We're halfway there.

Tomorrow marks the halfway point of summer school. I have the dream setting.. I get to do Guided Reading and small group work for three hours a day. I'm done by noon and come home and usually clean, take a nap, and run. I've been (mostly) enjoying my time at this lovely charter school in Oakland, but it's been a bit of a struggle getting to know the culture of the school and the kids. Meeting with them 15-20 minutes every other day makes it hard to establish a solid relationship and clear expectations. We are getting there, but I have this sense of urgency to move these children... but feeling like there's not enough space to go slow to go fast. Regardless, it's been fantastic to do Guided Reading all day every day and make activities and spread the joy of reading. (The Guided Reading Planning Sheet is by Deanna Jump.)

Thanks to Kelly at First Grade Fairytales for the blog award. That was unexpected and exciting. :)

With this, I'm supposed to include 7 random facts.

• I usually drink 2 gallons of milk a week...by myself.
• I've broken my nose twice during stunting in cheerleading in high school (I cheered for 11 years or something absurd..including a year in college...and am often leary to tell people this)
• I conduct nearly all of my parent conferences in Spanish. I'm not quite fluent, but close. (My school is composed of mostly Spanish speaking families.)
• I love the word noob and am often found doing "noobie" things...locking myself out of my apartment or my car, forgetting to turn off the oven, leaving things to the last minute, etc. etc. David (my fiance) and I have locked ourselves out of our apartment at least four times since we moved in (6 months ago).
• I identify myself as mixed racially (my mom is white and my dad is Mexican), but have reaped the benefits of white privilege because I am phenotypically Italian looking. I am constantly aware of the whiteness I bring to a school where none of the children are white, and am very conscious of the power I could potentially impose and the stereotypes or biases I hold that could be poisonous to my students...and work incredibly hard to be aware of them, analyze them, and move away from them.
• My favorite beer is Boont Amber, brewed in beautiful Mendocino county.
•  I just did The Color Run 5k this past weekend with one of my colleagues in San Francisco. It was so incredibly invigorating and HAPPY. I think I'm still on a high from it.

 Time to drink more coffee, do an ab workout, and lay around waiting for Dance Moms to come on. (That should have been one of my facts... my guiltiest pleasure is Dance Moms.)

One year ago...

David and I played a game last night where we tried to figure out where we were exactly one year ago, at that very moment (11:29 PM). We were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on our Midwest road trip, in our tent near Tahquamenon Falls, about to get eaten by mosquitoes.

This is where we would have been on this day, July 9th, one year ago. Missing that glorious trip, but enjoying the summer very much. We've been spending our days watching New Girl, I've been doing lots of Guided Reading at the school I'm teaching at for the summer, and just got back from camping with some friends. So far we've floated down the American River, drunk lots of beer, waded in a lake with tiny leeches, and celebrated family birthdays galore.
Looking forward to heading to San Luis Obispo next weekend for a girls' trip with my Meshell, running a 5k in San Francisco on Saturday called the Color Run, and then heading to Atlanta at the end of the month. Whew. More teachery stuff to come after July 15th, when my class will be waxed and ready for me to start setting up for the year. Wondering if anyone might be willing to look at some pictures of my empty (ish) classroom and help me to decide how to re-decorate and move things around? I'm wanting to change things up.

And now, time for New Girl.