Passion in Portable Land

It's time for Five for Friday{Saturday!}  
I'm loosing track of my days already and I love it!!


I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for:

I spent the first three days of my summer vacation sleeping!!  I was exhausted to say the least.  This year really kicked my gluteus maximus!!  I know it is because I'm getting old, but I'm in serious denial!  

I didn't do a single thing until Father's Day!  Then I woke up rejuvenated,  cleaned my house, and pampered my husband!  Okay! Okay! I had a little help from my kids too.  

My best friend from college, Kelly, stopped by for a visit while she was in Florida with her family for vacation!  It had been six years since we last saw each other.  Kelly lives in Illinois, but we talk on the phone a lot!  

 I never had the "college roommate" experience  because I was married to a gorgeous US Marine!!  But if I had to have one I would have chosen Kelly!  

Kelly has two adorable children, Laura -12 & Jacob -10!  We all went to the beach and enjoyed each other's company.  I wish we lived closer...I also wish I had taken pictures, but completely forgot! What is wrong with me???

  While Kelly was here we talked a lot about school.  Kelly is a principal of a Pre-K/Kindergarten Developmental School for students with special needs and her district's Director of Exceptional Students!  She is awesome!  Kelly helped me to reflect on my school year and listened as I weighed the pros and cons of several different doors that have opened for me this past week.  Best Friends are such great listeners.  

Then out of the blue another door opened up WIDE!!!  It opened so quickly that I couldn't help but run right through it!  I didn't even really think about it!  Crazy! Needless to say, I spent the next three days packing up my classroom and moving everything I own into my garage.  Boy, Oh Boy! It is a lot of stuff!  

There is more, but you get the picture...It took 10 car loads to get it all home and my school is about 25 miles away! Yikes!  I should have rented a U-Haul Truck!  

Leaving my school was very difficult for me.  I love my small farm school even if the water is poison!  I have developed several very strong friendships with my co-workers, and the students are the best...

BUT!!!

My new school is less than a mile down the road!  I get to teach one grade level, 4th!  I will have at least 3 other teachers on my team maybe more, and one of them is a VERY GOOD FRIEND!   I'm in a real classroom, not a portable that is falling down around me! Even though these are all positives.  The real reason why I ran through that door...LESSON STUDY!!  Yep!  Call me crazy, but I have wanted to participate in a real Lesson Study Group for several years, but I could not motivate my coworkers to participate!  My new school has several active Lesson Study Groups going that I may join, or I can start a new one!  They are even reading the same resource book as me:

Has anyone else participated in Lesson Study?  If so, please share your thoughts and feelings.  

Now that I have direction for the 2014-2015 school year I can move forward!  The wheels are spinning again and fast!  It's funny how a little change can rejuvenate and motivate you to keep moving forward. 

In doing so, I'm going to participate in the Book Study started by The Brown Bag Teacher

Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller!

As I was reading all the posts about the first chapter I became excited and wanted to join.  Then I read that this is book 2 of a series!  Well I just had to start with The Book Whisperer first!

Needless to say I'm going to be reading a lot, but that's what I love to do!!  Enjoy your weekend!  I know I will.