Saturday, July 30, 2011

Forgive me if you've heard this one...

It seems like many of my favorite bloggers take an occasional hiatus. Sometimes it is because they're having a baby, finishing grad school, moving across the country, etc... I have done none of these things (recently).  I have, however, taken a quarter year hiatus. Yikes. Here's a quick recap:

APRIL/MAY
I wrapped up another amazing school year with my students. The usual end of the year madness involved packing up my portable classroom trailer (where I moved in December due to school remodeling) and moving back into the building. Literally. Moving. Everything. Every box, book, pencil, piece of paper, file, etc... Let's just say this year taught me a lot about space management and getting rid of clutter. Perhaps this year saved me from being a hoarder in the classroom. Files that were passed down to me from someone who retired years ago? GONE! Random collections of mismatched paper plates from the last 5 years of birthday parties? GONE! Homework from students from 3 years ago? GONE!

MAY
Not to toot my own horn, but in May, I was named Nevada's History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute. I was nominated by Christy Keeler, who has mentored me and supported me since grad school. I really felt honored to represent my colleagues in Nevada and receive this award. More on this later...

JUNE
We successfully held our third annual Girls Rock Vegas summer camp. Forty girls learned to play guitar, bass, keys, or drums. They formed bands, wrote original songs, and rocked out at the showcase concert. Our volunteers were especially fantastic and the girls were inspiring. In fact, this was probably the best ever year of camp up until some crazy meth head rear ended our car on the way to the showcase concert. Boooooooo crazy meth heads. YAY, however, for awesome children who melted faces at the showcase. Seriously, these kids are FEARLESS!!!

JULY
In the midst of everything else, we planned a wedding. That's right folks, Steve and I got married a couple weeks ago. In another state (Utah). We are also having a reception here in Vegas.  And for those who were wondering, of course we "got the band back together" to play a special song for Steve at the reception. Also, I learned that you can indeed fill up an entire rental car, drive for eight hours, unload it in 15 minutes and still make it to rental return on time.

Don't worry. I'll post photos later. Because I know you all want to see photos.

So friends, that is where I've been. Love you all.