A Tale of Two Awesomes

On Friday we had a statewide in-service day, which meant we did not have school. We don't have any formal in-service, so we can either take the day as a day off or find something to do for professional development. I lucked out because Mr. Sneaker was away in Germany/Austria, so his mom came to help me out with the girls for the week. Having MIL Sneaker staying with me means that I have childcare in the afternoon after daycare, which I typically don't. So, I was able to register for a conference that was all day Friday and all day Saturday. It was called the 5th Annual Teaching with Purpose Conference and this year it focused on Culturally Responsive Instruction. My researchy idol Geneva Gay was a keynote speaker and I got to MEET her! ::swoon:: Her work was fundamental in my dissertation and I seriously felt like I was meeting a celebrity! She is really a professor at University of Washington-Seattle, but to me she is GENEVA GAY, ROCKSTAR! I love going to teachery conferences and I left feeling really inspired. I still need to kind of collect my thoughts about what I learned, but I definitely want to post about it. 

Also, today I had 16 kids in my class. Three were absent (and they happened to be a few of my more active students) and then one went home early for an appointment. Let me just say this...teaching 16 children is a DREAM. I had the best day and I wish every day could be like today. I just felt like we were in the grove. They were engaged with the story from the reading program (The Little Red Hen), they were totally on it when we did partner talk for questions about the story, everyone knew the answers to the questions and even my shy kiddos who don't usually speak were talking, not to mention that they transitioned to and from their partners spots amazingly well, and I was able to work with two small groups without interruptions because I had a parent helper.

Fab-u-lous! 

Today was an I heart teaching kind of day. 

And that, my friends is all I can write at the moment because Baby Sneaker just woke up fussing for mama. But, stay tuned for more!