A Year of Firsts, Friends, Family, & Fierce GRATITUDE
This has been a year of so many amazing happenings that it's hard to summarize. Inspired by the TOP 9 of 2015 Instagram posts I have been seeing, I attempted to create my collage....and failed miserably! I just couldn't fit my favorite memories into 9 little boxes. So, I decided to split them into categories: personal -vs- professional lives.....STILL FAILED. {Brevity is not one of my fortes.} SO, without further adieu, is my WAY-MORE-THAN-9 "Best of 2015" memories!
// PROFESSIONAL MEMORIES //
2015 -- What a year in my professional life!!! This past year was filled with teaching friendships old and new...Pool party meet-ups, conferences, adventures with great teammates, and birthdays in Vegas, meeting up with friends at a photo shoot & training with Scholastic in NYC, creating new Marketing Maven products, and....of course....the Indian Trail lip sync where I got to channel my inner Axl and watch our awesome staff band together and crank out a first place collaborative performance in ONE PRACTICE.
Some of my kiddos rocked the Indian Trail media club with video news broadcasts, thanks to Teach-o Schwave! We started the year with our awesome NE region unit gushing with love for NYC & honoring the memory of 9/11.
Beyond the Fairytale is a new after school club for girls, focusing on new, stronger portrayals of typical fairytale princesses and learning lessons from the new versions to uplift each other and be good role models for other young ladies.
We coded as a class and have rocked some STEM projects, even simple ones like building a house of cards. New birthday traditions were introduced this year, and we enjoyed our annual Halloween Mad Science party & experiments as much as ever.
Personally, I presented at after school staff development trainings on the topics of ClassDojo & digital student portfolios. I was extremely fortunate and grateful to have an article published in Scholastic Instructor magazine, and one of my Scholastic blog posts was named as an EduBlog Editor's Choice Content Winner!
WHAT A YEAR! I am so grateful for it all!
Beyond the Fairytale is a new after school club for girls, focusing on new, stronger portrayals of typical fairytale princesses and learning lessons from the new versions to uplift each other and be good role models for other young ladies.
We coded as a class and have rocked some STEM projects, even simple ones like building a house of cards. New birthday traditions were introduced this year, and we enjoyed our annual Halloween Mad Science party & experiments as much as ever.
Personally, I presented at after school staff development trainings on the topics of ClassDojo & digital student portfolios. I was extremely fortunate and grateful to have an article published in Scholastic Instructor magazine, and one of my Scholastic blog posts was named as an EduBlog Editor's Choice Content Winner!
WHAT A YEAR! I am so grateful for it all!
// PERSONAL MEMORIES //
We had LOADS of summer fun, including days at the beach and pool, summer nights at the drive-in theater, a mind-blowing U2 concert with Chris Petlak & Amy Rapp, found our new favorite spot: Pier 290 in Lake Geneva & enjoyed beach time and boating while there. 4th of July & Labor Day meant we relaxed Blue Harbor Resort, which was wonderful.
I celebrated Sam Anzalone Bucaro's wedding with a mom's night out (pretty hilarious and lots of fun), experienced my first hair blow out (will never be the same again), & tried (LOVED) Stitch Fix. Gray & I enjoyed breaking out our cute boots down at my parents' country home during the spring, & my mom made the most awesome construction cake for Gray's birthday that I've ever seen. Mom & Dad totally renovated our old shed...making it an awesome, antique-filled family gathering space, perfect for BBQs and bonfires.
Grayson started preschool, we dressed as a superhero family for Halloween & had a blast with Uncle Chris & Aunt Amy at Marvel Universe LIVE! Gray tried skiing for the first time, Claire Arlene Reed made him the best sundae he's ever eaten Timothy O'Toole's in Gurnee.
To survive the cold weather over the past year...We painted canvases (and eggs), & had movie nights with good friends Jamie DeYoung-Ciszewski & Glen Ciszewski. Somehow we managed to survive (barely) NORGE 2015 with the amazing Heidi Savoca Doyle & her crew....and we just had the most magical Christmas EVER!
Cheers to these memories, and a year full of new ones in 2016!
