Hi Everyone–

I hope you are enjoying the month of February so far! 🙂  I’ll be better about posting than I have been–things have been CRAZY busy around here!

Last week was up in the air so to speak!  The week was full of teachable moments, field trips, convocations, snow days…

And a tragic accident…

Friday, a little boy was struck and killed by a school bus in our school parking lot  😦    I immediately retured from my conference downtown to see how I could offer help and make sure my kiddos were okay.  It was so hard looking at their innocent faces!  I have tried and tried to mentally prepare myself for the conversations/questions that I know will come up on Monday and how to answer them–there’s just no way to do that!  So, I’ll take it in stride and offer them as much comfort as I can.

It was INCREDIBLE to watch our school community pull together!  I am SO PROUD to be a part of the school and district in which I teach! 🙂  I know it will take time, and we will all have each other to see us through!  ( I have to stop talking about this now, or I will start crying again…)

Friday, before all this happened, I was downtown at the HASTI conference (Hoosier Association of Science Teachers Inc.) and heard an awesome presentation about Monarch Butterflies in the classroom and a class to take this summer–guess what teacher can’t wait to sign up for that!!??  I’ll share my notes from that workshop another day.

**This week we will be reading If You Give A Mouse a Cookie and doing lots of activities with candy hearts in preparation for Valentine’s Day.  I think I posted some activites for graphing on the Math page–I’ll check tomorrow at school and if I didn’t, I’ll scan them in tomorrow night and post them.

Tuesday evening, I will be speaking at our Foundation’s Board Meeting.  I was asked to speak because I “access” DonorsChoose.org so frequently and I am to speak about how I have used those materials in my classroom.

I was also presented with the opportunity to attend the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) convention in March.  New Orleans here I come!!!  I’ve never been before and am scared to death to fly, but I do have 3 other teachers, two of whom are friends, flying with me, so I should be okay.  I will be presenting to my school staff when I return at some point.

I’ve gotten this impression that God wants me to have a public speaking career at some point–and I just keep questioning him!!  Why me?  Why an introvert?  I’ve had 4 opportunities in the last 2 weeks come up and all of them involve public speaking!  I am terrified of speaking to a group of adults!  Give me a bunch of 5 years olds and I’m happy! 🙂  Do you think this is his way of telling me to buck it up and get over my fear!?!?   I will admit, it gets a little easier each time and my scripts get shorter and shorter, but I already have butterflies thinking about Tuesday and it’s only Sunday evening! 🙂  It will be fine–it always is! 🙂

Thanks for reading! Please say a prayer for this little boy (“C”), the SM family, and the MSDWT family and go give your children a great big hug and tell them how much you love them!

My son thinks I’m crazy because I’ve been hugging him all weekend! 🙂  I just want him to know he’s loved! 🙂

Kristen