Build a raised garden in the backyard
Yeahhh this ain’t happening. I really thought it was going to but it’s hella hot out there and I just can’t muster the energy. Perhaps this fall as our voluntary social distancing continues we will embark on this. There’s still time for my 2020 end of year goal!
Finish installing the baseboards in the whole house
Yesssss we finished this July 13th!!! The beautiful ringing of the nail gun finished up and now we are just onto caulking. :)))
Probably ignore school work until we know what fall 2020 will look like
Yeah f*ck this. I am literally not planning until we go back for pre-plan when they start paying me & then this year I am only planning about a week at a time because lord knows what will happen this school year week to week. I’m trying not to let this one stress me out but its hard. I’m a planner and I like a reliable schedule but maybe this will be a good thing for me. Teaching me patience and flexibility whether I want it or not!
Add artwork/decor/shelves to our empty walls
We are definitely moving on this goal without rushing. First up is going through the boxes we have with personal stuff to decide what we what to use on shelves & walls; if I can decorate “freely” I will! After over a year of living in a construction zone it is nice to really feel home sweet home.
Read more: 2019 Home Renovation Journey
Maybe *finally* finish the laundry room & our master bathroom
Ummmm so no on the laundry room, even though I’ve been dying to get this done since we moved in 2 years ago. I really thought we were going to get the master bathroom done, however, the hamper we want to get is out of stock…until September…and Will does not want to do *anything* until we get that in. Things we have left to do:
- Buy/build hamper
- Install shelf
- Hand towel hooks
- Buy cute towels (I want Turkish towels)
- Hang art piece from Seville (we can actually move forwards with this step now)
Continue social distancing
I knew we were going to do good on this goal :))) Will and I stayed busy at home with projects and virtual professional development. Really nothing that fancy though. We went home to my parents one weekend & saw my mother-in-law (all adhering to common sense social distancing guideline!) but besides that we have done nothing else outside the house.
Read more: Teacher Tips: Surviving Summer & Social Distancing Edition
Install the dining room light fixture I got on Facebook Marketplace
This is finished!!!! I got this chandelier for super cheap (like $70 on Facebook Marketplace) and I knew it was going to be perfect. Will has to do a lot of research on how to wire it but he’s really great with that stuff & we got it up on July 3rd. 🙂 Thank goodness for our neighbors & their second ladder for all their help. Ahhhh it just makes the space look so much more cohesive.
Design & work on our “outdoor living spaces” (aka awesome backyard & patio)
Will and I found free palettes from a local hardware store, picked them up (all 12 + 4 our neighbors gave us!) and he got to work. He made 2 coffee tables that can be snapped together to make one big square one, and 4 pieces that can be mixed and matched to sit on. All we need now is to finish the upholstery. I can’t wait to enjoy our hammocks & patio furniture once it cools down!
Actually make the guest bedroom livable & cute
Once Will got the baseboards in we could decorate our two guest bedrooms (again for free!). I’m actually super pleased with how they turned out, too bad I cannot invite anyone over now.
Explore some cool local places instead of the travel we were going to do instead 🙁
We really didn’t do any of this. Honestly by midsummer our county started to have COVID spikes so we chose to stay low so that we didn’t come into contact with people very much. I was hoping that we were going to do more “local travel” but I’m glad we played it safe. I have asthma and I’m trying to be cautious without being in a crazy bubble.
Attend/teach virtual summer PD & workshops (Will may have one in person)
So much here. Too much.
- Gilder Lehrman offered self-paced online courses with set teacher/professor led Zoom sessions. My plate ended up way fuller than I expected so rather than “fully” participate for the certificate (i.e. do all the readings, all the videos & quizzes), I decided to zero in on the topics I most enjoyed. The Q&A sessions with college professors was the best part for me. The two courses I participated in were:
- Women and Politics in 20th-Century America by Linda Gordon, New York University
- American Immigration History by Vincent J. Cannato, University of Massachusetts, Boston
- The Institute for Curriculum Services put on a virtual self-paced PD called “Teaching the Arab-Israeli Conflict with Primary Sources.” Which, hands down, was the best virtual PD I did all summer. Excellent platform! I just wish they had more topics I could do.
- In the month of June I was an AP Art History Reader for their online essay reading week. It was an opportunity to bring in some extra income and learn more about AP essay grading. However, it was a huge emotional/physical drain on me.
- Will & I also taught PD this summer for our district through their program called Teacher2Teacher. We taught 4 classes Wednesday mornings every other week from 8-11am. My session was about building group collaboration on our virtual platform Canvas and Will’s was on creating on-demand teacher videos.
- In late July I also participated in the Uberoi Foundation Fellowship for Teaching Dharmic Traditions Summer Program. It was a 3-day virtual conference coupled with about 130 pages of reading ahead of time. I love learning about religious traditions & this one was all about the Indian dharmic traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, & Sikhism. Once this PD is complete there is another application process to be chosen to go to India, yes I said India. Woot woot!
- Oh and I guess this counts, I *had* to do a state-mandated mental health training (2 hours online + a half-day Zoom meeting). It wasn’t as bad as I thought but I have lots and lots of feelings about the ineffective crap the state pays and makes us do (that’s another rant).
People tell you not to talk about money. I think that’s stupid so I’m going to honestly share the financial part of doing this summer PD.
- Gilder Lehrman – not for pay (normally they cover your cost of attendance & give you a travel stipend)
- Institute for Curriculum Services – $150 for completing the PD by June 15 + $50 for recommending it to others
- AP Art History, College Board – $740
- Teacher2Teacher, SCPS – $254 + second half of the stipend (I haven’t gotten it yet)
- Uberoi Foundation Fellowship – $100
- Mental Health Training – $100
I don’t tell you the dollar amounts to be pompous or anything, but I think many teachers pass up the opportunities to make money over summer while also learning cool stuff (cool to me anyways). This isn’t money that’ll make us rich but it’s nice to have that cash flow over summer to put into savings/mortgage or splurge on the odd thing here or there.
*Note, Will also got his own PD money from writing lesson plans for the district & teaching virtual PD too. But this is not his blog, it’s mine 🙂
Try not to be lazy and actually workout & wake up decently early
So I woke up around 7am everyday (not waking up any earlier than that over summer!), I was doing a decent job working out but some days I just could not mentally get into it. We were, however, pretty active in our house getting things done and, honestly, as long as I was moving I was ok with it.
And if we get really bored…build a faux built-in bookshelf for our study
ha. no.
JMF
