Summer Plans

9 days! 9 days! 9 days! School is almost out. At the end of the 9 days I will actually be able to think about what to do for next year. This is the part I look forward to the most. Not the kids leaving {well let's be honest, that's nice right about now} but the fact that I get to plan for what's to come next year. The excitement of it starts all over again and that's the fun part.

After the extensive weekend long Springboard training, I don't HAVE to do summer PD. That weekend long training will count {thankfully!} for the summer PD we're usually required. Now I'm free to do other things like hangout with my 18 month old.

I will be doing some training because I can't just sit around all summer. I'm also leading some PD this summer. One of the things I'm working on is a restructure of our Reading SSI curriculum. We use this class for our students who are "bubble" kids on the state test. I'm working with 2 other teachers to restructure the curriculum and then we'll be leading the half day PD in July.

The next training is the district's annual Technopalooza! I blogged about this last year. This was my favorite part of last summer and I'm looking forward to the 2 days this summer. I'll be presenting a session called "Welcome to the Blogosphere." If you're around the DFW area and are looking for an awesome summer technology conference check it out! It's July 30-31.

Besides that, I'm pretty much free! We have a family vacation scheduled to San Diego in July. The best thing about summer is that my brain has time to recuperate and then the ideas start to form.

What are your plans for Summer?

Wrapping Up the Year with Summer Reading

It always seems as though I dream about the ending of school more than beginning school. Many people have told me about their school dreams right before school starts. I don't usually have those. I have end of the year dreams that actually are nightmarish. Last night, I had one about the duties I have as department chair and making sure everyone accounts for their textbooks, books, etc. This really cut into my sleep and I'm not very happy with what my brain is doing.

With it being the end of the year, I've been reflecting on some things that I need to continue to do as well as some new ideas. My principal sent an email regarding our summer reading for our students. That got me thinking. It's becoming an expectation that blogs are utilized in our Language Arts classroom as well as using Twitter. I'm wondering how successful it would be to have our students get ahead of our 25 book campaign over the summer by being part of a special summertime blogging group devoted to summer reading. I was also thinking of incorporating Twitter with it too.

I haven't thoroughly thought it out yet but I am seriously thinking about this. I must get on top of it since the end of the year is quickly approaching.

What do you think? Do you have plans for the end of the year? Do you have summer reading expectations for your students?

Have a great week everyone!