Savannah, GA

This post is (as are many) long overdue.

We fell in love with Savannah within five minutes of walking around, all because of this:

And the city didn't disappoint.

The activities in Savannah looked very similar to Charleston - strolling, shopping, eating, drinking, and resting. The only difference was we could do it all with an open container in hand, which, by the sheer novelty of it all, really made Savannah the front runner of the trip.

The weather warmed up and because our hotel was in a prime location, we took Savannah by foot. None of us knew much about the city, but it wasn't hard to figure out after some leisurely strolls along the historic streets. There are over 20 squares placed strategically throughout the city center, with the largest being Forsyth Square. The city was in bloom, with spanish moss hanging lazily off the trees and the green green grass leaving us feeling like it was summer time already.

The weather was a little warmer than Charleston, and we even took a horse-drawn carriage ride with a newlywed couple (awkward for them!) and a young tour guide who probably wished he had a carriage full of elderly people rather than teachers on spring break.

Like Charleston, it was nothing out of the ordinary or exciting that made this trip sucha blast. It was being with good friends and the freedom to do what we wanted, when we wanted. After an 8 hour trip back, I felt refreshed and ready to start the last phase of the school year. We decided to travel back on Friday, which gave us the whole weekend to recuperate and get ready for the week ahead. Thinking about Spring Break adventures only makes me excited for what is to come this summer!

Beaufort, SC

Beaufort (bew-fort), South Carolina. Not to be confused with Beaufort (bow-fort), North Carolina. I still can't get the pronunciation right, after countless corrections and studying the phonics in the guide book. A quaint low country town that was a perfect side trip on our way to Savannah. It's nestled along the southern coast of South Carolina, halfway between our two spring break destinations. Something about a tiny town that you can view in its entirety on your iPhone maps - makes you feel cozy and safe. We walked along the historic streets, browsed in the tiny boutiques, and enjoyed the waterfront view and people-watching from the comfort of a porch swing.

We wrapped up our short excursion with a panini at, well, Panini's on the waterfront. A beautiful view, a delicious chicken salad sandwich and a sweet Son of a Peach beer topped off our experience in the cozy town. And now...on to Savannah!

Charleston, Round 2

I had every intention of using my nifty Blogger app to update on our Spring Break adventure, mostly to save me from having to try to sum it all up in one blog post. But alas, we were having too much fun to worry about blogging, so here I am, trying to condense it all meaningfully but concisely.

I'll forgo the play-by-play analysis and hit the highlights.

First, since I don't think I mentioned it before, my travel partners and my closest friends in Nashville. All three are my coworkers, and also part of the Wednesday happy hour crew, which has turned into Friday and Saturday night hang-out crew and Sunday night dinner crew. Ashley has been an incredible friend since before we even officially began working at Liberty. We met up for a movie in the park when I was here in June getting hours in before my trip to Europe, and we have been close ever since. Annie is the 6th grade reading teacher whom I have learned so incredibly much from both as a teacher and as a friend. She is quirky, imaginative, and hilarious. Erin is a first-year corps member and teacher, one of two special education teachers at our school. She works with a small group of our sixth grade students and is also a homeroom teacher in sixth grade. Easily one of the funniest, wittiest people I've ever met - her comedic timing is golden and you cannot help but laugh at almost everything she says (she aspires to write for television one day, and she'd be dern good at it). Now back to the trip.

The weather was chilly but beautiful. I've been to Charleston before, and walking the familiar streets reminded me just how much I love returning to a city I've previously visited. There's something about the sense of comfort and familiarity that is satisfying, and it makes me eager to return to other cities I love (Paris, anyone?). We spent the first night indulging in a delicious southern meal and my new favorite beverage - Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka + lemonade - at Hominy's, a restaurant that had popped up in all of my guide books. Yes, even though we were all equipped with smart phones, nothing beats the consolidated and organized information in a good ol' fashioned book.

Possibly one of my favorite things about this trip was our unspoken agreement that we were on vacation. As much as we were excited to see the sights and explore the cities, we were equally as excited to slow down and relax. This meant sleeping in later and midday naps/chick flicks back at our hotel before venturing out for dinner and drinks. In reflecting on our trip on the car ride home, the four of us all pointed out that we didn't do anything spectacularly different than what we do in Nashville, we just did it (a) during the week, (b) with a few more drinks, and (c) in two new cities. And we had an absolute blast. Moral of the story: who you're with is way more important than where you are going.

A lesiurely walk around the city, a 2:00 pm happy hour with the best margaritas I've ever had at the famous Hyman's Seafood bar, and a late-night drink and twice-baked potato were the highlights of Charleston. See? I told you! Nothing fantastic or over the top. But we still managed to laugh more than I've laughed in ages. Some pictures of the first leg of our trip:

Up next: Beaufort, South Carolina.

Spring Break 2k13

We are currently en route to Charleston, SC for a five-day adventure that also includes a stop in Savannah, Georgia.

"We" is my three best friends from work - Ashley, Annie, and Erin. We have grown close through a shared opinion of our workplace...I'll leave it at that.

Our trip began with a 7 am departure time, and for the first hour or so we were driving through some unexpected and unwelcome March snow. Lucky for us, we were getting out just in time.

We had our first adventure somewhere in Georgia when we realized that, as a result of singing our lungs out to the Pitch Perfect soundtrack, we neglected to pay attention to the gas gauge, which read "40 miles to empty". The nearest gas station was 15 miles away. No worries - until the gauge mysteriously dropped to 15 miles, 8 miles, and eventually....3 miles, with another mile still to go until the exit. I was laughing and reassuring Ashley that we would be fine, but I was flipping out on the inside.

All that drama to say we made it with 2 miles left, and we're quickly back on the road.

We are currently about 80 miles outside of Charleston, and very ready to be out of the car. The sun is shining deceptively bright for such a chilly day, but it beats snow in Nashville. I'm excited to return to the charm of Charleston and experience Savannah for the first time, and even more excited to do it with an incredibly entertaining group.

Taking the south by storm!

Starstruck

I've seen my fair share of famous people since moving to Nashville. I go to church with one of my all-time favorite singers (he is a lesser known artist, but still famous to me). I even talked to Connie Britton briefly on a plane. But today was by far one of the coolest "celebrity moments" I've had since moving here, for two reasons. One, it was more of an "experience" than just a brief moment. And two, because I got to experience it with my kids, and they were absolutely in heaven.

The best part? I didn't even know who the guy was until yesterday afternoon.

(You probably won't know who it is either, but humor me here.)

One of our PE/Social Studies teachers has done some really awesome things for our school revolving around technology, including piloting an internet-based fitness program called Go Noodle. Drawing from systems like Wii, Go Noodle is a program that is meant to provide students with quick "brain break" physical activities to help "move the body, invigorate the mind". Each individual training program is "coached" by an Olympic athlete, who pops up on the screen, teaches you a few stretches and techniques, and then coaches you through an athletic competition. (You can see what I mean here.) One of the coaches is Olympic Gold Medalist track & field star Shawn Crawford.

"Shawn who?", you say? But that's besides the point. I said Olympic Gold Medalist. He won a gold at the 2004 Olympics and a silver at the 2008 Olympics, although he recently retired. Below is a screen shot from the Go Noodle website.

Go Noodle is a new company, and somehow we had been chosen as one of very few schools to pilot the program. After several months of using it as a random P.E. activity, the company decided to send representatives to our school to see the program in action - and one of those representatives was Shawn Crawford himself!

Lucky for me, it all happened during my morning planning period, so I got to watch my homeroom babies' star-struck faces as an Olympic athlete walked into our room, then run in place while both the virtual and the real Shawn Crawford coached them through "running" a 200 meter race. He was very charismatic, cracking jokes and acting silly, and the kids absolutely loved it. I have to say, even though I had no idea who the man was, I was impressed with his presence and his confidence, and it was hilarious to watch 28 middle school kids running in place with shy smiles on their faces, awestruck by having a celebrity an arm's length away. He even passed out sweatbands (which they wore proudly the rest of the day) and autographed cards to each kid.

With Spring Break only a few days away, it feels like this week is just creeping along. This was a great pick-me-up in the middle of a really long week. Two days of practice TCAP testing, and then freedom. It can't come too soon.

Pi Day

I had an irrational excitement for Pi Day this year (see what I did there?). It was the first time I was sure that my students knew what pi was, and I felt confident that they would appreciate whatever punny madness I came up with to celebrate. I had visions of pies - apple, cherry, pecan, pizza - being passed around the classroom, with students enjoying the irony of their complimentary treat. And somehow, they would all magically understand that pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, a concept I had previously tried (in vain) to prove using yarn and various sizes of circles.

Then all of a sudden, it was happy hour night, 3/13, and I hadn’t made any moves to organize pi day activities. And of course we all know what took priority that night - happy hour, obviously. So there I was, the morning of 3/14, with nothing but a lame YouTube video called “Pi Day” (a spoof on Rebecca Black’s annoying song, “Friday”), an even lamer joke that I made up on the spot, and a less-than-enthusiastic homeroom class. It was only 8:04 and pi day was already a wash.

I was also two minutes late to my first class, which is practically a crime at a school where time is of the essence. It was a rough start to the day, and as I made my way into the classroom, I was already feeling defeated. I was expecting the homeroom teacher who was waiting for me to relieve her to be annoyed, so I avoided eye contact with her and immediately faced the kids, who were standing eerily silently as they waited for the cue.

“Good morning, Marquette 6.”

“Happy Pi Day, Miss Hiltunen.”

I can only imagine the look on my face as those sweet babies startled me with the modified version of the morning greeting. My jaw dropped, my heart stopped, and I almost cried. The kids looked so excited to surprise me, and the homeroom teacher that had practiced the greeting with them looked ridiculously proud and equally as excited. I don’t know why it affected me the way it did. Pi Day’s only importance is that the date shares its digits with the infamous irrational symbol (and the added bonus of Albert Einstein’s birthday). I have no personal connection to the day; in fact, I can’t even remember my teachers making a big deal out of it when I was in school. But that little bit of enthusiasm was well-placed after an epic failure of a homeroom activity. It was such a small thing, but it was exactly what I needed.

It’s little moments like this that remind me why I love my job, that propel me forward even when I’m in a slump or experiencing hundreds of other frustrating moments. More on that to come.

Generation Z

I have an ambitious goal of writing at least 2 blogs this weekend to update on recent events as well as my current state of mind. Fingers crossed that my goal is realized.

In the meantime, a quick story that had me laughing out loud as I g-chatted it to the other 3 teachers who are also currently proctoring comprehensive exams (oh what our kids would do if they knew what we were ACTUALLY doing on our computers right now).

In our morning homeroom, we gave our kids some "frame games" to get their brains flowing for their exams. Even if you've never heard the name, I guarantee you've seen them before. They are some of my favorite puzzles, and my kids had a field day with them last year. But I was once again reminded of the generational gap between my students and myself when I posted this one on the board:

I walked them through how to solve the puzzle, explaining that it's not only the words you see, but HOW you see them. In this example, the word "play" is written twice. What's another word for twice? Times two. Double. Ah! Does it sound like a common phrase you've heard before? Several kids arrived at the answer - double play. Then I went for the extension question: "What is a 'double play'? Where have you heard it before?" Since my mind first went to baseball, I immediately looked to one of my boys who I knew was an athlete to explain the term. I suppose my reasoning was flawed; he very innocently replied:

"It has to do with Direct TV."

One point for commercial marketing. And one point for Generation Z.

Happy Friday!