Some Positives

It has been a very, very tough year this year, and I have often found myself focusing on the negatives instead of the positives.  Well, I will confess that this post is mostly for me, about me.  In the midst of a lot of stress, I need to shine light on the following:

Odyssey of the Mind

I have been coaching 2 Odyssey of the Mind teams since Winter Break.  It has been extremely time-consuming and has definitely taken a toll on me.  I am so thankful for the support of one of my teacher colleagues, who helped me oversee one of the teams- the stress of coaching both teams was truly difficult to manage.  Well, the regional competition took place on Feb. 18 and one of my teams advanced to the State Finals that will be held in Brentwood on March 31.  I was actually half-hoping that this would all be done with by now, but we'll need to continue with this until the state finals.  Wish us luck- it would be nice to be rewarded for all of the hard work that has been put into this competition.

Science Fair

I believe that I am one of the few 5th grade teachers in our district who actually teaches and uses class time to teach my students about the scientific method.  Many teachers just give their students the information and assign for the work to be done at home.  Many of my students don't have the support they'd need from their families to know how to do these Science Fair projects.  Well, the hard work paid off!  At our District Science Fair, I had one student take 1st place and another student take 2nd place!  This is the 2nd year that one of my students has won 1st place at the District Science Fair!

I am incredibly proud that I got to be the teacher who guided these students to achieve these amazing accomplishments.