Now that summer is half way over (and a giant road trip)

Hi Readers! (aka mom and kelly)

Now that summer is practically over I'd LOVE to let you know what I have been doing since adventuring downtown DC with 8th graders. 

Rest of May:

As I continued to apply for jobs I was FINALLY offered one I am truly excited about! I will be teaching Kindergarden in a teeeenny tinnnyyy mountain town in Colorado, and holy smokes I can't wait! Like, summer this has been great, where are my adorable kiddos excited. Once I was offered the job the boxes were out and I was ready to pack (and if you know me, packing is one of my least favorite activities)!

It's not good bye, it's a see you later!

That was a ROUGH few months of applying and interviewing  and it is really, really hard being rejected from schools (even schools you don't really want to teach at). I applied for over 100 positions, online and the good ole fashion way.  If you're looking for a job, keep trying and use all your options! You'll get the perfect job eventually! 

June:

School ended so stinkin' quickly and I feel like we were all ready to get out and enjoy some Maryland summer (or not).  I was very sad to say bye to many wonderful fellow coworkers but had a partner in crime moving to Colorado with me, which made the goodbyes a little easier.  

Seriously, Missouri. 

Knee high by the 4th of July!

On 22nd we packed up my apartment and started the three day road trip. Which wasn't bad... minus Kansas (9 hours of ....). Luckily for me a friend and former coworker (whose girlfriend is NOT a teacher) really enjoyed road tripping and we had an excellent adventure. Teacher style.

Side note: if you're gunna do a road trip across America do it with a US History teacher. It. was. awesome. minus my anxiety, that was a little less awesome. We read about cities and states we drove through, stopped at "historical landmarks." But most importantly, we did our version of the beer trail, stopping at 11 breweries on our adventure and one distillery, in 4 days. #doitright We enjoyed sampler upon sampler of beer. My favorite? LEMON ALE from LB Brewery regrettably in Hase, Kansas. Seriously so upsetting it is freaking far away.  

"amber waves of grain" aka not colorado

"purple mountain majesty" one of those is mt massive

Finally we made it to Colorado, unpacked my things into a garage and adventured through the awesome town of Minturn were my dear friend lives. I was able to check out my new school and spend some time with my new principal, again (is summer over yet!??! i LOVE the first day of school). School is great, I mean how can you have a bad day when mt. massive is in your window? 

And with a brief stop in Salida, Colorado
with Bestest and Nephew Zero (the dog) we were off to DIA (barux hashem) trailer-less.  After spending the night at around DIA it was back on the road for me to Minnesota to spend the 4th and remainder of July in the only state that does summer right. 

July:

The Holmes' spent the beginning of July at Bay Lake in central MN and I remembered what relaxing feels like and how weird my family is. It was a great week of sunshine and lake time. I read two books in that week and started a third.  I've also been reading my teacher books and finding corresponding PINS from pintrest and drinking more iced coffee that is probably healthy for a human. 

I will do a posting about my summer reading soon and my favorite things!

Sweet home Minneapolis 

Judy the Jeep was a champ at pulling all my junk!

creating pro-active members of society.

Have you ever taken 14 8th graders through 3 security check points in one day?

On Thursday, we took the entire 8th grade to capitol hill. As a physical educator I have become quite confident in creating fun, engaging activities to make mundane learning extraordinary.

I went above and beyond and created standards for the trip:

SWBT: Meet congress members  High five as many congress members as possible- student with highest score will win cookies.

SWBT: Be eyewitness of famous buildings run almost 5 miles (yep, I brought pedometers) from the capitol to the library of congress back to the capitol then to the house of judiciary then back to the capitol.

SWBT: Identify prince harry and miss holmes will leave as a princess

To achieve standard one I showed the 8th graders the lepal pin of the 113th congress. When you see this you offer a high five.  Next, lunch was scheduled on the steps of the Capital right before the congress people would be let out for lunch (11:30ish). greatest. game. ever. Winner got cookies. these said cookies got this said student literally kicked out of the capitol, buttt more on that later. 

Yep! Dear congress men those were my lovely students.

I digress. Security lines and 8th graders. 

Here's the deal: all security lines are different. You cannot bring water or food into the capitol building, but you can bring food and drinks into the other buildings we visited.  All buildings the poor kids had to take off their belts, jackets, watches and hats. one kid kept taking off his shoes... I think that was a personal decision.  

Sooooo we would all get lost and the Mama Bear in me would get super nervous... I made it through other kids did not... the kids made it through as I ran around throwing away bagels and cream cheese.... and the freaking cookies... wich I guess under the security camera did not look like cookies, and because the student is not 18 he needed someone with him, and we were both through security. Luckily this is one of the greatest kids I have so I wasn't (too) worried.

Every time I go downtown I am amazed by how large and beautiful the buildings are, it is quite humbling. The mall has an incredible presence, I'd highly recommend checking it out at night especially. The monuments are incredible at night.  I can't help but thinking about how old they are and the huge decisions that have been made around and under them.  US history is awesome; full of perseverance  honor and scandal.  Check out: Hard Core History sometime! 

I'd love to post pictures from the trip and I will after I block out all 15 of my beautiful student's faces.  Until then I'm going to enjoy the last few hours of teacher appreciation week (and don't worry, I have a whole another blog post about that).