Blessed to Teach and Read

At the end of the first, full week of school, I was feeling on 'empty' in the emotional and physiological tank.  I was stressed, and I was completely exhausted, despite getting more sleep than usual.  Driving home after 5 p.m. on a Friday, I saw a man riding a bicycle toward oncoming traffic, on the sidewalk, though.  My mind did that, "Is that a baby on the front of his bike?!?" right as he came into focus and my brain realized it was, in fact, a toddler, and she was adorable and waving at every car as her dad biked her down the road.  I wish I had a picture.  She was the cutest!  I immediately waved back, and the man's face smiled, big, and he waved back, too.  My heart just melted.  And I was restored. Our school year started very early, on Wednesday, July 24th.  Our first day back was a district-wide look at our county's new Instructional Framework infographic.  From all that I've read about the messages companies' send to their e...

I am currently plowing through one of the most interesting books I’ve read in quite a while, thanks to one of my 2018 resolutions to read more books that are of personal interest, and not just juvenile literature, like I did last year.  (Thanks also goes to Goodreads’ book goal email-50 novels for the year, and The Gwinnett Public Library for having such a wide variety of eBooks.) The book is  The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.  Lots of awesome insights, based on scientific studies, into how people’s habits drive them and how they can change those habits.  It also discusses the role of groups in creating culture. I’m only halfway through the book, but I started it yesterday and had two semi-final, college football games to watch last night. :D #RollTide This 2017-2018 school year, our administration and school put forth a culture of #BeTheChange, in which we not only enacted purposeful times to do good within our schoo...

Our county Media Specialist, Susan Grigsby , has asked us to post a "shelfie" of the books that we've read this summer.  I remembered that I could update my  Shelfari app, and since the books that I've finished to date all fit onto 3 shelves, I snapped a picture.  These same books are in the Shelfari to the right.  Just click through. ----> I was trying to start reading through this year's  Georgia Book Award Nominee Finalists for grades 4-8, but that was starting to get costly.  So, I looked at what books I could check out from my local Gwinnett County Public Library on my Overdrive app for iPad.   ALL of the books above are digital content downloads.   All of them .  Knowing that some of them would be returned as the days ticked down to the due date actually motivated me to finish reading some of them.   This naturally lead me to reflect on my Follett wish list for the upcoming school year.  Almost all the books...