1. Spend time with my family. My daughter, Ellie, is at such a fun age. I want to enjoy every moment with her and my hubby, Ben, who will also be off all summer as he is a 6-12 band teacher.
2. Learn to play guitar. Ben got me a guitar for Christmas and I am sad to say that it hasn't made it out of the case much. I'd love to be able to accompany some of my folk songs on guitar, especially some of the dances and song tales/long songs.
3. Go to VEGAS! Ben and I are taking a trip to Vegas along with my sister in law! This will be our first trip away from Ellie, but she will be in great care with her grandparents who I am sure are eagerly awaiting the trip! While we are there I will be attending the first ever TeachersPayTeachers conference, sight seeing, and going to a few shows!
4. Present two workshops for my district- I will be teaching a beginning blogging workshop and an advanced Teachers Pay Teachers workshop in my district. If you live close to Haysville, KS, you can register here for either workshop.
I taught a beginning TPT workshop back in January. If you would like to get started as a seller on TPT, you can check out my presentation here:
5. Celebrate Ellie's 2nd birthday! I can't believe that this little girl is going to turn 2 years old at the end of July. Time just feels like it is slipping through my fingers.
6. Sit in on some of the Kodaly Levels classes. I completed my Kodaly Levels Certification training at WSU last summer, but I am hoping to pop in with some candy and words of encouragement for the people taking their levels this summer and hopefully get a refresher on some of the Level 1 things. I took Level 1 in 2011 and sometimes just getting a refresher on some of the games or steps in the sequence would be SO helpful.
bahaha!
^^^ These lovely teachers will be completing their Level 3 this summer!
7. Plan for next year. Each summer I try to give myself the best head start I can on the school year. My school will be adding full time kindergarten (3 sections) so I will have them added to my schedule 3 times a week per class and I will also be adding PreK to my schedule once a week. I need to sit down with my American Methodology and Yearly Planner and crank out lots of lesson plans!
8. Create more resources to use in my own classroom and for TPT! I admit it, I am totally addicted to creating things to use for my students and I just love that other teachers want to use them also!
I don't want to give it all away but I am hoping to create more "Ready Set Print!" Kodaly quick assessment/worksheet pages. What I love about these is that they are FAST- we're talking less than five minutes, but really get to the heart of whether or not the kids are getting the concept.
9. Take Ellie on a mini-vacation. We've never stayed overnight with Ellie anywhere except my in-laws, but we are contemplating taking a short trip up to Kansas City or something. Just a way to get all of us out of the house. Ellie is like her mommy, we both get a little stir crazy if we are cooped up too long!
Looks like I will have to check out this blog post for some ideas! If you are in the Kansas City Area please comment below and let me know of some 2 year old friendly things to do in the KC area!
10. Find fun things to do around Wichita with Ellie. My secretary is so sweet. She printed out a list of fun, free things to do with a toddler around town. It includes all of the summer library story times, toddler swim times at the YMCA, and more! I haven't been able to find the link for the print out she gave me but here's another list for Wichita parents!
What's on your summer "to do" list?