What we've been up to...

So, I've been a terrible blogger the past 4 months...speech season really kicks my butt. So here's what we've been up to:

-I finished another grad. class, am taking a class, and have been accepted into grad. school (this puts me at 15 hours by May)
-approximately 10 speech meets (I tend to loose count after week two...) with state speech at UNK this week
-5 choir concerts (including Nate's high school honor choirs) and one this week
-attended a weekend marriage retreat (no we're not getting a divorce...we just need some revitalizing in our relationship :)
-a few trips to the eastern part of the state to see family and friends
-began rehearsals for our middle/high school musical "Once On This Island"
-started training for a half-marathon (more on that to come...)

Looking back at this, it doesn't seem like we've done that much. Don't get me wrong, we've been busy...but it's almost the wrong kind of busy. I tend to get in a rut where I fill my time up with work, buzzing around from one event to the next, grading papers when I have ten spare minutes. In the past 4 months I've hit about four or five low points where I've been burned out beyond belief--I have spent these nights sobbing, indulging myself in junk food and as many episodes of "Gilmore Girls" as my brain can handle. I think back to an earlier post I wrote about Donald Miller's latest book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years;" it's time that I start living more intentionally---take more time for "stuff" other than work. Spend more time reading and less time watching television or facebooking, more time with people and less time holed up in my classroom grading papers...you get the hint! So, be watching for other posts that chronicle this new journey.

A Sound of Thunder Comic

In English 9 we just finished reading Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder." Students now have the choice to either create a comic book of their take on the story or to create a brochure advertising a trip to an era in the future/back in time. I thought I would experiment with a few different comic creators to find the best one...so....I used ToonDoo.com. The website is so cool! I spent about an hour tinkering. Despite the amount of time I put into this, I only managed to get 3 pages done! There were so many options that I found myself doing more playing than creating :) Anyway...here is what I created so far. I'm excited to see what students come up with! I'm hoping to publish student work on my website when projects are completed!

a Sound of thunder by helzerdm | Make Your Own At www.toondoo.com