Thinkin' like a Butterfly!

The past three weeks have been a wild ride. Many, many things going on, both at school and at home.

October is always a busy time at school as we are getting ready for the end of the first nine weeks with report cards and parent conferences. We have also had a Puppy Party, our first ever PTA Movie Night, Fundraiser orders have been delivered, etc. Drew and the other second graders went on their first field trip this month to see The Jungle Book on stage, then they had lunch from Chick-fil-a. Mikayla and I and the other kindergartners went on our first field trip of the year on Friday, October 17. We went to the apple orchard where we got to get some apples and a small pumpkin.

Two weeks ago, I had Spartanburg Writing Project's Fall Renewal Conference, and a Junior League of Spartanburg meeting where I was presented my grant check. I wrote a mini-grant this summer (the beginning of July) to help fund Literacy Centers in my classroom. I have always had centers in my kindergarten classroom, but now I have begun two separate center times, math centers and literacy centers. I wrote the grant (the first I've ever written) thinking that I didn't stand a chance of getting it funded. I was shocked when I received the congratulatory email in September saying my grant had been selected for funding! They were able to fund 24 grants out of the 120 that were submitted. I am grateful that mine was one of the ones selected!

This past week, I went to Anderson on Thursday for the Region 1 Teacher Forum workshop. Teacher Forum members are teachers that have been selected as Teachers of the Year all across the state. Region Forum and State Forum is made up of District Teachers of the Year across the state. I had so much fun at this workshop (it is always great fun when I'm with these incredible people), and I learned a lot as well! That's where my title comes from - "thinkin' like a butterfly"! This year's theme is centered around the book Wings of Change by Dr. Franklin Hill and a classic line from the story says "Thinking like a caterpillar does not work for butterflies." I love this line, and from now on, I strive to "think like a butterfly"!

In addition to all of these "school things", we have had a lot going on at home as well. Drew has soccer practice every Monday, and Mikayla has dance. Monday is also the day of my Weight Watchers meetings. Nothing like the first day of the week being so hectic. Mikayla also dances on Fridays, so we try to leave school earlier during the middle of the week so that we can play at the park for a little while. Drew has also had soccer games every Saturday, and one Saturday we were at Harvest Fest and the next we were at Fall in the Park. The fair has also been in town this month, so we went there too. I have pictures coming from our trip to the fair and also some of Drew's past soccer games. He is supposed to have another on in the morning, but we will see how the weather holds up...

Things should be slowing down soon so that I can get back to my daily (or at least weekly) blogging! We will see...