The end of the school year is here. This was signaled by the 6th grade taking their annual field trip. In previous years we’ve gone to a roller skating rink, but since the past few years we’ve had some fairly major injuries we decided to take them to a local water park. My comment was that now we’re trading possibility of serious injury for the possibility of drowning a middle school kid, but everything went fine. With the end of the school year, my brain automatically starts to plan for summer break and what I’m going to do with my time (outside of family time, which is a given).
- Planning for our pilot project next year. A few teachers on my campus are going to be trying standards based grading as well as some other parts in Mark Barnes’ book Role Reversal. We’re going to be meeting soon after summer begins to try and plan for next year and see how we can support each other through this major transition in the way we teach.
- Getting ready for Confratute. I’m going to be heading to the University of Connecticut in July for some training in gifted education. There are a number of things that need to be planned. I need to read up on the course options for my time there as well as some sights to see on my days after. I also need to figure out how I can help Haley to be successful since she’ll have a four month old and this will be the longest we have ever been apart from each other since we’ve been married.
- Updating my reading list. I’ve done my best to collect an overwhelming amount of books to be reading over the summer about a variety of topics. At the beginning of putting this list together I was trying to borrow as many as I could, but I’m running into a few books that I had to order. Some reviews to come (assuming I read as much as I plan on this summer)
I also have a number of projects that need to happen around my house this summer. It should be a busy summer and hopefully a productive summer. Any ideas for any other ways I can fill up my short summer break?