Halloween Gala

Each year our school has a fundraiser cleverly disguised as a Halloween Party. The Halloween Gala is the most anticipated fundraiser and as such brings in the most money for our school. This year the theme was Phantom of the Opera. We had live entertainment (songs from Phantom of the Opera) before dinner and enjoyed watching the silent movie version of the famous play during dinner. We enjoyed quite a high class event at the Ritz in Beaver Creek. Great food, amazing decorations, and quite a few laughs. Before making an appearance at the Gala, a few staff members gathered in one of the hotel rooms at the Ritz for a few pictures....





The 7/8 team in the shuttle on the way to the Ritz.

The girls of the 7/8 team (Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies)

Posing for a few pictures before heading to the party.

Middle school math teachers unite!!

It all makes sense now...

Last Monday Andy and I went to Denver for the day. After a delicious lunch at Olive Garden (thanks mom and dad!!) we decided to visit the Nature and Science museum. While there we learned about the geography of the great state of Colorado, the intricacies of the human body, animals from around the world, and so much more. One of our favorite exhibits was the infrared camera. Andy and I stood next too each other and all of a sudden things seemed to make sense. You see, Andy is normally quite warm and I am generally colder than he is. Now we have proof. When we stood in front of the camera and sensor, my face was mostly green but his face was mostly red. Red is warmer than green. it's all clear now! Check out the differences:

Andy with sunglasses on--they really seem to make a difference!

It is interesting to see where we are the warmest and coldest.

Zip Adventures

At the end of last school year, one of the parents gave all of the teachers a free zip line pass for two (you can do that kind of thing if you own the place I suppose!) Well, we saved the passes all summer and decided to use them for an unforgettable 25th birthday celebration. We had so much fun!! Our adventure began at the 4 Eagle Ranch about 25 minutes west of Vail. After signing the appropriate forms we were strapped into harnesses, given our stylish yellow helmets, and told to load up in the army style 6 wheel transport vehicle. After a short bumpy ride down a dirt road, the 15 of us filed out and made our way to the first of 6 platforms. The first line was the shortest and is likely designed to help people ease into the experience. The ride is short, not too fast, and helps people lose a bit of the "I'm scared out of my mind" feeling. The second line is a bit faster and higher, crossing the canyon in the opposite direction. They encouraged us to jump off the platform backwards on this line for added fun. On the third line we were told to get a running start. Now we were flying! What a great feeling!! The next challenge was to let go, lean back, put your feet up, and pretend like you are sitting in a reclining chair. The trick is to hold yourself up at such an angle that you are lying down without flipping upside down. Just for the fun of it the guide flipped upside down though to give us a thrill. There is something crazy about feeling completely out of control yet knowing you are completely safe. We had so much fun and were sad when the experience finally ended 2 hours later. Here are a few pictures and videos of our adventures. If you would like to learn more check out the following link: http://www.zipadventures.com/


On my way down!!


Waiting our turn :)

"I'm a bird!! Wheeeee!!"

Andy getting ready to take off...

"Look mom, no hands!!!"

Zoom, there he goes!!

The river through the bottom of the canyon.

We made it!! What a fun way to celebrate a quarter of a century!!

A day in the life of a middle school math teacher

Last week was a bit crazy as weeks go. First, Thursday was picture day. Somehow the picture schedule managed to mess with 3 of my 4 math classes. Needless to say, we didn't accomplish too much on Thursday. Friday didn't fare much better for the seventh grade. Apparently the flu is going around the school. Four people were sent home on Thursday because they were throwing up. Lovely. Thankfully the sick people stayed home on Friday. Unfortunately, most of the sick population must be from the middle school. I was down 12 7th grade students on Friday. 12 out of 32--that's a huge percentage!! Again, we didn't really accomplish much because I didn't want to introduce new topics with only half of a class present. Friday was also notable because we finally came to a conclusion about why my room is always so cold. When I arrived on Friday morning, the temperature gauge in my room read 41 degrees. I had to wear my winter coat, scarf, and gloves in order to stay warm!! The room across the hall was about 25 degrees warmer than my room. The temperature steadily rose by about 3-5 degrees an hour and by lunch it was in the 50's!! Wearing a coat during class turned out to be a good thing when someone decided to set off the fire alarm. Apparently someone was warming food up in the microwave during lower school lunch when the thing began to smoke. The smoke set off the fire alarm and we were forced to go outside. My students were warmer than the rest because they were already wearing an extra layer thanks to may insanely cold room! A few minutes later the fire department arrived, checked the school, and cleared us for reentry. We had to laugh though at one of the little kindergarten kiddos. The kindergarten had a dress up day (I'm not sure why) and one of the kids came to school as a fireman. When the alarm went off he rushed to his cubby, grabbed his fireman's hat, and told everyone not to worry because he knew what to do! Too cute! After the firefighters had completed the search, the little boy was given an opportunity to meet the real deal. You should have seen the smile on his face!! After lunch we discovered that the heater in my room had been turned off for some reason. We flipped the switch and lo and behold by the end of the day we were in the 70's (it was so warm the kids wanted to open the door to cool off a little!) What a crazy couple of days. The craziness will likely continue this week as well because it is conference week. As a result, 7/8 will run on a half day schedule Monday and Wednesday so we can meet with parents in the afternoon. Tuesday and Thursday will be full days for us. At least we have a long weekend to look forward to!!

Women's Retreat

This weekend I had the privilege of staying at a young life camp with about 30 wonderful women from church. We arrived at the camp on Friday night and after finding our rooms we were treated to a worship service and a very inspirational talk by the weekend's keynote speaker. Later that evening we wrapped up in our winter coats and made our way to the gigantic fire pit for s'mores. So much fun!! On Saturday we were treated to a couple of wonderful meals, amazing sessions, and an afternoon of free time. For as cold as it was on Friday night (winter coat wishing I had my gloves cold) it was beautiful on Saturday. A bunch of us decided to take a hike after lunch and about ten minutes into the hike I was seriously regretting my choice to wear long pants. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Snow capped mountains and aspens with their colorful autumn coats--what could be better. What an inspirational sight. God is quite the artist! After our hike a few of us decided to grab our swimsuits and catch some rays. Yes, that's right-winter coat at night, swimsuit during the day! Who would have thought we would get a tan after our early season snow storm?!? We had so much fun sitting outside sipping smoothies and getting to know one another. It was so nice to finally have a chance to connect with so many wonderful ladies. Many of these ladies were acquaintances before the weekend began but now it seems like we are on our way to a wonderful friendship.
Here are a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment:




The view from the porch of our cabin.

Beautiful!! Look at all of the snow on the mountains!

Along the trail during our afternoon hike.

The campus was unbelievable!!

The dining hall. Wow!!

More beauty :)

Colorful aspens and a winding trail

Another picture trying to capture our beautiful surroundings

What is there to say?

Reading on a sunny Sunday morning.

Lots of stairs. As is customary in the mountains of Colorado.

Our "cabin" if that's what you want to call it!

Snow on my shoulders

Snow in September...hmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about snow in September. Yes,that cold white stuff that falls from the sky during the winter. It's not winter though...technically speaking, today is the last day of summer. Craziness I tell you, craziness!!
Here's what I do know: regardless of the date on the calendar it was cold outside today!! Something else I noticed: kids have a hard time focusing on Math when snow is falling outside the windows. My students were off the wall!
In other news...I've never taught volleyball in the snow before. Thanks to the movie March of the Penguins we knew how to keep warm during PE today though. During instructions we (15 kids and I) huddled together in a tight little circle and tried not to let any wind in or warm air out. We must have looked pretty funny but we didn't care...all we wanted to do was stay warm! I'm not ready to break out the winter clothes quite yet. Come back warm weather...oh how I miss wearing short sleeves and Chacos!

P.S. While typing this, Andy and I saw our first Christmas themed commercial of the season...Jingle Bells and all. Just because it's snowing outside....

Additionally, I found this picture on the Vail.com website while I was checking the temperatures for tomorrow (High of 41-47...heat wave!!) The picture was taken today. Enjoy your warm temperatures while they last!!

http://www.vail.com/mountain/photos/photos.aspx

Hooray for Enrichments

Our school is unique in many ways. One thing that makes our school stand out from the rest is our enrichment program. Whenever we have a full week of school, one of the days (usually Wednesday or Friday) is earmarked as an enrichment day. Enrichments vary greatly depending on the age group. As the oldest kids in the school, our students have the freedom to choose which enrichment they would like to participate in. We (7th and 8th grade) have 4 sets of enrichments. Students are required to do at least one humanity and one PE enrichment each year. There are many exciting enrichment opportunities for the students to participate in during this first round. Each teacher designs their own enrichment and we basically have the freedom to do anything (within reason). One teacher is leading a kayaking enrichment. During this 5 week enrichment students will learn the basics of kayaking and maybe even a few tricks! Another teacher is leading a cooking class. The students will have the opportunity to work with a college cooking professor as well as a few local chefs in their own restaurants. A third option is the "hiking with a visual reference". For this enrichment the students will take a variety of hikes with sketch pad in hand. At the end of the enrichment they will gather their sketches and create a mural masterpiece. Along a similar line, the fourth person on our team is also leading an art class of sorts. Their focus will be portraits. This past week the group had the pleasure of visiting the art museum in Denver for a couple of hours. Finally, last but not least, my enrichment brings together my past and present surroundings if you will. The Rock 'n the Waves enrichment splits time between the pool and the rock wall. On Wednesday we began the day at the Avon Rec Center. After a few minutes of free time in the lazy river, we made our way over to the main pool for a swimming lesson. We practiced floating then moved onto freestyle and back stroke. By the end of the 40 minute lesson nearly everyone was swimming the strokes confidently. After our swimming lesson we hoped into inner tubes, broke up into two teams, and played a very exciting game of inner tube water polo. I love water polo! This game was unlike any I have ever played. We still had goals and wore the traditional blue and white caps but the rest of the rules were completely different. First of all, we had to remain seated in our tubes at all times. Also you were allowed to catch the ball with both hands but it could only remain in our possession for 5 seconds. What a crazy game! I laughed so hard! After a few exciting hours in the pool we made our way over to the Vail Athletic Club (aka home for me!!). The VAC has the largest indoor rock climbing wall in the valley. The kids had so much fun climbing and learning how to belay for their friends. Some of those kids must have a little bit of monkey in them or something. They flew up that wall and had fun hanging upside down. Craziness! In the future weeks we will visit other pools and rock walls. During the last week we will have an opportunity to climb outside on real rocks. We are so excited!!