Day 2

Don't you like the catchy titles? Today we started with a rock and mineral lab and had to identify all of these rocks and more! Did I tell you we had a test yesterday? I'm pretty sure I bombed it and now I have to learn these??? Well, I don't have them memorized but I can name a few of them. Hopefully I will learn them all before I am done with camp. We were in lab for an hour and a half.

Look at me being all scientific and testing the streak of this mineral, while posing for the camera... I am that talented!

This is my roomi Cristina for the next 2 weeks. She is a pre-service teacher and will complete her student teaching in the Spring in High School Biology. We get along very well and I think we are two of the youngest teachers here.

Okay, onto the bus ride. We left College Station around 11:00 am. We are on a 50 passenger bus and have 35 people traveling with our group. Cristina and I were fortunate enough to get seats on our own so we could stretch out and we had the perfect location. There were some issues, nothing major but stuff that is aggravating when you are crammed on a bus. I took a nap, finished a book, texted Katie about teachers and the funny things they do, and attempted a crossword puzzle. We passed around a microphone and introduced ourselves, which I always hate doing and man, teachers love to hear their own voice! Introductions were supposed to be short and I swear some teachers were up there for 30 minutes!

Blog world, I would love for you to meet Sheri. She is from Vernon, TX, our stop for tonight and she gave us all sorts of history as we entered the area. For instance, the river is one of the few places cattle could cross safely. There is a coal power plant and as we were riding through we saw a train with TONS of coal.

At 5:00 we rolled into the Holiday Inn Express in Vernon, TX. This is the view from our room. I will have one of these pictures for you every day as a fun game to see the scenery. Apparently our view in Ouray is gorgeous!! We start seeing some cool stuff tomorrow and we have another long bus ride so keep looking for more adventures!

Day 1

Today was our first day of G Camp. We arrived at the hotel and checked out of bucket of supplies. Then, we traveled to A&M for lectures on science (how important observation is) and Earth systems, which goes perfectly with 4th grade TEKS. After the lectures we went to Chicken Oil for dinner and had the juiciest (a.k.a greasiest) burger ever! I'm looking forward to our adventure tomorrow. We are leaving town around 11 and will travel 335 miles to Vernon, Texas. I have my book packed and am ready to go!

Only a few days left...

G Camp on Facebook

If you are on facebook, click on the above link and "like" the page. You will be given updates about our G Camp adventure. I will share all that I am learning and beautiful pictures that I will attempt to capture. Thanks for following the updates and leave comments or questions! :) I promise to respond. 

One week left until....

G Camp!! I can't believe that I leave in a week and I am so excited. Check back here for updates on everything I am learning and the exciting things I am seeing.

Wonderings

When I was little I would imagine what my teacher's did during their summer break. At my previous school, we didn't get paid through the summer so I still had to work and never had a summer "off". However, since arriving in the grand state of Texas, I have had 3 summers off now and I am loving it! So, you may ask, "How does a teacher spend  their summer?" So far this summer I have done a lot of relaxing by the pool and hanging out with friends. I have gone to one math workshop. I have read 1 and 1/2 books (I'm currently in the middle of one). I also got a new camera so I have been playing with that and taking a lot of pictures. Finally, I have this cross stitch that I have been working on for 4+ years now and my goal is to finish it before school starts. I'm sure many teachers lead a lot more of an interesting life than I do,especially during the summer. However, I enjoy my time to relax and spend with Mr. Edugator.

Kim Sutton

Yesterday I went to a Kim Sutton math workshop. Kim Sutton herself was our presenter. She was very interesting and had a lot of energy! I can't wait to take her ideas back into my classroom and use them next year! I also got some book ideas from her to read and just ordered them. I'll let you know how they are! :) If you ever have a chance to attend a PD session with her...do it! She was amazing!

The results are in...

Okay, it's been forever since I posted. School is out. Scores are in. I'm very proud of the kids. I saw a lot of growth this year, even if they did not pass "the test". It seems like I start every year wishing for the previous years class and thinking about how the current group is "harder" than the last. However, as I end the year and realize that I think that every year, I am proud of my class this year. They worked hard to become a school family and truly stand up for each other, almost to the point of being cliquish. Is that a word? Well, it is now! I saw huge gains in their academic skills and their self confidence. I hope that I was able to encourage them to continue to believe in themselves and be the best they can be.