I was introduced to Play Like a Pirate by the author at ASCD in March, bought the book on site, finished it within a week, loaned it out to friends, implemented new ideas, and promptly forgot about actually finishing/publishing this blog post. Oops!
We'll blame it on teacher brain...
At ASCD, the title of the presentation immediately caught my eye:
And by far, it was one of the best sessions I attended. Immediately my wish list for graphic novels grew and I started a donors choose project shortly after.
After this magical 1 hour session ended (and my frantic tweeting paid off because I won a free Teach Like a Pirate shirt), I wandered down to meet Quinn and Dave (Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate).
We chatted, I followed them on twitter, and I won't lie, I had some fan-girl moments when they retweeted or replied to me.
Since then, I've shared lots of ideas with fellow teachers. I wasn't necessarily asked, I just couldn't contain my excitement about the ideas and how I wanted to implement them in my classroom. I was really eager to share my plans to make teaching fun again (what a novel concept!).
I'm not really sorry about my over-zealous attitude toward the awesomeness that happened in my classroom (or that's going to happen next year). In all honesty, I'd rather be surrounded by equally passionate weirdos who are innovative, creative, and honest. Those are my people. That is my tribe.
1) Celebrate Ms. S's wedding (tonight!). Not only am I sure to cry a lot (thank you waterproof {Younique} mascara), but take lots of pictures for her. My friend Mrs. K took lots of the venue and decor for me, which helped tide me over until the professional ones came six weeks later.
2) Paint our cabinets. We ripped out our medicine cabinets in our master and had custom shelving built. I'm staining the new cabinets over break to match the other cabinets that I painted {last year}.
We're going to Home Depot tomorrow to get some new paint brushes to complete the project.
3) Paperwork
Between a doctor's appointment, renewing my teaching license, getting finger printed for my license, and updating my passport with my new married name, I've got a lot of paperwork to do.
4) Family time
I'm helping B's aunt plan her mom's 90th birthday party next month. We're having lunch on Monday to talk about decor and some of the details. Plus she won some free leggings at a Lularoe party I hosted, so I've got to give those to her as well.
5) Prep for third grade
I'm redoing my "No Way Jose" game to fit third grade standards. I know I won't need it until August, but I won't have access to a printer over the summer, so I should start this early. I'll need to cut out laminate, but that's easily done during a summer Netflix binge. I've also started mapping out my supply list of what I'll need for third grade.
6) Finish my mom's album
As part of her Christmas gift, I'm making my mom an album of wedding pictures. Shutterfly doesn't work well with our professional pictures (they're too detailed, so it comes out pixalated), so I'm using another site instead. I've got the backbone done, I just want to add in some silly photo booth images as well.
7) Catch up on grading
To be fair, this may or may not happen. I'll probably grade in spurts, meaning three papers and then do something else. It seems less painful this way.
8) Finish Play Like a Pirate
It's one of the books I picked up at ASCD and I'm loving it. As I shared on Twitter, it's like having a super nerdy conversation with an old friend. I'm feeling inspired and making lots of notes in my book.
9) Nap. Every day if possible. (Day 1 complete).
10) Catch up on blogging. Between classroom adventures and ASCD, I've got a lot of half started blog posts I need to finish.
What are your spring break goals?
