This has been a busy week. I have been working at Summer at Heights with a good friend of mine. We have been teaching a summer camp called Camp All STAR...

Tuesday, I attended our district Schlechty coaches workshop. C4DII (Coaching for Design level II) coaches practice coaching with a Schlechty Center associate. We also worked with teachers that wanted to begin the design process for engaging work. There were several teachers that attended that had some great lessons they wanted to take to the next level.

Today, I started reading my pile of "teacher" books. 


I started with Engaging Students...moved on to The Book Whisperer. Right now, I'm on page 126 of The Book Whisperer. This is an easy, engaging and makes you think read. 

I've dog-eared, highlighted and sticky noted all my favorite-make me think parts. 


I'm going to going to add those tomorrow.

Leftovers and Burgers

Messy cooker!

Well, the chicken enchilada pasta was yummy. We have been eating the leftovers which are even better.

My daughter and I were very busy today.  We started out our day by picking up her book for her summer book club. The book is Darth Paper Strikes Back. An interesting book choice. My daughter is excited because she gets to be in a book club. So, I'm thrilled that she is excited about reading.

 I LOVE to read! I don't read for pleasure during the school year because I have no self control. Here is the proof...I stayed up until 3am to finish a book last night. My dad, he had self control. He could literally read for an hour before bed, close the book and go to bed. How is that possible? My mom, much like me, had a hard time putting a book down. My brother also likes to read. Honestly, I'm not sure if he is more like my mom or my dad. I think I will have to ask him. So, I come from a family of readers.

After we picked up the book, we went to Hobby Lobby to get scrapbooking stuff. My daughter decided to make a book about her father/daughter trip to Colorado. She has been secretly working on it in her room.

Lunch at Taco Cabana.
Hair cut for the daughter...two inches off and sweeping bangs.
Pick up the Jon Hart men's shave kit for Father's Day.

Finally, home.
Pool time and grilled hamburgers. Everyone had a different type of burger tonight. Turkey burger with parmesan for the hubby, traditional burger for the daughter and mine...a turkey burger with black olives, pesto, and basil. YUM!
Movie time...what a great day!

Day 2 of Blogging

I'm excited! My family is home. They have been in Colorado for 9 days. Nice cool Colorado...not 96 + degree Texas. The house was very quiet except for the yappy dogs going ballistic when they saw a squirrel.

I had great intensions to clean out a few closet, the pantry and my craft closet. Well...too many good books and a refreshing pool were calling my name louder than the cleaning. Go figure. 5 books and a bit of a tan later, I still have closets to clean.

As a welcome home dinner, my family gets to try a recipe that I found on, non other than, Pinterest.

It is Chicken Enchilada Pasta. Found it over at...gotta love this blog name...








http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2010/11/five-starsand-then-some.html

I'll let you know what the family thinks of this new recipe.

By the way about to add another freebie to my TpT account.

Newbie Blogging

I love fifth grade!

It was a wonderful year full of new experiences and risk taking, for both the students and myself.  At the end of each year, I always begin to think about next year. What went well? What will I continue to do? What will I abandon? What will I redesign? And the ever so popular...what was I thinking?

So, begins the planning!

I've been looking at Teachers Pay Teachers. Love the idea of sharing things I have created. Most of my day has been spent researching TpT. How does it work? Is it worth the time? What about copyright? (I'm a rule follower...sometimes.) 

So, I've started with a blog, created a few freebies and starting looking at what engaging work I have designed for my students this past year.

Here is a link to my first freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is called...Stop, Drop and Observe.

It is an activity on making observations.
http://tinyurl.com/7xvpqh4