Summer Vacation?

School's out! My last day with kids was June 1. Teachers had to return this week to finish packing up rooms. I spent all day Saturday at school with my husband and friends, putting together the interactive whiteboards that were purchased for the school by an anonymous donor. It was quite a day!!! The boards are on mobile carts so they can be shared between rooms. The carts had a zillion pieces so it was kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle! You know, the kind where all the pieces are the same color and shape!!!! I am glad that is done! I finished packing up my room on Tuesday. The pastor came through with a guy who had to serve community service hours and he left him with me so I got done about 3 hours sooner than I thought I would. That was a wonderful surprise! Now I am gearing up to work on new units for next year. I am changing from a self-contained sixth grade where I taught all subjects, to teaching only LA to sixth, seventh and eighth grade. I am really looking forward to NOT teaching math and science. Those are probably my weakest areas. I LOVE language arts (although the grammar area is a bit boring. After this last class where the students were not motivated to learn at all, I will enjoy having different groups. This way, if one group is not motivated I have the chance to get another group that will be motivated. Unfortunately, I will have the same group I had this year for 2 periods. Oh well, at least I won't have them all day!! No travel plans for the summer. My husband and I went to St. Maarten over Christmas this past year and we loved it soooooo much that we have decided to do our traveling at that time of the year. It is nice to be able to get away when it is so cold here in Chicago. And I will enjoy being able to relax in my own house all summer! If anyone out there has any ideas for novels aligned to the Common Core, could you point me in that direction. I really don't want to have to reinvent the wheel!!!!