The best song to describe last week is Alabama’s, “I’m in a Hurry”. I was certainly “in a hurry” as I ran from one exciting activity to the next. It all began with the announcement of my nominee for the Teaching it Forward scholarship to the University of Phoenix. You can find out more about that thrilling announcement at http://www.stpsb.org/news.php?id=4473. Because I had been selected as a “Star Teacher” for my district, I was interviewed immediately following the scholarship announcement. Along with the interview, a portion of my first class was filmed. You can see the video and the interview at http://www.stpsb.org/news.php?id=4476.
On Thursday afternoon, I led the first Music Education Working Group meeting. As you may recall, the Louisiana Department of Education had conducted a study on my behalf regarding music education programs in the grades k-8. The objectives for the first meeting were to review the data from the study and agree on the process for making recommendations to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. As this first meeting was conducted as a Webinar, I had several conference calls and practice runs regarding the use of the technology interspersed throughout the week.
I also participated in another conference call regarding the planning for a presentation at this summer’s Teacher Leader Summit in New Orleans. I’m looking forward to the presentation because I will be working alongside three other Louisiana State Teachers of the Year. I know that I will learn a great deal from these inspiring teachers as we progress with our plans.
Along with these invigorating activities, there was much hustle and bustle at school. We had Spring Celebrations and a visit by the Bug Mobile. The first grade students also visited a nursing home to share special bunnies that they had created with the residents. The faculty members even participated in a egg hunt throughout the day on Thursday.
With all of these activities, I was also teaching my regular schedule. Needless to say, it was a week where I could have done as in the song, “Rush and rush until life’s no fun”. However, I recalled some excellent advice given to me by Sarah Brown Wessling, the 2010 National Teacher of the Year. While in San Antonio, we had discussed the difficulty of balancing the hybrid roles of “Teacher” and “Teacher of the Year”. Her advice had been “to be present”. Keeping that advice in mind, I gave all of my attention to the present moment and focused on the next activity only when the time came. Although I was still in a hurry between activities, I enjoyed each and every moment this week.
Stomp'nchat 