Goldpanner Pen Set

Tuesday night I went to the school board meeting and picked up a few kind words, a round of applause and a gold panner pen set along with some friendly handshakes. Besides me, there are 63 other employees retiring from the Fairbanks North Star School District. Lots of vacancies for young people to fill, but are there really lots of young experienced autism specialists, personnel directors, principals, math department heads, bilingual teachers laying around? The 1200 years of experience will be hard to replace.

Mentoring is starting to wind down. I have to locate all my computer gear, borrowed resource books, files and equipment to turn in for the next mentors. I made one last visit here in town to two teachers today. We talked about what has felt like success this year and next steps. It seems like many people have told me that they really want to be very firm with classroom rules and behavior right off the bat. Also, many teachers want to curriculum map so that they have a path for planning. A third recurring goal for the Fall is to start off with some team-building to give the students a sense of belonging. All of these are wonderful goals. They're in writing too so no one can easily forget.

The ugly, yellow, waterproof, heavy, cheap bag is in the morgue. It served me well and starred in many of my favorite photos, but I'm glad to put it away for awhile. I've been out walking and eating at home and visiting friends and keeping the house clean....well, maybe not that last one.

On Wednesday, I participated in a 5k Water Walk, to celebrate Clean Drinking Water Week. It was fun and I clocked my personal best, 50 minutes. Thanks Susan for making me walk briskly. It was fun to get out and the rain just sprinkled on us the last five minutes.

My seeds are starting to sprout- cantaloupe, zucchini, tomatoes, hollyhocks, colombine, cabbage.... It's still been too cold in the mornings, but we take them out for some fresh air every day.