Wow. It has certainly been a long time since I've seen fit to update the world on what's going on in my life. Ironically, I've spent a lot of time online, and a lot of time writing since my previous entry. I just haven't done any writing here. I'll make an effort to change that, though.
What going on with me? Well, I've been done with school for the past 2 weeks, since May 25th, so I've been doing quite a lot of lounging around. Do I plan to lounge around all summer? Of course not. On Sunday I leave for Rancho del Chaparral, aka Girl Scout Camp. I'll tell you all about it, but first let me update you on school.
I can't remember just where we left off, but I'm sure I was tired and ready for a break. Well……that didn't change. On the whole I would consider my first attempt at teaching to be pretty damn successful. I wondered after my student teaching if I actually wanted to be a teacher. It wasn't horrible, but it really was a struggle. Teaching on my own was a struggle, too, but it was different. I had a lot of leeway in what I did and how I used my time. I got to come up with my own rules and procedures. I wasn't fighting against someone else's rigid structure all of the time. I think it went pretty well.
Some interesting things we did in the time I was the teacher in room 5A:
We had a poetry reading where the kids shared their writing with their parents.
We wrote a book recommendation list and passed it out to the rest of the school.
We measured trees out on the playground.
We wrote a lot, almost every day. If they learned nothing else from me hopefully they learned something about the writing process.
So, the year is over, and I am sitting at my computer in my pajamas. It's raining outside, with occasional claps of thunder. That's how you know it's summer in New Mexico. On Sunday I leave for camp. There are piles of gear all over my bedroom floor. I have been daydreaming about being there for months now. I'm nervous about it. I feel like camp should be the one place in my life that stays the same. I want to go there and be a kid again. I want it to be the place that I can come home to. I'm taking a gamble, I know. Regardless, I know that I will have a good time, get out of the city for a while, and just be free and be myself. 8 weeks will go by too fast, I'm sure.
