Summer So Far

It’s been over a week since my last post and I have been dying to catch up!  Since summer break has started, I've had a chance to de-stress a little.  My friend from college came to visit me in celebration of her graduating medical school in New York.  She’s a doctor!  Could work to my advantage in the future… HA!  :) It was so nice to play tourist around the island.  She’s a city girl, so being in Hawaii was a huge change of pace.  I took her snorkeling, hiking, camping, shopping, stand up paddle boarding, kayaking, sun bathing on some of the best beaches, and on a catamaran sunset cruise!  It was so nice to have her!!! 

Hike to the Pillboxes on the east side of the island. View of Lani Kai Beach- my favorite!

Unfortunately, part of the time my friend was visiting I had to work.  “During the summer?!” I can hear you gasp… Yes, yes- summer is the best time ever for this kind of thing!  In addition to being a second grade teacher, I also coach Robotics for fourth-eighth graders.  It’s a relatively new program at my school; one that I’ve loved getting involved in!  This will be the third year I've coached Robotics as well as the third year this program is offered to Kamaile students.  I am so fortunate to have the support of the University of Hawaii’s Program for After School Literacy and Support (PALS) in my team’s endeavors.  They carry the behind-the-scenes care such as purchasing the supplies, organizing events, finding resources, and helping in any way they can.  As I’ve found the past 2 years, there is a great amount that goes into Robotics.  The PALS schools participate in the First Lego League (FLL) Competition.  It’s an annual international competition that test students’ skills in core values, programming, robot design, and a project based on a theme (students create an innovative solution in the FLL theme for the year).  This is intense for new teams- as you can imagine!  Part of why I love PALS is that they listen to our needs and act on it.  The Robotics coaches from the PALS schools asked for PD, so we spent the entire week coming together as a PALS community to plan as a group, learn more of the programming techniques and pieces for building, brainstorming project resources for this year’s theme:  Nature’s Fury, and not to mention getting pumped up for the season! 

This is a video of me and my co-coach learning how to build using gears. 

Now that this professional development is over I have a full week to myself until I teach summer school for two weeks.  What to do, what to do!  

I have a few things I can't wait to catch up with, but first... reading on the beach.  My life is tough!