Fun on a Friday Night.

I rushed home from school today to go visiting teaching. We were at the first house 25 minutes and the 2nd house for 1 hour! Ahhhhhhhh . . . I couldn't escape. They are really nice ladies, but they were talking about their 50 year class reunions, growing up in the good 'ol days, and James Taylor. My very nice-lovely-partner-who-I-really-like-and-don't-mean-to-complain-about, even said at one point that she would never go back to the USANA amphitheater again, "even if it was Neil Diamond!"

Anyways, by the time I got home James was awake. We decided to go to Hires. We had a gift certificate (thanks Lori and Hannah), so our dinner only cost $5. Then, we went to Target, but we couldn't really find anything there, so we headed a little further down the road to the D.I. It was terrific and we actually bought $4 worth of priceless gems. Yes! What a night.

After dinner and some shopping, what's for entertainment, you ask? Next we are headed to the temple. Yes, it's 10:06 p.m. now, but we are going to the temple. We signed up to clean the Jordan River Temple from 11:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. I think it will be fun!

That's all. Have a good night.

Yes, I love my dad, too!

I just didn't think he would want to be on the list of "favorite boys" unless it was in the middle of some championship basketball team or something. He is in a class all his own. Thanks for being such a great dad!

My Favorite Boys!

Why was 6 afraid of 7?

Math Nerds of the World Unite!

This week Salt Lake City hosted the national convention for NCTM - the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. NCTM is the largest organization in the world promoting math education and there were over 10,000 people attending this convention in Salt Lake. I got to go!! I even worked as a volunteer on Friday morning.

I've been a member of NCTM (and it's Utah affiliate UCTM) since before I even began teaching, but this is only my second conference I've been to. It was cool! i met people from all over the country. I learned all sorts of things from new ideas on how to teach slope to discovering the unit circle. I joined a group of teachers in some math kinesthetics doing function aerobics and I learned how to teach geometry using quilts from the Underground Railroad. Besides new ideas and activities, I also attended a session on closing the achievement gap and why so many of our students are lagging behind. I attended a session on how to get my National Board Certification and decided there is no way in the world I am going to do that, but that I may pursue a masters from Western Governor's University (they gave me a mouse pad). I also ventured many times through the exhibit hall and collected as much free stuff as I could, from pens and pencils to posters and t-shirts.

It was a good experience. It was rejuvenating. I'm glad I went. Now tomorrow, I go back to the real world of teaching and try to apply all that I have learned. Good luck to me! (At least I have a good collection of pens and pencils to last another few months at school.