New Year Begins!

One year ago the new year began with a little bit of anxiety for me. I had been dealing with one diverticulitis infection after another with very little relief in between. It seemed that regardless of how much water I drank and the foods I avoided, it made no difference. As it turned out, my colon had become stuck to my abdominal wall which is what made it so vulnerable to infection. Luckily the surgery I had last March seems to have cured me. I still have some sensitivities to food at times, but its nothing like what I was experiencing before the surgery. I haven't been on antibiotics since March and its now been six months! Its amazing to me how much energy I have back and how that has translated into great enthusiasm for my classes coming into this year!

This Summer I went on a super trip to Europe as part of the Understanding Sacrifice program and am now able to implement this program into the elective class I am teaching known as "Understanding Sacrifice". This class will do many of the same things I did. Students will be piloting the lesson plan I designed and a few may even help me present about it at the Maine Council for the Social Studies Conference in November. I am very excited to see how my student recognize sacrifice during the school year!

The other classes I teach are Dual Enrollment classes at Thomas College. My students can earn College credit if they earn a "C" or better in these classes. This includes History v. Hollywood, Ethics, AP Psychology, and AP US History. Its not easy to manage five different preps, but I really enjoy the topics and I find it invigorating to have a variety of content to teach and analyze with students.

I have decided this will be my last blog post for a while. I had every intention of continuing to post every two weeks. I have found this very helpful in looking back on what I was doing. However, I'm just too busy personally and professionally. I will attempt to make occasional blog posts, but not on a routine basis. I hope this will be one of my best year's yet and I am looking forward to the MCSS Conference in November and attending the National Conference in DC in December.