society and coming back to my old self.  I'm also really refocusing on self care so that I can be the best teacher I can be.  

That all being said----hopefully, you can forgive my three year lapse in posts AND hopefully I will be able to better maintain a presence on my blog in the future!

This post is part 15 of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching. 


Day 15: Name three strengths you have as an educator.

You can say nice things about yourself.  You can say nice things about yourself.  You can say nice things about yourself…Okay, here goes:

1. I love professional development and learning new things about teaching and education.  During the 2013-2014 school year I engaged in 152 hours of professional development which included conferences, twitter chats, webinars, and in-services.  I work really hard to implement the things that I learn into my teaching because how horrible would it be for me to be learning all of this stuff and not put it into practice!
   
2. I make a huge effort to connect with my students and learn about them as people.  I believe in the students getting to know me as a person as well.  I think that when relationships are built where students and teachers can see each other as real humans (you know, the ones with feelings and lives outside of the school building), the classroom experience is more positive and ultimately more effective.  No, I’m not friending my students on Facebook or hanging out with them outside of school.  I’m just taking time to listen to their stories and spending a few minutes to tell some of my stories.
3. I don’t give up.  I’ve had tough classes throughout my career.  And yes, I’ve gotten frustrated and questioned my abilities and even my purpose as a teacher.  But, I come back the next day and try again.  If things aren’t working, I change it up.  If I feel like I’m losing the students, I ask them what they think is happening and what they think that we can do together to make things better.  When I feel defeated, I have people I talk to both in my school and in my extended PLN to get advice.  It’s really hard to keep going sometimes but it’s what I have to do because I can’t give up!
   

This post is part 14 of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching. 

Day 14: What is feedback for learning, and how well do you give it to students?

     Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge.  There’s a lot of ways to acquire knowledge.  As teachers, we are taught about the ways that are most and least effective to pass on knowledge to our students.  It’s kind of intuitive, right?  Lecture is not high on the effectiveness scale.  Learning by doing or teaching others is high on the effectiveness scale.  It just makes sense.
     Then, there’s another part to the learning process; learning what works and what doesn’t AND learning why things work and why they don’t work.  This is feedback and it is essential for learning to take place. 
     Feedback is the lifeblood of teachers and we most commonly associate it with the grading process.  We let the students know what they got wrong and what the right answers are.  When we grade essays, we let the students know how they can improve and what to keep doing for next time.  It’s not just grading where we provide feedback.  When we ask students questions we’re providing feedback too.  When we provide detailed and constructive feedback we are moving the learning process forward for our students.
     If I had to rate my effectiveness in providing feedback, I’d say it’s a mixed bag. 
     In class, I’m really good.  I try hard to explain to students why their answers are right or wrong and make sure they understand why they’re right or wrong.  This leads to a lot of productive class discussions where I feel like I can actually see the wheels turning in my students’ heads.
     In tests, homework, and essays I’m good in that I provide detailed feedback.  The problem is that I don’t always get the feedback back to the students as quickly as I should.  That’s the thing with feedback; students need it as soon as possible for it to have the greatest impact.  It’s one of those things that I know and strive to provide but somehow always have problems with.  I’m the worst with essays.  I hate grading them because I do provide so much feedback that I tend to put them at the bottom of my to-do list.  This is a really important area that I need to work on so that I can provide my students with the best opportunities to learn.
     This year, I vow to improve the quality, quantity, and turn-around time of the feedback I provide. 

This post is part of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching. 

I’m still working on catching up with my blog posts---all reflection, all of the time!!!

Day 9: Write about one of your biggest accomplishments in your teaching that no one knows about (or may not care).
      This feels a little like bragging.  Some days, I think that my biggest accomplishment is that I’m still teaching and trying new things and not getting discouraged when everything seems to be going wrong.  The past two years haven’t been great for me and there are definitely days where I think about retirement (which is only a short 19 years away).  Maybe it’s not “bright and shiny” but it is an accomplishment to still be teaching and loving teaching when the going gets tough!
     If I were in more of a bragging mode, I might mention that I got to reach one of my professional goals last school year.  I presented two sessions at the New York State Council of the Social Studies 2014 Conference this March!  It was pretty awesome and I truly felt honored to be chosen among all of the other applicants.

Day 10
·        Share five random facts about yourself.
I’m left-handed, red-headed, love chocolate, am an obsessive viewer of Grey’s Anatomy (guilty pleasure), and wear size 12 shoe (it sucks).
·        Share four things from your bucket list.
It’s all about travel: visit the UK, Italy, France, and all 50 US states.
·        Share three things that you hope for this year, as a “person” or an educator.
Have a life outside of school, get back my teaching “joy”, be the best teacher I can be!
·        Share two things that have made you laugh or cry as an educator.
Cry: having to call CPS.  Laugh: Discussing with a fellow lefty student how one day us lefties will take over the world!
·        Share one thing you wish more people knew about you.
I’ve survived a lot in my life and I think that it makes me a stronger person.

Day 11: What is your favorite part of the school day and why?
     Some days it’s when the bell rings at the end of the school day.  More often than not, my favorite part of the day happens when I know I have the students in the palm of my hand.  You know what I’m talking about?  When they are listening to your every word, asking awesome and insightful questions, are answering questions which illustrate that they’ve actually learned something.  That’s my favorite part of everything!

Day 12: How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years?
     I hope that I continue to evolve and improve.  I don’t want to be stagnant.  I imagine that I’ll be using a lot of technology and I hope that my students will be too.  I hope that I will always remember that my number one goal is to make sure that my students are learning and being challenged to think critically.

Day 13: Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness.

• PowerPoint/Projector- I know.  This is so old school and not innovative.  But, it’s the technology that I use the most with my students.  It’s difficult to avoid notes in social studies---especially since I’m not flipping as much as I was last year.  (Must flip!)
  
• Weebly- My website is key to my instruction, particularly when I do projects.  All the students have to do is go to my site and everything is there, in one happy place!  Plus my Psych students are using Weebly for blogging.
  
• Laptop cart- I use this a bunch when my students are working on projects in class.
  

You may ask why I’m not using a ton of apps.  Well, that’s because we are not a 1:1 school and with BYOD not everyone has access to devices with apps.  I really want devices!!!!

This post is part of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching. 

     Ahhhh!!!!  School started and then I promptly fell off of the blogging wagon!  I think that it doesn’t matter if I follow the challenge to the letter.  The important thing is that I reflect and think critically about my teaching!  That being said…let’s work on catching up!

Day 3: Discuss one “observation” area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation.
     In New York State, our whole teacher evaluation process is so flawed.  I wish it was all about the teaching and what really happens inside the classroom.  This is why the topic of improving my observations is especially meaningful to me.
     I want to be better at questioning my students.   I want to not only ask better questions but I want to require more of my students to answer them.  I have this thing where I feel bad asking students questions who are shy or who I don’t think will know the answer.  So I don’t call on those students.  Which is not good.  Soooo, I am working on questioning this year. 
     I downloaded iLeap Pick a Student and I plan to use that randomly call on students.  I think that even the shy students might feel better knowing that it’s “chance” that I am calling on them rather than intentional.  Also, after rereading this I’m realizing that I need to toughen up.  My job is to make my students think and be accountable.  They will be better off and learn more-----which is the point, right?

Day 4: Respond: What do you love the most about teaching?
     The students.  Hands down.  They are the best part about teaching.  They make me laugh and inspire me and keep me young.  My brain works overtime to find ways to keep them interested and make sure that they have everything that they need to be successful.  Yup, it’s all about the students!

Day 5: Post a picture of your classroom, and describe what you see–and what you don’t see that you’d like to.
     When I was in the throws of flipped mastery in the spring I really wanted to change my classroom set-up.  When everyone was working at their own pace I thought about how cool it would be to have bean bag chairs around the room for students to curl up and work.  When my students were working together on projects, I wished that I had tables in my classroom or at least desks that could be grouped together easier.  I had to move away from flipped mastery this fall. I’ll probably be talking more about this in a future post.  As a result, I’m not so big on the bean bag chairs right now.  Tables still sound pretty cool…
     Otherwise, I love my classroom.  I think it’s the prettiest high school classroom ever!  It’s very me.  It’s busy and colorful and there are presidents that are there to help me teach.  I plan to add more presidents in the future.

Day 6: Explain: What does a good mentor “do”?
     It is now a requirement in NYS that new teachers have a mentor for several years.  When I started teaching, my district did not have a mentor requirement.  As a result, I’ve never had a real mentor.  I’ve had people that I have bounced ideas off of or asked for advice but I’ve never had anyone that I felt I could go to 24/7.
     So, if I could have had a mentor---what would I have expected from them?  I think that I learn best from observation.  I wish that I could have been partnered with someone who I could have observed teaching.  To actually see how a master teacher works and then get to sit down and have a discussion about that teaching----how amazing is that?

Day 7: Who was or is your most inspirational colleague, and why?
     This one is a hard one!  I have had a lot of teachers who I really respect and who have inspired me to try new things.  I can think of 2 teachers in my department who I often think “I want to be more like them”.  One of them has been teaching 5 years longer than me.  He still has the “joy”.  He is energetic----seriously energetic.  We often joke that he should not be allowed to drink coffee.  His love of teaching shines through every day to his students who love him right back.  He is joyful AND he is a great teacher who likes to try new things but has the fundamentals down pat.  He’s actually achieved a 100% pass rate for his students on the Regents exam.  Twice.  I may actually hate him a little bit. ;)
     The other teacher that comes to mind is someone who has been teaching a few years less than me.  She’s so good that when our principal wants to target a group of students to get better results, she is chosen to teach them.  This means that she’s been required to teach a bunch of different things and some of them are not necessarily her favorite classes.  That doesn’t seem to matter though.  She works her butt off to make her class interesting, even when the topic is not one that she is passionate about.  She is so creative in designing lessons!  Not only are these lessons fun but they’re functional too.  The students are learning.  Also, she’s great with parental contact.  I need to take a page out of her book for that one.
      I feel honored to work with these two very inspiring teachers.

Day 8: What’s in your desk drawer, and what can you infer from those contents?
      Can you believe that our desks don’t have drawers?  They’re basically just tables with computers on them.  I have a filing cabinet that has old files in it.  I’m not a paper kind of person---I’m all about the technology.  I have closets in my classroom that are full of all kinds of things: posters to rotate onto my walls, past examples of students’ work, arts and crafts supplies, cleaning supplies, and tons of dry erase markers.  What does this say about me?  I think it mostly says I’m a packrat! 

This post is my second as part of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge .  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching.  

Day 2: Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. You might also write about what you’re hoping to see out of this edtech integration.

     Yesterday’s post dealt with my goals for this school year.  One of my goals was to increase student engagement and inquiry.  I know of just the right piece of technology that I can use in my classes to meet this goal! 
     At EdCamp Hudson Valley, Melissa Seideman (Not Another History Teacher  and @mseideman) did a session about mobile devices in the classroom.  One of the items she discussed was Infuse Learning.  Infuse Learning is a student response system which is web based so you can use it with computers or smart phones.  
     Teachers can create a variety of assessments such as:

• Draw response
  
• True/false
  
• Multiple Choice
  
• Sort in Order
  
• Open Ended Text
  
• Numeric
  
• Likert Scale (1-5)
  

     The beauty of this is that you can then get real time results that can be shown to the class and the students get real time results which is the best type of feedback!  Best of all, this is a FREE service!  What could be better!
     Some of the ways that I might be using Infuse Learning in my classes are:

• Bell Ringers
  
• Polls
  
• Checks for Understanding
  
• Regents Review
  
• Review Games
  
• Exit Tickets
  

     I can’t wait to try this out with my students!

This post is my first as part of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching.  

Day 1: Write your goals for the school year. Be as specific or abstract as you’d like to be!

     It’s a well-known principle that goal setting leads to goal achievement. Putting your goals in writing increases the potential that you will be effective at meeting your goals.  
     My goals for this year can be summed up in two words: balance and focus.
     I love teaching, but this year I HAVE to find a work/life balance.  And thus:

• I am going to take better care of myself so that I can be the most effective teacher I can be.  A happy and healthy teacher is a happy teacher, right?
  
• I am going to leave school at a reasonable time each day.
  
• I am not going to advise anything, coach anything, or hold any union office.   This is not the year for me to multitask by getting involved with huge responsibilities.  These things have caused me enormous stress and have negatively impacted my health.  Not to mention, these things have reduced my focus on teaching.
  

     To achieve a better work/life balance and be a good teacher, I’m going to have to be focused.  I need to do the things that will help my students to be successful and to learn skills that will serve them well in their futures as adults. To achieve this:

• I am going to focus more on activities which require student inquiry. 
  
• Some of the ways that I am going to accomplish this is through continuing student blogging in my Psychology classes.  I love how it helps students to reflect on what they are learning.
  
• I’m going to give more assignments where students find the answers to questions and share their knowledge with others.
  
• I increased the amount of primary sources I used in my US History classes last year and this year I am going to include even more.
  

     There are other goals that I have but I’m not sure that this is the year for them.  I want to become a National Board Certified Teacher and I also want to become a Google Certified Teacher.  I don’t think that my “rebuilding” year is the time to take on such ambitious projects.  I can’t seem to just be a 9 to 5 teacher.  
     I have a million things that I want to do and I think that if I lose my focus, my balance will be out the window!  I may need to look back at this post throughout the school year to remember my goals and stick to them.  But then again, isn’t that the purpose of writing down your goals? :) 

Question: What’s the biggest buzz in education?  
Answer: Anything that has to do with technology.  

     I am someone who grew up with computers.  I was one of 
those students who used the internet as a source in high 
school and my teacher had no idea how I should cite it in 
my paper (because it was new).  My Master’s is in 
Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology and I 
have NEVER written my lesson plans or student grades on 
paper planbooks or gradebooks.  Technology has been a given for my teaching for my entire career.
     This is not the case for some of the teachers that I work with.  I know of teachers who struggle with our electronic grading system and are mystified by smart phones.  Using Google Drive is not a time saver for them, it’s a chore.  They do not use technology in their teaching because they aren’t intelligent enough or because they don’t care enough about their students.  The reasons these teachers don’t use technology because it is unfamiliar to them and they don’t know where to begin to find something that will be useful for both them and their students.  
     Enter Graphite.  As I mentioned in my August 28th post, I am in the Graphite Accelerator Program.  The specific program I am in is sponsored by NYSCATE which is the New York State affiliate of ISTE.  
     So what is Graphite?  According to their website: “Graphite™ is a free service from nonprofit Common Sense Education designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers.”

     What a great service?!? Graphite (a subsidiary of Common Sense Media  and Common Sense Education) employs “professional educators” to review a variety of technology products ranging from websites, apps, and programs.  These educators rate each product in the categories of engagement, pedagogy, and supports.  They discuss the pros and cons as well as how the product works or functions.  The products are categorized and searchable based on content area and skill set such as thinking and reasoning or creativity.  There’s even a “Common Core Explorer” search function.  Then, teachers---like you and me---can also review these products by writing Field Notes.  
     This means that teachers like me who are comfortable with technology can share our knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.  We can also learn about new resources and save some time with new products based on the experiences of other teachers.  Teachers who fall into the category of “don’t know where to start” can actually find a place to start!  Beyond reviews and field notes there are App Flows which are written by teachers as actual lesson plans using educational technology.
     After I finish the Graphite Accelerator Program I am planning on becoming a Graphite Certified Educator.  You can do this too!  As more teachers review products on Graphite, the richer a resource it will become.  You will be helping educators around the world to introduce technology into their instruction that will be meaningful for their students.  Talk about 21st Century Skills!
     I hope that you will check out my Graphite profile and see what I’ve been working on and I hope that you will also consider contributing to Graphite with Field Notes about your own educational technology experiences.  I hope that Graphite will also be a means for you to try some new things in your classroom and to expand your own instructional horizons.  

*One last thought for my New York State friends: participating in a project like Graphite is great for your APPR.  Our district uses the Danielson rubric and contributing and using Graphite could certainly fall under several domains, particularly Domain 4: Professional Development.  Why not get credit for sharing your knowledge?

     I personally believe that to be a social studies teacher, you should try to visit the places you teach about.  I have a thing about visiting presidential libraries and birthplaces.  I like to see how people live in different places, where they go and what they do.  I think that it helps me to paint my students a better picture of the places that I teach about.
     This has been a bit of a struggle for me to implement because up until a few years ago I had a horrible phobia of planes!  It tends to limit your travel potential if you can only drive places!  Now that I can handle flying (with the help of knitting and watching movies in-route) my travel possibilities have really opened up!
     In July, I took a trip that was several years in the making----The American West!  For me, this trip was more of a study in geography than in history but I managed to get some in! The itinerary:

• Meet up with sisters-in-law in Las Vegas (I’ll admit, this was not the most historical or culturally enriching portion of the trip but we did go to the Beatles Cirque du Soleil which was pretty awesome!)
  

     As I said in my last post, next summer my husband and I are going to Europe!  It will be my first time visiting the continent.  Actually, it will be my first time leaving North America.  Just the thought of what I will get to see and experience gets me so excited that I can hardly breathe!  Seeing how other people live lets us see our similarities as global citizens and appreciate our differences.  I hope that you are able to travel and share with your students the wonders of the world, or even the wonders from places that are closer to home.  For my students, many of whom travel less than 10 miles away from home during their youths, these glimpses into a larger world make the world seem more real and more worthy of their study.

PS- Travel Stats
I posted these stats to my friends on Facebook.  A teacher friend said it gave him the idea to assign his students to write a story in list form!  Enjoy!
Travel Stats:
-Flights from Newark to Las Vegas and back
-78 hours in the car (we named it Pegasus) 
-3,551 miles driven
-190.4 gallons of gas used
-18.9 miles/gallon (Pegasus was a Yukon XL)
-16 days total traveling
-Too many bathroom breaks to count!

States Traveled to:
-Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado
 
License Plates Seen: 
-Over 40 US States and 5ish Canadian Provinces 

Natural Wonders Viewed:
-Grand Canyon- North Rim
-Great Salt Lake
-Zion National Park
-Yellowstone National Park: Old Faithful, geothermal features, mud volcanoes --- they all smell pretty bad
-Devil’s Tower
-Custer State Park
-South Dakota’s Black Hills
-Rocky Mountains

Wildlife Seen:
-Bison (they’re not buffalo!) and baby bison
-A baby bear (I missed it during the bronchitis- see below)
-Longhorn cattle
-Mule deer
-A Prairie Dog Town (that’s what they’re called, everyone knows that)
-Wild burros 

Man-Made Wonders Viewed:
-Las Vegas
-Crazy Horse Memorial
-Mount Rushmore
-Hoover Dam
-Pinball Hall of Fame (I was a pinball wizard!)

Casinos Visited:
-Venetian, Cesar’s Palace, Mirage 
-Ben: ended up about $50
-Dawn: ended down about $50

I got bronchitis on the trip!
-Meds taken before and after diagnosis: DayQuil, NyQuil, Sudafed, 2 types of Mucinex, 2 types of nasal spray, antibiotics 
-A million tissues!
-A ton of coughing!
-Some extra nasty phlegm! 

Miscellaneous:
-I learned all about Buffalo Bill, carving into mountains, the difference between buffalo and bison, and irrigation in the South West
-I saw Cirque du Soleil!!!!
-14 postcards sent by Ben and I 
-2 bags of checked luggage each weighing 50 pounds (we over packed)
-There were several sibling squabbles, the spouses didn’t squabble because we rock!
-A ton of snacks were consumed
-$15 sundaes were consumed! 
-Several souvenirs were purchased
-Las Vegas feels like someone left the oven open.  Dry heat, my foot!
-There are places with no cell service.  I’m talking to you Wyoming!  I survived this quite easily.
-About 1,300 pictures were taken (that’s just Ben and I)
-Arizona (occasionally pronounced Ara-zIna on the trip) is the time warp state.
-Zoe was VERY happy to see us when we got home!
-We had a wonderful time and are already thinking about where we can go on our next road trip!!!!

I guess this is a welcome back in two ways:

1. School (for me) starts one week from today.
   
2. Um, I haven’t posted anything since March!!!

     First, I’ll talk a little bit about why I have been MIA.  As I start my fifteenth (!!!!) year teaching I’m only just getting it into my head that life cannot be only about school.  I have basically always given over my existence to education---obviously in the teacher sense, but outside of the classroom as well.  This year (2014-2015) will be my first year not advising anything, not coaching anything, and not being an officer in our local union.  Just me teaching or thinking about teaching or working on things related to teaching.  Ahhh!!!!  My hope is that this will help me to be a better teacher but also to be a better human and hopefully a happier teacher and human! 
     That’s not to say that I don’t already have plans for some extra things.  Currently, I am in a Graphite Accelerator Program which is sponsored by NYSCATE and Common Sense Media.  My plan is to then become a Graphite Certified Educator.  I’ll be talking more about this in a future post but in the mean time you can check out my profile here. 
     I’ve registered for Ed Tech Team Hudson Valley Summit, featuring Google for Education.  This is a two day conference in Warwick, NY on October 23-24.  You can see more about it here. This will help me with one of my goals to become a Google Certified Teacher.
     I’m also planning on going to the NCSS Annual Conference in Boston this November.  It will be my first time going to this conference and I’m extremely excited!
     Inside the classroom I’ll be working on refining my flipped Psychology classes and incorporating more primary source documents and activities into my US History classes.  I’m also teaching AIS again in the spring and my goal is to balance my expectations with the reality of the situation and to not beat myself up over things I do not have control over.
     My husband and I are planning our first ever trip to Europe next summer and I know that although there’s a lot to do, I’m going to love every minute just fanaticizing about the amazing things I’m going to see while I’m there. 
     So here’s to a productive, eventful, fun, and healthy school year!