Country Living

Yesterday, I took a trip out to my fried Ashley's family farm. Her great-grandparents purchased it over a hundred years ago, and her grandparents still live and work on it now. Some Sundays, they gather for a family meal, some good ol' fashioned porch-sittin', and Gator rides around the property. I was lucky enough to experience all of the above...and I even drove the Gator for a bit!

What a sweet family, and a great combination of relaxation and country fun. My favorite part may have been wearing the rubber galoshes while we traversed through hundreds of acres of open land in what I called "the farmers convertible". I felt pretty legit exchanging my silver sandals for the more practical boots. Other highlights include climbing a rocky hill in the little John Deere Gator and jumping on bales of hay the way you'd jump on the bed.

Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got home. And I didn't even do any work! I can't even begin to imagine how people make a living out of working on a farm - power to the people.

Happy Monday!

School's Out For Summer!

As is the trend with my blog, this post is long overdue.

After a long, exhausting, challenging, rewarding, and validating year...school is finally out! Kids finished school on May 31, and we finished working last Thursday the 6th. We got our test scores, and because they are still embargoed I can't share them in writing, but let me just say I am incredibly proud of our kids. More to come.

The last week of school was one of the shortest we've had all year. We had Monday off for Memorial Day, and the rest of the week consisted of half days (for kids - we stayed to do work until 5 pm). However, as I'm sure you can imagine, it felt like the longest week of the year.

To get us through and celebrate the end of the interminable week, we did lots of fun "summer" things, like a Nashville Sounds baseball game, Brew at the Zoo, and our end of year staff celebration. Pictures below.

I spent my first full day of vacation at the Country Music Festival downtown, hopping between the many stages set up for rising country artists with a coworker and friend. We saw Julie Roberts, Sarah Darling, Andy Gibson, Brett Eldrige, Hunter Hayes (he was a surprise performer!) and Jo Dee Messina. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in and forced Jo Dee off stage early, which was really disappointing. She was by far one of the best performers I've ever seen! I guess that means I'll just have to track her down at her next local concert.

My next order of business this summer was to road trip to Enfield, North Carolina to see my old babies "graduate" from the 8th grade. Along the way, I stopped in Greensboro and Wake Forest to see two good college friends. It was great to see my students, but I was definitely more excited to spend time with my co-workers. As luck would have it, my car was due for a state inspection, so I used it as an excuse to make a trip up to Richmond before heading back to Nashville to see family and high school friends.

After the whirlwind road trip, I am finally back in Nashville, alternating between being productive and being lazy. It's exciting to finally be in a place that I enjoy for a summer, and where there is so much to do! I still have 3 weeks left of vacation, and ambitious plans for those 3 weeks. (Note: Yes, I am trying to stay positive about the fact that I have half the amount of vacation time as most teachers, if only because I have twice the amount of vacation time as most other professions.) Plans include devouring "fun" books, weekly trips to the library, as much pool time as possible, some professional development reading, learning to cook a few new dishes, and reorganizing my place.

Probably my most ambitious and ambiguous goal this summer is to "learn how to sew". I use that phrase loosely, because I'm not really sure how to quantify that. But I took the first step when I picked up my old sewing machine in Richmond, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm finding it quite hard to be productive right now as I sit on the couch, bathed in sunlight from my giant windows and eating breakfast. In fact, I'm not sure how I'll ever get off this couch.

Oh wait, I have a meeting at 12:30 today...at the rooftop pool. Where I can continue being lazy and soaking up the rays. With a friend, a magazine, and an ice cold beverage (water, obviously).

Happy Saturday!

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend has been by far one of the best since I’ve moved to Nashville. And oddly enough, I haven’t done anything spectacular. In fact, the beauty of this weekend is I have never felt more “at home” in Nashville than the past 3 days, doing “normal” things and feeling like a local. The weather this weekend has lent itself to some great outdoor activities. Friday, immediately after our 2 pm dismissal (thanks to the Memorial Day holiday), we headed over to the outdoor patio of a local bar for lunch and happy hour, where I received my first round of sunburn of the weekend. That evening, we spent the evening on the town, enjoying several other outdoor venues as well as a karaoke session.

It was equally as beautiful on Saturday, with the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, and zero humidity. I made my way to the downtown YMCA to take advantage of the rooftop pool. The pool itself is nothing to write home about, but spending 4 hours doing nothing but reading and soaking up the sun was the perfect way to start my day.

The rest of my afternoon was spent walking around downtown, stopping by the library to grab a new book and planting myself at an outdoor table at Panera for lunch. I was reminded just how much I love living by the city while, as I read my new book and ate my favorite Panera salad, live country music drifted up from Broadway and the Bridgestone Arena was visible in the background.

Saturday evening we headed to a barn party – yes, apparently that’s a thing. My coworker Sarah and her family own a barn 20 minutes outside the city, and it was the perfect weather for a bonfire. The best part – she introduced us to a large group of her friends that weren’t teachers, a first for us! We spent most of the evening being real people, only mentioning school if someone specifically asked.

This morning, I woke up to another sunny, cloudless day, and was itching to get outside, so I walked to the local bagel bakery for breakfast. My friend Annie and I recently bought a one-year membership to the new bike sharing system here in Nashville, and we met at Centennial Park (home of the Parthenon replica) to rent bikes for the first time. B-cycle is a neat program – there are various bike stations located around the city, where an electronic dock allows you to check out and check in bikes at any of the locations (kind of like RedBox for bikes). You pay a membership fee, which covers unlimited rentals and the first hour of every ride free. We have grand plans to bike our way around the city this summer, and today was our trial run. Practicing on the paved, contained sidewalks of a park is the ideal start for a girl who hasn’t ridden a bike in years. I was a little wobbly at first, which I blame on the unwieldy metal basket on the front that weighs down the bike, but after the first few minutes I was feeling pretty confident. There were a few incidents of intentional off-roading to avoid the throngs of people that randomly popped up throughout the park, but for the most part we were pros, and we had a blast.

The day rounded out with a trip to Target, a scrub-down of Annie’s newly bought condo, and dinner at one of our favorite local spots, Five Points Pizza. Plans for tomorrow include more pool lounging, maybe more bike riding, and potentially dropping in on my building cookout to meet some of my neighbors (a year after moving in).

I hope everyone is having a relaxing holiday weekend. Only 4 more days of school!

Tennessee Charter School Gala

This past Saturday, my coworkers and I had a blast at the Country Music Hall of Fame for the Tennessee Charter School Association Gala. It gave us a reason to get out of our "teacher clothes" and into cocktail attire, plus an excuse for a night on the town.

These two ladies have become some of my best friends in Nashville, and both are incredible teachers. We first bonded way back in July over our similar-yet-different corps experiences in St. Louis, the Mississippi Delta, and Eastern North Carolina, as well as our similar, ahem, difficulty adjusting to life in a charter school. As well as our mutual appreciation of good wine. You may recognize them from my Spring Break adventures. Needless to say, I would not have survived this year without these two.

A few weeks ago, I was informed that my principal nominated me for the Teacher of the Year award for TCSA. Apparently, the gala was to honor the nominees and announce the winner (spoiler alert: I didn't win). But for me, it was free beer, wine, and dinner and a night out with my friends.

Don't worry Mom & Dad, Ashley was a great parental replacement - she captured a photo of me standing to be recognized as well as a shot of my picture on the screen as they read a part of my bio and essay. (By the way, they totally Googled that picture of me that's on the screen. Tacky.)

There was even a whole page for my bio in the program - I don't think I've ever had a page of anything before!

Although it was rather embarrassing to be recognized above my hard-working and equally as passionate peers, I am grateful for the nomination. More importantly, though, I am grateful for my job, my kids, my coworkers, and the continuous encouragement from friends and family. I really do have a pretty wonderful life.

Teacher Appreciation Week, Part 2

It's ironic that this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, because it happens to be one of the weeks where I've felt most under appreciated this year.

I'm not sure it's anyone's fault, but this week has been absolutely miserable.

The first few days were fine, except for the fact that the kids have been acting up, ready for the end of the year and the sweet freedom of summer. If only they knew how much more ready (readier?) their teachers are. But since yesterday, we've been short two teachers who are at a conference, which means we have to pick up the slack and work in overdrive, as if we don't already. This is one of my biggest points of contention with the charter school system because, as I understand it, this is just something charter schools do. There are no substitutes, because we don't want "random" teachers who aren't familiar with our "high expectations and rigorous curriculum" to "waste" a second of our precious time with our kids. And I get that, sort of. But there should at least be a few interns or fellows or college students studying to be teachers that are on reserve for days when teachers are absent. It is asking entirely too much of us, and it makes the person who is taking a day off feel guilty for something that they are legally entitled to (and morally, in my opinion). But that's another story for another day.

So for me, it meant teaching a reading class, on the subject of puberty nonetheless (don't ask), and then teaching 3 straight periods of math before having a break. That's 5 hours straight with children. For their sake and mine, that should not be allowed. After a 15 minute break for lunch, I had book club, a planning period, and one last class, plus afternoon advisory. Needless to say I was thoroughly annoyed with the adults who subjected me to this by the end of the day. I know it sounds selfish, and I wasn't the only one doing double duty, but it doesn't change the fact that it was frustrating and exhausting.

But wait, it gets better. Every other Friday, the math and ELA teams take turns having a day off for planning purposes (the other teachers have schedules that allow them for more planning time throughout the week). Today was supposed to be my day off. It was the light at the end of the tunnel for me, my beacon of hope. Until we got an email yesterday that informed us that everyone is on, because of another round of testing. As if our poor babies haven't been subjected to enough testing, here we are, sitting in a silent classroom while they power through a boring ELA test about monarch butterflies, with the math test coming next. And there goes my day off.

Oh, but I'm not finished yet. The kids have a dance tonight, so staff has to be here until 7 pm. And while the rest of the team gets to go home or get work done from 2 - 4:30, the math team is staying for a meeting. Sweet.

There's still more. Tomorrow, from 1 pm - 3 pm, right smack dab in the middle of the day, we have to be at the kids' music concert. Have to. As in, mandatory. On a Saturday. After an extended workday. If that wasn't enough to tick me off, I was supposed to go see one of my favorite singer/songwriters at a FREE concert Saturday afternoon. Goodbye, Matt Wertz show, hello sixth grade music concert.

I know I'm being a little dramatic. But there has been no acknowledgement of the fact that they are asking a lot of us this week and this weekend, and it is offensive and frustrating. As much as I love my job and my kids, I need for my personal life to be respected.

In the midst of all this craziness, though, I got an email from an old co-worker and friend at EMS. For Teacher Appreciation Week, the kids wrote letters to teachers they appreciate, and apparently two of my boys from last year wrote a shout out to me. Their simple words almost moved me to tears, and reminded me that the beauty of teaching is in the small things and that we often won't see the fruits of our labors immediately. Read below for their shout outs, forgive the grammatical errors, and enjoy the simplicity of their thoughts.

"Another Teacher I appreciate is Ms. H she mademath so easy. I passed my EOG on the first try with a 3 …. Now math doesn’t seem so hard .I always made a B or C in her class . So far she been the best math teacher I ever had … I WISH MORE MATH TEACHERS WOULD COME LIKE THAT."

"I appreciate Ms.H, I appreciate her because in my 7th grade year she helped me pass the E.O.G my first time with a 3. She gave me the formulas and before the test I did the brain drain which made me feel confident starting the E.O.G. I still use Ms.H method today when I have to do surface area, area or volume problems today. Even though we barely do problems like that, every time we do I will use the brain drain method."

It's nice to feel a little appreciated, even if it is by students I no longer teach, who are 600 miles away. Here's to hoping that these last 3 weeks are better than this one.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Two reasons to love Teacher Appreciation Week:

1. Buy one get one free at Chipotle - a burrito bowl for dinner and a free one for lunch!

2. Gigi's Cupcakes courtesy of our admin team.

Happy Teacher Appreciation week!

Richmond Bound

The beauty of modern technology - I can update my blog at the airport while I wait for my flight to take off.

It's my first trip home since Christmas, and while that in and of itself is exciting, the reason for my trip makes it that much sweeter.

It's our first "Girls" baby shower!

The nine of us have been friends for over 11 years now, and we've already celebrated 3 weddings. Now we are just a few weeks away from the first baby being born! My sweet friend Brittany is due next month, and I cannot wait to meet her precious little girl, Nora. In the mean time, I'm excited to celebrate both momma an baby with some of my best friends this weekend.

I even managed to get all of my work done, so I'm traveling light! It will be a short trip, since the cheapest flights are to Raleigh (a 3 hour drive from Richmond), but my parents have been gracious enough to help make it happen by chauffeuring me back and forth to the airport.

Strangely, though, I feel a pang of homesickness for my Nashville home already (sorry, mom!). It's amazing how much I've fallen in love with this city, how easy the adjustment has been, and how much I look forward to my weekends with my new friends. I feel so blessed to have the best of both worlds - great friends to live life with in Nashville and great friends to go home to in Richmond.

So excited!