Category: Journal (Page 2 of 936)

Our teacher conference ended yesterday morning. What a great time to relax and recharge. As a bonus, I got to catch up with three different friends from previous schools. So nice!

After the last keynote address, we headed home. The drive was mostly uneventful. I was on the lookout for cactus plants. I saw them!

We heard about a stop that had really clean bathrooms, and when we stopped there, we laughed, because the building said “Clean Restrooms” in giant letters:

They were nice restrooms, but we decided it wasn’t really all we were expecting it to be.

That place also had geodes for sale, which I was excited to see. It was too late to crack open last night, so that’ll have to be a future post.

I am glad I can sleep in this morning. The conference schedule had me staying up late, and getting up early.

Yesterday was a day full of keynote speakers and breakout sessions. Lots of good stuff, though I got sleepy a couple of times. I’m not used to sitting so much.

I went back to my room partway through the day, and saw that housekeeping had been there. I had left my toiletries littered across the sink area, but when I came back, everything was neatly stacked on a towel.

Housekeeping had moved all my stuff and made it look neat. I don’t think I’ve had that happen before.

Later on, at dinner, I had a food combination I don’t think I’ve experienced before – rice with corn in it. Is it possible I’ve never eaten this before? It seems unlikely, but I couldn’t think of another example. I told my coworker about it, and she asked if I wanted a picture. Of course I said yes.

Yesterday was Sunday. I was curious to see if there were any churches near our hotel. There was! It was right across the street. It was a Roman Catholic basilica even!

I decided to go. We were meeting for brunch at 9, so I had to go to the 7am service.

It was a traditional service. I could mostly follow along. Partway through, I realized there was a service book in the pew. That made things easier.

It was a “no music” service, so I didn’t get to hear their choir or organ. Still, it was a nice service. The sermon was good too.

I’m in Phoenix, Arizona! I’m here for a Lutheran teacher conference. I’m so excited! I love these conferences!

I rode with a car pool. It took us seven hours. I read a lot – actual reading, not reading on my phone!

The landscape was dry and desert-like. The sky was often cloudy, which made for cool sky views.

It was Grandparents Day at my school yesterday. In the middle school, we have the students and their grandparents move in cross-graded groups from one classroom to another, spending 15 minutes at each place.

I wanted to do something history related, since I teach history. I had heard about an activity where you have some pennies in a cup, and you draw one out, read the year, and then say something that happened to you that year. I decided to do it, but then to also add some supplementary questions to help the conversation keep going. My theme was “recent history”.

Here are the questions:

Adult Questions:

What was New Year’s 1999-2000 like?

What do you remember about the Berlin wall coming down?

What was life like before smartphones?

What do you remember about the world when the USSR still existed?

Tell a story from when you were in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade (11 years old to 14 years old)

Student Questions:

What is a memory from a family gathering you had?

Tell about a something that happened in kindergarten.

What’s an early memory you have of your grandparent/ special person?

What’s something you remember about the Covid 19 times?

What do you remember about the death of Queen Elizabeth II?

One of the grandparents brought up the assassination of JFK. It happened on this day in history, November 22, 1963. He was in 6th grade. His story was so interesting.