It's finally October and officially Fall, which means I'm officially homesick for a good, Michigan Fall. The colors, the crisp Autumn air, the boots and scarves and sweaters, and apple picking with hot cider and donuts. I can't say I miss Michigan Winter, but man do I love Fall. The weather here in the past couple of days has started to cool off, but it could be just a teaser. We'll see :)
Next week marks the end of the first quarter. Exams begin, grades will be entered...and somehow that means we're one-fourth of the way done with the school year. Although I said September went by slowly, it's hard to believe that we're nearly a quarter done. It always sneaks up on me.
In this next quarter, I'm looking forward to going to an AP training in Indiana right before Thanksgiving break, and then I'll be going home for my best friend's wedding. I'm really looking forward to both of those things, but obviously for very different reasons. :)
School is going well; it's just busy as always. I'm behind on grading, but loving teaching everything for the second time. Just like last year, I'm already thinking of ways to improve for next year. It's so great getting a "redo" on what you do, every single year. It's great being able to perfect lessons and bring new ideas and innovations into them.
One wonderful thing we've gotten at our school are laptops for the students. I don't know all the details of logistics and whatnot, but by the end of next school year, all students will have their own laptop to use in class. The current freshmen received theirs and sophomores are next. Next year will be seniors and new freshmen. I don't know how the order of the rollout was decided, but that's that. As an unexpected bonus, each teacher also got a laptop to use, so now I can incorporate that technology into the classroom, and be able to test it out/demonstrate it myself. My freshmen students have only had them for a week and are already asking when we'll use them in our classes. I don't have any classes of all one grade level, so current integration is a challenge, but definitely a good challenge to have!
As far as my life outside of school goes, I'm trying to have more non-school related things going on in my life. I've set a goal to leave school earlier than last year and spend less time on school stuff in general. I am in a new small group of "young professionals" (mostly young, single, 20-somethings in college or new in the workforce) and I really enjoy it. It's a really great mix of people and the church-wide study we're doing is really good!
Well, I've got some quizzes and projects to grade for tomorrow. Til next time :)
