Saturday, April 24, 2010

Spring Break! (finally...)

Woo, my spring break is finally here! Now, I need to apologize before I start this post because I know I only talk about school on here, but considering that teaching and taking classes about teaching are pretty much the only things I do nowadays, you'll have to forgive me.

First off, my school has been all over the news, both international and local! That's right, we heard tell of someone seeing this clip, featuring my two principals recruiting in the Iberville Projects next to my school, in Japan:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8604181.stm


The second clip comes from the local news. Last week was state testing in Louisiana, which basically meant that K-2 were kicked out of the building all week so as not to risk disturbing the testing environment. Throughout the week we fed exotic animals, visited two colleges (Tulane and Dillard), and completed 10 hours of service learning. The latter is what we made the news for. We had an anti-litter campaign where we teamed up with a local community center and service organization. We picked up trash around the school, placed trashcans in the neighborhood, and on the last day held an anti-litter parade (you know how New Orleans loves its parades) complete with handmade cardboard signs. Here's the clip from the news segment:

http://www.abc26.com/videobeta/bb75e563-8152-4cf6-aae6-f0474ed36994/News/160-Kindergarten-first-and-second-graders-teamed-up-with-the-Phoenix-of-New-Orleans-to-clean-up-lower-Mid-City

Makes me smile :)

Also making me smile is my long awaited spring break! I'm super excited about my plans - I'm going to New York City baby! My principal and a couple other teachers and I are going on an all-expenses paid trip to observe three of the best charter schools in the city. I love doing this sort of thing because I get such great ideas for my classroom. I observed some schools after The Game and ended up bringing back a behavior management plan that has since been implemented school-wide (not to brag or anything). Also, while in New York, my entire suite has decided to use me coming as an excuse for a reunion, so all of us will be converging there next weekend! I could use me some Yale loving, let me tell you.

Well, that's the update from my front. What's happening in your neck of the woods?