Sunday Smorgasbord July 13th

Hi y'all!!  I'm not sure if Michelle will be hosting a Sunday Smorgasbord linky today but I have so much to share I want to be ready just in case!! O-M-Geee guys Vegas was AMAZING!  If you've never been to SDE's I Teach 1st or I Teach K conferences you must find a way to make it work next year!  I attended so many fabulous sessions I thought it might be fun to share my main take way from each one so in the coming days I'll do just that.  For now though on to the Smorgasbord..... 

1) First and foremost I got to meet Michelle in Vegas!!  It may have been one of the biggest highlights of my whole trip. I means she's just so stinking cute and her amazing ideas, blog posts and products have helped shape the teacher I am today, so to meet her in person was surreal!!  When I first started teaching 8 years ago I had these high hopes of making teaching fun and unique just like the great teachers in my grad program had taught me. Within a couple years I noticed I was getting comfortable and just following the routine that everyone else told me to follow. I used the Basel, did the workbooks and to be honest I started to hate teaching.  I knew better, I knew that teaching without passion was not making the difference I wanted to make in my students lives. I knew there had to be more than workbook page after workbook page and that just because the week ended didn't mean our learning had to shift to the next topic.  I felr we were doing what was most convenient for us not what was best for our students. So I decided to search for a new lesson plan template in hopes of getting ideas on how to teach with the Basel not being the guiding force. This search led me to Michelle's blog and my teaching was changed forever!! Not only did she show me how a fabulous 😉, a classroom could look, she led me to other bloggers (Hello Cara and Abby) and so many ideas on how to make learning fun! Her reading instruction and block was exactly what I was looking for. It was proof what my professors taught me at Marymount could be done.  Since then her blog is one of my first stops when searching for ideas. I'm pretty sure I've read the whole thing at least 3 times, there are two others I've done that with but that's a story for another day. So finally getting to meet her?  Amazing 

2) I feel I must share that even though I was in Vegas Sunday-Friday of this week I still worked out 5 times!  This is huge for me. I made sure to go to Pure Barre before leaving last Sunday and then workout in the Palazzo gym and ran outside a few times.  May be the time I've come home from vacation not having gained weight. 

3) I've now been doing PB for 3 months here are my comparison pics.

This was after 50 classes at the end of June. 

I can totally see a difference and feel much stronger. I have a ways to go but certainly feel like I'm on my way.  If you want more info on PB here a link to a write I did as my studios fan of the week. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10204165740924665&id=1260593106

4) I'm so happy to be home with my kids but also so happy to have gotten away for a bit. Before leaving I was so nervous about it and worried about every aspect of being away from them. Now that I'm home I realized it's ok to leave them every once in a while, sure I may come home to find my husband has cut my oldest's hair because of a knot (yes it's true I may have cried as I've only had her hair cut once) and ya the house might be a hot mess but I also came back more patient, more loving and willing to answer my 4 years old constant chatter in a way wasn't before.  Leaving them made me appreciate coming home to them even more.  It also reaffirmed that I chose the right guy to build my life with. He took awesome care of our kids and made their week just different enough that they missed mommy but had a great time. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing. 

To some this whole randomness all up I had an amazing week.  I got a few days way and was reminded that even in Las Vegas am still an in bed by 10:30, up early non partying girl. I'm a mom and my idea of fun away from my kids is meeting a whole bunch of other teachers who are even more passionate than I am. This week allowed me to focus on my two favorite things, being a mom and improving my teaching.   Monday we start camp. (sob) The kids will all be attending the same camp I am teaching at. It will be Ellie's first time and AJ will be participating in Adventure Camp which means she'll being on her first solo overnight camping trip.  Fun stuff!