inspired.

Every time June rolls around, I think back to five years ago after my first year teaching when I had applications in at 10 different high schools in the great state of Ohio.  The plan was to go to New York for a year or two and then travel back to "normal" life in the midwest.  A handful of reasons were pulling me home, and yet I couldn't bring myself to make that decision final.  Then. I went to my first June planning meeting, where a team of teachers plans the next year's curriculum.  I realized then how lucky I am to have such inspired colleagues and a job that lets us re-envision what we're doing each year.

Last year the 8th grade team planned a new opening unit based around revisiting favorite books from childhood, with the intention of reigniting the kids' passion for reading by teaching how to dig deeply into books they long ago adored.  Today we re-imagined this unit and I walked away with a pretty sweet re-reading list and I am so antsy to start working on this pile and, like the nerd I am, annotating and writing about them in preparation:

Then my team took a walk to the bookstore and made a list of books to order for our classroom libraries...it was so fun thinking about what books my current rock-star 7th graders will want to read in the fall as 8th graders. And, let's be honest, I'm pumped to read them all, too.

And, let's be totally honest, I'm also counting down the days until June 28th.  Everyone needs a summer vacation to rest, relax and reinvigorate. Sigh. I love my job.