No elaborate titles needed! 🙂 I woke up and really, it was awesome being back in my bed from flying in from Chicago yesterday. Everything still has me spinning, and if you read my previous blog, I stopped on the Thursday I arrived, so my plans will be to go back to that and try to finish tomorrow. I learned so much there. I met so many people, and I brought soooo many books back for the library here, lol. But the real reason I am writing this is for the following realizations…

I am so thankful for the the support staff I have in Delaware, Melinda, Mom, Danielle, my cousins Lois and Roger in Maryland, Monse, Deborah, Beverly Blades to name a few. They keep and have kept the conflicts and systems running smoothly there, even when there are quite a few bumps in the road! I received an electronic card from Melinda today reminding me it was in fact Thanksgiving. It was neat seeing the airports offering coffee to everyone in the lobbies as part of the traveling on Thanksgiving experience. It was ODD not being near family physically today, yet, I knew that all my friends and family felt close by!

I also received a package in the mail today from Andrea Paun, who I worked with in observations at the Baltimore Aquarium! What better timing! It was Awesome! I received homemade mustard, Vegemite from Australia!, an oven mit from Australia, toys for the cat, a towel that grows when you add water, ironic there but cool, and way cool a dvd of pics from the Aquarium! Take a look at this pic of the trainers when we were observing dolphins!

I realized how much I needed to escape the triviality of the classroom and being subject to administrational whims, but also realized how much I appreciated the Baltimore Aquarium, and how I was JUST getting to know the Whole Foods and other cool things there, and loved the relaxation of the Aquarium. I still can hard;y wait to return there in December, I am so excited! 🙂

Presenting and meeting Karen at NCTE and the collaboration we had was priceless, and she made me so excited of what is to come with online courses we can create, present, and develop involving students as well. She is truly a motivator and easy to follow and create so many different packages of ideas that will impact so many people! Through her I was able to meet and connect with so many resources, she always seems to be a pillar of strength that will bring so much more to the table.

I also have been blessed to have had the experiences I did have in the classroom. For those reasons, I had so much better ideas of what I needed and wanted to do to improve things I did and had seen before in the classroom. I was so motivated at NCTE, I was seeing what the board of NCTE did, and attended every board session I could, and realized, this is what I want to do. I want to have and earn the freedom to go to schools to help their teachers, to help their systems and help improve the life of education as a a whole. I wrote the current president of NCTE via email. Her presidential speech was amazing, as she is from Hawaii, and her speech was on Storytelling and why stories are so important. It touched me and made me realize that I needed to be a more active part of NCTE and wanted to be part of the board in the future. I am thankful for the people I met that extended their hand to me at NCTE and realized all the things I have done so far have been just babysteps to larger things I can do to make a difference.

I was so grateful for the care Mark showed in looking after my place in Mexico while I was gone and how much he has helped me get along here. Additionally, I also am thankful for the transition my boss Elaine gave me coming here, it made all the difference in the world.

Additionally, the friends I have made in Mexico have been so supportive and life changing, it has changed my stressful run to this task to the next task down so many notches, I do not even recognize myself in the mirror.

Additionally, I still feel part of the loop when all my former students, their parents, and the influential people such as Doakes and the XC team as a whole still include me in their posts and emails.

I was lucky enough to meet up with my awesome SRU ally, Natalie Dorfeld. She had come through for me so many times, and to actually see her in the flesh and be able to spend quality catch up time, as well as share her brother’s Thanksgiving gathering so I could have one, was AWESOME.

I am so proud and thankful for a Literary Magazine Staff I have come into at ASF. The future of this magazine looks so exciting in connecting with schools in the U.S and other countries that will share the benefits of talents that we discover across so many continents, exciting!

I am so thankful for skyping with Vika the other day right before I left for NCTE, she had me all motivated and excited with possibilities, as when we get a group of people together anytime that are optimistic, the ideas we come up with are priceless and turn out to be reality so easily! It is exciting that Vika among others will continue to be a part of something so large in the upcoming months.

Life is good, and life has become even better with so many new possibilities on the horizon. There are countless more to thank and be thankful for, and the said thing is I know this is only the beginning, but in a way, this has been a great Thanksgiving for all the people involved in so many changes in a short time. I am beginning to realize this has been a cleansing experience for me, the change, and one that has been needed for quite awhile. 🙂

It will take me serval days to get caught up with the packages I acquired from Chicago, the organization of ideas to implement, as well as getting back to nearing towards my 50 000 word goal in NANO by November 30th, (I am at 31, 700!) but the magic of seeing Christmas in Chicago, as well as the treasures I brought back, are well worth the catch up time needed now.

The absence of shopping and the rush to the next holiday, being detached from that all and realizing that I have so many people to be thankful to, especially those following this blog, for so many reasons, it makes a Thanksgiving in Mexico well worth it’s weight anywhere else. 🙂