Coffee Talk 8/14/11

As you begin putting those long hours into getting your room ready and making plans for new little faces, take a moment to reflect on the balance in your life. It's hard to stay balanced as a teacher when there is always so much to do, so we'll have to help each other! In today's coffee talk, post the highlight of your summer. Be sure to blog about it if you haven't yet, and include a link so we can see pictures!

I'll start us off . . . last year, a colleague of mine told me about ABC dating. You and your husband or boyfriend, or whomever, do something that starts with A, then B . . . you get the idea! Perfect for teachers, right? Well, my husband and I started ABC dating last year, and it has been a BLAST! It breaks us out of our usual rut of dinner and movie (when we have the time) and we have tried so many new things! Some of our new adventures have made great disaster stories, but most of the things we've done have been so much fun! Our last date (before school started for me) was our "P" date--Paint and Sip. We got a group of 8 friends together and took a 3 hour painting class! We brought wine and snacks and learned to paint. Not only did we have a blast, but all 8 of us want to do it again soon! You can see some of the other dates we've been on in our ABC adventures by clicking here.
I saw a youtube "search story" from Sunny Days in Second Grade, and she also suggested using the "search story" with your students (if you can access youtube at your school). That gave me an idea about using it as a 'back to school' activity. I made a "search story" to share with my students about some of the things I've done this summer. Click here to see it. They're easy to make, so I'm going to try to have my students make one too. I'll let you know how it goes!

What has been the highlight of your summer?