Tybee Island

Last weekend, my friend Jen and her family invited me to go to Tybee Island, off the coast of Georgia, with them. It was exactly what I needed after a really rough week at school. The weather was gorgeous and sitting by the beach so relaxing. We walked down to the lighthouse and visited the Crab Shack where I ate chicken because I'm weird like that! Sunday, we took another walk where we found a real live sand dollar which was really cool. You aren't supposed to remove them from the beach so we put it back. I wanted to watch it dig itself back into the ground but everyone else thought it would take just a little too long so they buried it in the sand.

Jen & I on the beach at Tybee

Flexibility & Funnies

Teaching requires a great deal of flexibility! Case in point, one of the second grade teachers moved to first grade to cover the vacancy left by one of our departing first grade teachers. Tuesday was her first day on her own, taking charge of the class. Guess what happened to her? First thing that morning, before she had begun to teach classroom routines or anything, the assistant principal walked into her room and sat down to observe her for her annual evaluation. In what other job do you receive your annual evaluation on your first day at work? That's FLEXIBILITY!

Teaching has it's funny moments though. Two weeks ago, one of my boys was so excited when we visited the library. "Miss Botheras," he said, "I'm checking out The Little Mermaid." Last week while preparing for our return to the library, I held up the books in our library box one at a time and the children claimed theirs. When I held up The Little Mermaid he was embarassed to claim it and so he very loudly declared, "Oh, I am never checking out that book again." I could not even stop myself from laughing out loud and I'm still getting a good chuckle out of it. Now, that was FUNNY!

Goggle Girl

This weekend I went to visit my friend Tannie and her family in North Carolina. Just before I left, I almost threw in my camera but decided against it. I am now totally regretting that because Tannie's 3 and a half year old did something totally hilarious and I would totally love to have a visual but I guess I'll just have to stick with the word picture. Holly was working on a Bob the Builder book with a little screw that she could twist in with a screwdriver. It broke and so she was attempting to fix it. She went to her drawer and pulled out her swim goggles and put them on and came back to continue fixing the book. I'm guessing she must have watched her grandpa or dad weld. Right about then we had to leave for a birthday party so Holly took her goggles with her. When we got to the Fun Factory, we piled out of the car and Holly came out with her goggles on. Tannie was such a cool mom at this point. She never said anything to her ... just acted like it might be the most normal thing in the world to wear your goggles into a public place, fully dressed and without a pool in sight. I couldn't keep a smile off my face. I mean, imagine confidently strutting into the equivalent of Chuckie Cheeses wearing your goggles! In a world where we are so influenced by others opinions it was just so cool to see a three & a half year old totally oblivious and being herself. What was even better was watching Tannie, let her have the opportunity to be creative in her own little way and never once giving her the idea that it might not be accepted. So hey, don't let anyone stop you from getting out there and wearing your goggles if you feel like it! :)