What a summer!

so I've been missing in action, or MIA as they say, for quite some time...honestly, the last thing I truly remember is the couple of days I took at home with my family before my training for BCTR (the Baltimore City Teaching Residency) began, and now it's the end of August, and school is about to start!

for those who might not follow along regularly, I've taken the long and winding road to becoming an Art Teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools...which really is the job I've wanted to do my whole life...so it took me 29+ years to get there...excited about it nonetheless! 

since I went to school for Marketing (thanks VT!) and then for Graphic Design (ala the Art Institute) I didn't have a traditional education education (haha) so I chose to apply to an alternative route program, and enter BCTR...the interview and admission process was quite extensive, but it was nothing compared to summer institute...I think all in all, I slept about 20 hours in the five weeks the program ran, and to spare the gory details, I taught 5th grade math...which was interesting, but not really any preparation for Art...

but the best thing about it was making some great new friends, who were all in the same, non sleeping, learning how to lesson plan boat that I was in, and I can't believe how fast summer 2011 went...

then it was on to my schools to set up my classooms...that's right, there's an "s" in there...since Art is a resource and budgets are very tight in Baltimore City, I'll be working part time at two schools, so that means two classrooms, two administrations, two sets of co-workers, and twice as many students to get to know...I definitely have my work cut out for me, and I am not going to lie...I am nervous! 

but I do have a classroom in each building, which is more then some people have, so for that I am grateful...of course the excitement came one day, when during set up at one of my schools, we felt...well the earth moving...a bulletin board fell over in my room and thankfully, nothing else was loose enough to move, but we experienced an EARTHQUAKE in Maryland!  apparently it was felt as far north as New York and south as North Carolina...crazy!  first the tornado, then the earthquake...

and just when we thought school would start on time, Hurricane Irene made its way towards Maryland...my mom was not thrilled with the name :p ...even though there was very little damage in our area, the hurricane definitely wreaked havoc other places in the state and the country...so instead of school starting on Monday, it will be Wednesday...it's going to be quite a first year of teaching!