felicidades!

Hola! It has been quite an end to 2007 and beginning to 2008 for me. I returned yesterday from a week in Cuba. It was an amazing experience, and Cuba is definitely a place I hope to return to again and again. The people I met were absolutely incredible and they each have a wonderful story to tell. I have pictures to share and wonderings to float out into cyberspace, but it is late and I have to join the real world tomorrow at school. So for know I will leave you with a list of things I came home with:
1. a desire to know more Spanish than I do presently; I got better towards the end of the week after being immersed, so I guess I did learn something in school!
2. a need to learn more about Cuban history and the Revolucion- they are celebrating 49 years which means next year will be huge.
3. a resolution to learn more about my own country's foreign policy as it pertains to Cuba including proposed plans and bills and the voting records on these propositions
4. a feeling of connectedness with my new amigos that we do walk together on the roads built where there were none (and we are definitely dancing to Bon Jovi as we walk!)

feeling thankful...

How does time slip by so quickly? Today is one of my favorite days of the year and as I'm sitting in my comfy chair with my sweet little puppy, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, waiting to go pick my sister up from the airport, I am thinking of all the multitudes of things in my life that I have to be thankful for. Life may not have turned out how I planned, but how could I have planned for many of the wonderful things I've done and seen?

I am thankful for my job- at the most wonderful school I have ever been in. My colleagues are all so dedicated to helping our students realize their academic potential and to succeed both in school and in life. My students are hilarious and I could not have asked for a better group to put up with a first year teacher. I forgot to blog about the Haloween dance so I'll share a picture of Valerie and I in our "Charter's Angels" costumes. The other teachers thought it was hilarious, the kids didn't get it!

I am also so incredibly thankful for the gift of friendship. We had our annual girls weekend in Atlanta this past weekend. While we were missing one, it was a wonderful weekend full of amazing food (seasons 52 is a new favorite restaurant), shopping, happy hours, laughter, and more memories than we can count. I don't deserve friends like the four of you- thank you.

Jennie and I figured out we have been friends for 25 years- how cool is that!

Gayle and Jennie enjoying the fun atmosphere and the yummy sangria at Eclipse di Luna

picture of the year!

I was cleaning pictures off my camera tonight and found pictures from Lake Weekend 2007. What a fun weekend! We had perfect lake weather and got to play in the water and take a boat ride. I skied for the first time in a few years and my body definitely thanked me for it the entire next week. While I still maintain that Lizzie and I would have fared much better in the cornhole tourney if the boards had been lined up correctly, the highlight of the weekend may have been watching the boys "fish" off the dock. This picture explains why this was so amusing for the spectators.

ah, yes... the old, hit the fish with a beer bottle method! Surprisingly, Lindsay did not catch dinner that night!

Thanks again to Gayle and the Reicherts for letting us invade their great new lake house to renew our lake weekend tradition. I can't wait till our girls weekend in Atlanta in a few weeks- get ready Bob, we're all going bottomless!

oh my...

It has been a crazy few weeks! I cannot believe the first nine weeks of school has come and gone. Life has been busy, filled with trying to be the best teacher possible and trying to maintain some form of a social life at the same time. At the end of September, I had the opportunity to visit some old friends in Charleston. It was a great weekend to rest, relax, laugh, and realize just how fast time passes! I do miss living in a place that has that distinctive, soul-healing scent of salty air and pluff mud. Too bad Greenville is not a coastal city!

After my restful weekend, I packed not quite enough warm clothes, my sleeping bag, and enough patience I could possibly muster and headed off to Camp Greenville with 96 high school freshmen. Yes, it is quite possible that I have lost my ever loving mind. Yes again, it was actually somewhat fun despite the lack of sleep and whiny students. I loved watching them in their small groups working together, building friendships, and making memories. Here are a few pictures.

unions and reunions...

This weekend, my family celebrated a union as my mom and daddy brought home their new puppy! Maggie Mae is an 8 week old Cockapoo and she is really quite adorable- not as cute as Winston, but what dog is really? She is very small and quiet now, but is becoming more verbal every day. Mom has started a blog for Mags, so you will have to check it out for all the latest pictures and funny puppy stories (warning, I think she is going to write like Maggie is posting so the cheese factor is bound to be through the roof!)

JL Mann High School Class of 1997

Also this weekend, the J. L. Mann class of 97 held our ten year high school reunion. The weekend was so great, especially because Gayle decided to come at the last minute and spent the night with me on Saturday night. So minus Sam, who had to stay in Nashville, the whole gang made it to town and we had a great time hanging out on land and lake, laughing at old high school stories, and marveling at just how old we have become. Friday night we made the trek to Sirrine Stadium for the Mann/Greenville game. Spirit Week is alive and well and while the good guys didn't win the game our the money competition, we all had fun seeing old classmates and wondering if we were ever as small or flexible as the high schoolers we saw.

Charlotte, Jennie, Natalie, and Leslie catch up at the football game- Go Pats!

Saturday we headed to the lake, to relive some old times and to just be lazy on the water. Thanks to the reicherts for letting us take over the dock- we are all looking forward to our lake weekend in three weeks! Saturday night was the actual reunion at Saffron's. The food was great, the dj played all of those great hits from 1997, and everyone had a great time hanging out until way too late into Sunday morning.

Carrie, Jennie, and I are ready to reunite at some Wake football games this season!

"You're a grand old school, you're a high-ranking school...."

Our Sara Collins to JL Mann group- Edward, Steve, Jennie, Brian and I were together from 1st to 12th!

I can't remember the last time we were all six together- way too long!

The coozies and goodbye cookies may have been the hit of the evening! Gayle and I had a quick bagel brunch on Sunday morning and then she headed back to the lake while I enjoyed the overcast skies and cooler temperatures by reading my Sunday NY Times outside by the river. It was a great weekend to share with my lifelong friends- how are we all so blessed?

freshmen are funny humans...

Who can believe that we are on our third week of school? So far so good in my little corner of the education world. My room is set up and my students fill the desks each day (except 2nd period- ahh! planning period!) We have been digging into the vivid imagery of the Holocaust from the book Night that they read for summer reading. By the end of this week, all of my students will have their own blogs and we will begin posting their own original holocaust poems! I openly admit to being a huge literary geek, but I'm super pumped about the smart board that my principal got me for my classroom. It is going to be mounted on my wall later this week and I can't wait to start playing on it!

I have really enjoyed getting to know my students- they are all quite different and unique people. From my jokesters who think they are much cooler than they are to my serious scientists who never smile in my class...ever, I think we are all going to get through the year just fine and actually have a chance of learning something from each other! Since I'm just getting into all of this, I'm really enjoying seeing each class develop their own personality. I have my class that sits quietly and refuses to ask questions even though I can tell they have no clue what I'm talking about and then I have my class that won't listen to directions- they only want to ask questions (usually to have me repeat whatever just came out of my mouth that they didn't hear because they were so busy wildly waving thier hands in the air trying to get my attention!) And then of course, I have the class that will not shut their mouths no matter what I say, have for them to do, or am trying to teach. They are hilarious and I have to grin at all of them.

So, today at least, I can confidently say, in Little Orphan Annie's immortal words, "I think I'm gonna like it here!"

overwhelmed...

school started for me yesterday...wow! actually, i spent all last week at the school because i was taking a digital storytelling workshop. it was so great and i'm really excited about trying these with my kids- i think for our Romeo and Juliet unit. but the first day for teachers was yesterday and i had to go through all of the new teacher induction and orientation. it was great to see friends from my student teaching last spring but very intimidating to open the door to MY classroom. i think i have the room arranged in a way that is comfortable and still conducive to learning- we will soon find out. today and tomorrow are professional development days and then in-service will follow on thursday, quite a busy week but lots of good information. we are talking about how to incorporate technology into our classrooms and i know i need to do a better job with that. there is something very comforting to me about a pencil and paper, but i think i need to join the 21st century! so today i have been working on setting up webquests for my first few unit and i started a blog for my classroom! if i can figure it all out, i am going to have all of my students start a blog and they will use those as their journals for reading reflections and other short writing assignments- no having to buy a journal and i don't have to carry 100 notebooks home to read! maybe computers are a good thing!

my freshmen come on monday and the upperclassmen will return on tuesday. i am exicted to meet my new students and see my old kids from last year. i am in kind of a funny place- i know the school, the faculty and lots of the kids but i am the "new teacher". the closer we get to the students' first day the more anxious i become- i can't believe the awesome responsibility i have taken on. i just hope my students learn something!