Workshops Galore!

Wow, talk about whirlwind Workshops!

I have spent the last two days in teacher workshops sponsored by the USOE (Utah State Office of Education) in conjunction with the states museums and planetarium. It was a wonderful experience. These are some neat organizations who have partnered to provide workshops for educators through the iSee Grants of Utah.

Participating groups were:

*The Leonardo

*The Clark Planetarium

*The Living Planet Aquarium

*The Utah Museum of Natural History

*Red Butte Gardens

Every group (I went to all but the Red Butte Gardens) provided wonderful resources for teachers to take home and use. Check out their websites for information and teacher files/activities to use with classes.

By far, The Leonardo did the best job. They provided us with all the materials we needed to do the 12 experiments we did in class plus a wristband jump drive with all the files in digital form. They rocked! I am excited for the opening on April 15, 2011, and wish that I could work for them. It would be a really exciting to work in a job where I get to help teachers be better through hands-on activities and events. Maybe someday!

The Living Planet Aquarium also provided me with wonderful equipment to complete the activities they demoed for us (flower press, bug jars, tree cookies, laminated sheets, identification manuals for birds, plants, and insects as well as other treasures! YEA! I love getting more "stuff"!!!!

I loved most every minute of the experience. I even got to see a couple of friends from my Math Endorsement days. That was really nice.

Phew, what a great week!

-Later...

Going, Going...

Gone Wild! I finished a two-day workshop today titled "Project Wild". It is funded and presented by the Utah Division of Wildlife Management. I think that it was pretty good. I needed the hours for multiple reasons. 1) To get teacher licensure renewal points, 2) to get workshop hours for a pay incentive, and 3) to hopefully find a few new activities to try with my classes next year. All three missions were successful.

One a separate note, I have been plugging away at my paper. I currently have 7 1/2 pages (8 1/2 if you count the Abstract, which I TOTALLY plan to do!) For I am about half way through my paper. That is the good news. The bad news is that my teacher asked us to be ready to facilitate a 30 minutes discussion on the last 5 chapters of our FOURTH textbook. I think she went a bit overboard on the number of textbooks and articles. But oh well, it is almost all over. As you can tell from me posting right now and not working on my paper, that I am good at avoiding it!

After my workshop today I was able to come home and spend a few minutes getting our pump hooked up to the irrigation water and mowing the lawn. It was nice to be outside, unfortunately I got a little sunburned on my neck. But it was all good! It was just nice to be outside. Then this evening we headed up to my parents house so that we could build my son's Pinewood Derby car. Grandpa Hughes was great help- thank heavens for his amazing set of tools! After we got it cut out I decided to mow my parents lawn. It was looking mighty shaggy and I really felt the need to get some exercise. Okay, okay- using a self-propelled mower isn't really "exercise" but I did get a good mile in of walking (or at least it sure felt that way). We spent a while after watching the latest episode of Star Wars the Clone Wars. I like that show. I think that it is well done. Anyhow, we came home and I had to shower because my allergies were REALLY out of control from mowing. We then ate snacks (because it was so late) and got the kids all tucked up in bed. Now, instead of working on my paper, I will most likely head to bed as I have meetings that begin at 7am. BLAH!

Well, world, thanks for stopping by,

Later...

WOW! That Is All I Can Say.

After spending quite a few hours at the school getting things finalized, I was able to go out and eat with my little herd and my parents. That was great. Then we did family night. It was fun to talk with my son about his up coming baptism. Next, we got the kids in their jammies and headed up to my parents house. Because we missed the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics, my parents recorded it with the DVR. It was nice (and not only because we didn't have to live through advertisement every 5 minutes, thank heavens for fast forward, but we took a 4 and 1/2 hour TV showing, and watched the good stuff in less than 2! I think that China did a great job with it. I loved the drums, I loved the type-set boxes that went up and down. I think that the LCD screen that was like a football field+ was cool and I really liked the end where the guy "ran" around the entire upper rim before lighting the cauldron.

The Globe was neat as well.

Then we watched as the men's gymnastics took bronze (which is good, but they could have had silver). We left to come home after midnight. These late nights are killing me, but it is the only time my wife and I can sit together and actually talk without the traumas of parenthood preventing a moment to discuss life!

I have a church meeting a few minutes, then lunch, and back to the school. Tomorrow I am heading out to our D.O. (District Office for those of you who are NOT teachers reading this) for training. The district is paying for me to...(Wait, I should say they are REIMBURSING me IF I get B or higher grades) get my Masters Degree in Administration. In order to do THAT, I have to be a level 5 in our district (which I won't take the time to explain except for this: It is a program that allows me to make a little extra money by doing A LOT of extra-curricular/after school workshops, etc.) Anyways, all this is to explain that I have 30 hours of training for level 5 and some of it takes place the next two days.

I look at the countdown timer at the top of the page and my heart stops, then I think, hey, I am ready- BRING IT ON! :)

Well, off to my meeting. Have a great day, Cheer for the USA in the Olympics, and,

Later...