Busy Month

Well - it's been awhile since I last blogged. I'd like to say it's been a busy month - but I can't stand when people think their lives are so much busier than everyone elses. But - it's really been busy. :) This last month of school always seems to go so quickly - but not before stressing me out. :)

We just had our big Cultural Celebration at school last week. It's a huge project - put on by a committee (usually made up of most of my department and a handful of nonESL teachers/staff). We started out by printing posters to advertise the event. We did this for the first time last year - and this year had even more interest. The poster was designed by a few of my 7th graders, drawn by another few, and then inked by yet another. So - instead of 2 students - I had 5 who took part - and wanted to take the after school trip to Minneapolis - to Lon's studio - to print their creative collaboration. I enlisted Becky to help drive - and we took off one afternoon to the city - to become printing apprentices. Lonny is so good with the kids - he does an excellent job explaining what he is doing - and then giving the kids the chance to take part in all aspects of the printing. He definitely has teacher blood in him! Here are the proud artists with their final masterpiece - posing in the studio.



Last Wednesday (the day of our event) - we had a good amount of students dress up in their cultural dress. Even a few staff members took part! Here's a shot I took of a bunch who participated. Pretty sharp huh!?



Finally - Wednesday night was the big event. We had 22 food booths - filled with foods from many cultures. I had more than 40 students working the booths, setting up, and cleaning up. The kids were awesome. They helped out wherever I needed them, they were smiley and friendly to our guests, and had a great time while doing all of it. They really took ownership of our event - and I think it shows! (OH yea - I think it was pretty successful - we were pretty much out of food after being open for just 40 minutes!)



Friday started the parties (retirement and end-of-year). Last night was graduation - tonight was our big school-wide dinner/celebration - tomorrow is a meeting with the superintendent - Wednesday is Valleyfair - and Thursday is the last day for kids. There is a light at the end of this busy tunnel - but there's a lot to get done before I can walk into it.