The Vernal Equinox

I have always strived to be aware of the natural world and its rhythms; teaching science has really helped me do that. For instance, I never really learned the moon phases until I had to teach it, and ever since, I keep my eyes on the moon and share the phase names with my family, whether they are interested or not. My father has also had a significant impact on me as well. He is very knowledgeable about birds and trees, and I've found that I've retained more of his teaching than I would have thought at the time. I hope it is the same with my daughters.

I'm almost finished with the gifted class I'm taking. It will be over by spring break, which is fantastic, because I won't have anything hanging over my head. I'm so excited about the trip I'm taking to visit my oldest daughter. I'm driving to Connecticut, and while I'm there, she and I are doing a yarn crawl field trip! We are going to visit Knit New Haven, Webs, and Green Mountain Spinnery, which has me over the moon! In preparation, I have decided that I need to do a serious inventory of my yarn stash and either match patterns to yarns, or ruthlessly destash. In addition, I need to select some patterns I want to try that I don't have yarn for, otherwise I will end up buying yarn willy-nilly. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I prefer having a plan in place. Non knitters really don't understand how much time a knitter can spend thinking about yarn, can they?

Speaking of field trips, my eighth graders and I went on one yesterday to visit the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond. The kids were very well behaved and asked terrific questions. The history teacher on our team does a fabulous job of preparing them so that the experience is truly relevant to them. And the museum is amazing at linking the Holocaust to the current world situation, reminding them that genocide is still occurring today and challenging the students to make the connections between the Holocaust, ongoing genocide, and bullying.

 

Some years the trip is a struggle, but this year was one of the best ones, probably because we only have 80 students this year, instead of our usual 100+.

And although I didn't make it down to the beach today, it never hurts to see yesterday's beach photos, does it?

 

 

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!