Well, it's official...

I will be gone for nearly the entire month of June.  I got accepted to the NEH Conference in Florida, and then I have a service trip with students and a family vacation.  I don't especially love the idea of being gone so much, but when you have the chance for opportunities like this, it's kind of stupid to turn them down!

Although I just finished the most stressful week in a while, I am so in love with my job right now.  Our school is working on implementing a new engineering magnet program that will be slowly phased-in, starting next year.  What does that have to do with Language Arts?  Well, although some view it as a threat to our department (because if the students load up on STEM classes, then they're not taking English), I am seeing it as a pretty amazing opportunity to do something that hasn't been done before.  I met with a coworker and a professor from the U of M yesterday to develop projects in connection to literature that we teach.  The projects require students to use different engineering skills and they relate to different outcomes and models of engineering.  It was one of the most exciting things I have ever done in my teaching career!  By the end of the meeting, we were already planning future activities... Julius Caesar will never be the same.  I think this could easily translate into a paper.  Me-- a published author?  This professor will be in our building one day a week next year and I'm already excited to work with her.  She's using our high school as a model for a huge project she's working on, and she'll be working closely with us as we get this program up and running.  Sorry to bore those of you who aren't connected with the teaching profession...

Well, I had better get going.  I have a private sale event at a boutique in Stillwater to raise money for my service trip.  I hope we make tons of $$$!

Lazy Day

Since I did ALL my grading while administering the ACT yesterday morning, I have allowed myself to be completely lazy for the remainder of the weekend.  I finished the final season of Sex in the City (a bit behind on the times, I know); I watched Becoming Jane this morning while the spouse was at soccer (much better than expected); later today, I plan to resume reading The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell.  I love her.  If I would switch-hit for anyone, it might be her.  TMI?

It seems that spring is making a comeback after our snow and slush last week.  There will be some sort of meat cooking in our backyard in the next couple days.  We assembled the grill a few weekends back, and it enormous!  The husband bought it online (like he does with everything) because it was half off in December, so we had this massive box in the garage all winter.  After we unpacked all 7,000 parts and spent the entire day in the driveway, we emerged with a stainless steel beast that is as big as our love-seat.   It has a shelf, a cupboard, a side-burner... it's ridiculous.  There's even a griddle so you can cook pancakes and eggs on your grill.  Seriously.

In other recent news, we had hubby's art opening last weekend.  He was one of 30 artists asked to create a poster for Artcrank, an annual show at a bike store-coffee shop-art gallery downtown.  There was a line around the block all night, so we spent a bunch of the time on the sidewalk out front drinking the delicious free beer.  We saw some people buying the poster, so we'll see if they sell out by the end of the show.  It ended up being a pretty darn fun night, and any excuse to wear a dress is a good time for me.  At the beginning of last week, we also found out that Bizzle's nominated for a Webby which is basically the Oscars of web design.  Go online and vote for him!  It's the "Dinners Made Easy" email advertising for General Mills.  If he wins, we get to go to NY for the awards ceremony!  

And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm up for Teacher of the Year in my district.  The nomination came completely as a surprise; in fact, when I was told, the first word out of my mouth was "Crap." Not a disappointed "Crap"-- a surprised "Crap."  I have no delusions that I will win, but it's cool to be nominated.  The other two nominees from the high school are two of my BTFs (Best Teacher Friends), so the three of us are having a bit of fun with it.  We joke about bringing in headshots for autograph signings and getting our heads carved out of butter and such.  They haven't formally announced the nominees yet, so it's like our little secret for now.

Now if the weather stays nice, everything will be copacetic.