Cartwheels in my mind.... not to be confused with windmills of my mind...

These pictures are what I would be doing, if I could do a cartwheel! LOL! You're wondering why, aren't you?

After 45 hours (or more) of work over the last several weeks - including 2 marathon days together -  I, and four other colleagues finished and submitted our final paper and presentation for one of the classes I am taking this semester on organizational change. (After the 2 days as a whole team, another teacher and I spent another 20 or more hours collaborating on both portions, while communicating via phone and email with the other members of our team.) We did a presentation of our project last night in class and received an A+ on it. (I didn't even know there was such a thing in college, especially at the graduate level! :-) ) The professor even asked if she could use it the next time she teaches the class! YEA, US!!!!!!!!!!!!

The project consisted of creating a plan for changing a school's organization to better meet the needs of students and faculties. Even though we were writing it on a case study, it felt as though we were doing the real thing for a school that we might lead one day. It certainly was intense enough. We had to do our presentation as if we were in front of a school board outlining our change for them. (It was a teeny tiny bit intimidating.) We received some pretty positive feedback and were glad when it was over!
This semester's classes are finished next Wednesday, with one more paper in my other class due on July 19.
Hallelujah, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Next week I will attend CORE academy, a 3 day science and math workshop put on annually by the USOE. The week after that I will be attending Rural Schools Conference, another 3 day conference for teachers. After that, I will continue working in the summer school program that another teacher and I created and are over. That will end during the last week of July. Then maybe I can take a breather for a day or two before school begins on August 24. (Wow! I can't believe that summer is going by so quickly!)

Well - back to the old grindstone! :-) I still have a few papers to finish for class.... BLAH!