It’s good to be home.
Over April, I spent two weeks doing school visits in Southwestern Minnesota. Most of the schools were fantastic, with media specialists (often only part-time or split between two schools) who had busily prepped for my visit. Other schools were a little more of a challenge, not having done any prep whatsoever and seeming a bit puzzled as to what to do with me. The educational co-op that organized the tour sent out very specific guidelines, which some schools followed beautifully and other schools ignored.
But the kids were fantastic! Apart from one kindergarten class that drove me insane (and that was frankly the teacher’s fault, not the kids’), the kids and teachers were terrific. They were responsive, curious, and fun. They participated, reading aloud, doing animal sound effects, waving their hands wildly to contribute to our group poem we wrote, etc.
It was a lot of work–many days I visited two schools, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. That’s a lot of loading and unloading of props and books. And it was a lot of driving. I haven’t tallied my mileage totals yet, but I would guess it’s more miles than I’ve EVER driven in a two-week period. (I’m not generally a road-trip kind of girl.) Thank goodness for GPS, which kept me on the right track, literally. It was also a lot of working at night, trying to keep up with some of my regular work (that was a losing battle). I underestimated how tired I would be by the end of the day and how long it would sometimes take to get to the next hotel (some days were more than an hour’s drive to the hotel).
Here’s a quickie 30-second video of a few pix from my school visit tour. I didn’t take pix of the crowds of kids…these were the other images I saw lots of over my two weeks.
Today, I’m off to IRA, being held here in Minneapolis. Another busy week. At some point, I have to catch up on all the work I’m behind on–yikes.