New Orleans

SCHOOL'S OFFICIALLY OUT FOR SUMMER!!!  This is what all of the teachers looked like today at 2:30... ;) 

Speaking of school, a few weeks ago I went to New Orleans for a S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Conference.  An all expense paid trip and three days off of work? Why not!  We flew out of Augusta on Tuesday afternoon, checked into the hotel, and headed out to dinner at Oceana.  The great thing about our hotel was that we were walking distance to so many great restaurants, and we were really close to the Mississippi River.  On the way back from dinner we walked by it, which was my first time seeing it!  

The next day we pretty had the entire day to explore.  We walked around for about an hour before hopping on one of those red, double-decker tourist buses.  Usually I'm not a huge fan of those, but we had a great guide and learned a lot about the city! 

St. Louis Cathedral 

Above ground graves

Harrah's Casino...we played penny slots one night :)

The Superdome

The house from Real World

Beads in the trees left over from Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras World

Mississippi River again

Canal Street

We registered for the conference that afternoon and then had dinner at Landry's Seafood.  

After the conference on Thursday and Friday, we headed down to Bourbon Street, which may have been the craziest place I've ever seen.  We ate at a great restaurant (Pier 424) both nights, grabbed a few drinks, and did a LOT of people watching.

This bar was on the TV show "Bar Rescue" 

And we finished the last night with six beignets, two and a half of which I might have eaten.... ;) 

It was a fun trip and a good conference, but I was so excited to see these two on Saturday! 

Happy weekend! 

TOTY Recognition

I'm baaaaack! It's been way too long and way too busy at school, but I finally uploaded a ton of pictures to my computer, so hopefully I'll be much better about updating more.  ;) 

I was trying to think back about where I left off (which was over a month ago...yikes!), and since we didn't really do anything for Halloween except hand out candy I'll pick back up at the Burke County Teacher of the Year Recognition Night on November 1st.  There were five TOTYs from each of the schools in the county and they held a really sweet dinner for us, our families, and our principals during the first half of the high school football game.  At half time we were escorted onto the field by our principals (and if you don't already know I just adore my principal!) and given really cute monogrammed bags and goodies.  Then, they announced the county TOTY, who is the chorus teacher at one of the elementary schools (she's standing next to me in the picture below and her brother is actually in Lady Antebellum...how cool is that?!).  

It was a great night, and I was so thankful to be able to celebrate it with my family! 

BCMS News

I feel a little funny posting this, but in September I found out I was voted "Best Middle School Teacher" in the "Best of Burke" competition this year.  Our Board of Education ran this ad in the newspaper a few weeks ago, which features the "Best of Burke" teacher from each school. :)

[You can see last year's ad by clicking here]

In other school news, I also recently became the assistant cheerleading coach, and so far I just love it!  The girls are adorable, and it's been fun being involved in a school activity outside of the classroom.

Go Cubs!!