Musings from Mrs. Galvan

I have been home for two weeks. It has been a quick transition to reality, both in regard to family and school. Today is my last day as summertime stay at home mom so I don't want to take up too much time writing a long, thoughtful post. Instead I will share my to do list: Finish interleaving algebra problem sets Watch Tinkerbell and the Neverbeast with the kiddos everyday Make posters for both of the classrooms I will be teaching in this year Write PD grants for conferences that I want to attend Finish presentations for back to school workshops Decisively answer continual requests to watch a show or to have snacks Swim everyday with kiddos Host casual dance parties to the music from Tinkerbell and the Neverbeast Finish writing learning targets for Geometry and make the course more fun Buy fancy shades for windows Renew passport Sign kids up for soccer Make family photo book for 2014 Clean the house (lol) Plan a trip to Lego Land Plan play-dates for...

1. Laundry 2. Check Facebook 3. Take out the trash 4. Use the foam roller to painfully, stretch my IT band (when did this become a thing??) 5. Clean the stove 6. Sun Salutation 7. Make coffee 8. Google vegetarian dining options 9. Ballet 10. Check Instagram (I refuse the Twitter temptation - too prone to suck time) 11. Stellar kickboxing routine the tune of Eye of the Tiger, choreographed on the spot 12. Gaze out the window to watch the pigeons 13. Write silly blog posts This is what I need to do!!!

Today I am thankful for long two year old naps, my husband, kids programming on Netflix (new Daniel Tiger!) and a seamless, early bedtime. Why? Because I had time and made a lot of headway on my To Do List... I updated one syllabus and adjusted my lesson calendar for Algebra. I made a more attractive front page for my Canvas site with colorful links, as well as do a bit of boring file maintenance on canvas, the most interesting of which was creating a Create & Reflect (Blog) module to group all the prompts, tips and assignments. BTW these buttons were NOT easy to make. I used word art in publisher and saved each as a photo. Anyways, the more relevant progress I made was Standards Based Grading related. I am already committed to Active Grade . I watched most of the videos on their helpful Youtube channel . Still though, this decision did not prevent multiple sleepless nights spent with mind racing, consumed by crazy spreadsheets. Tonight I am hopeful that I can go to bed an...

Last week I obsessed about my tasks. This week I am releasing myself from an item that I didn't have the courage to include: I'm mostly a consumer in MTBoS land.  I won't be participating in most of the interesting chats. I won't be able to reach out to many teachers in need. I probably won't blog every day or every week for that matter. My blog readership isn't going to take off - I write to clarify my thoughts. I'm not great at designing innovative lessons, so I'm not contributing much for others to use (though I'll test a lesson and give feedback; maybe that's a wee contribution?). I can't make it to all the PD that I'd like or even watch all the interesting webinars. I've never submitted a picture to John's http://WouldYouRatherMath.com   or submitted a thoughtful question to Dan's  http://www.101qs.com/ .  Why not? Well I'm not  uniquely busy. I'm not moonlighting as a super hero (yet). At work, the usual tasks ta...