I love these penguins!

These baby penguins are marching to their new home at the
San Francisco Zoo. Photo from HuffPo. Click here for
even more adorable pictures!

The Best Part about Blogging

Is the people you meet. When I posted this yesterday, it never occurred to me that someone would offer to help me with my speech. Mrs. Chili responded to that post stating that she would help me! Now, if you don't know Mrs. Chili (you should) she has taught speech and English classes at her local college. I'm not dumb, so of course, I jumped at the chance to have her proof my speech.

The speech is now pretty much written after receiving many helpful suggestions from Mrs. Chili. I will spend a lot of time practicing it tomorrow. I'm still nervous, but feel much better about it.

So a huge Thank YOU to Mrs. Chili for all of your help!!

A speech?!

On Monday is our first mandatory day for the District. We have a get together at one of the high schools where we usually hear from our Superintendent (oops! Don't have one of those!) or some other inspirational speaker. Last year, one of our campus security sang an inspirational (not religious) song and had an amazing voice. We have had our state superintendent speak, as well as a retired professional athlete.

Our interim Superintendent (I.S.) told me about a week ago that he would like for me to sit up in front with the other honored guests. No problem! I can stand up and wave with the best of them. Our past president has very rarely spoken to the teachers at this event.

Today, the I.S. calls me and requests that I speak on Monday and he is giving me about five minutes. Did I mention that there will be probably be around 800 people in attendance? Me, panic?

Missing Out

Okay, some rather fabulous ladies are going to be getting together tomorrow evening. This was something that I really, really wanted to be able to attend because getting to meet the likes of Jenn and Deb does not happen very often.

About a week and a half ago, I started researching airline tickets. I should have jumped on the purchase price at that time because just a few days later, they had increased by about fifty dollars. However, being a firm believer that things happen for a reason, I'm glad I didn't purchase them because the latest shenanigans in my District would have prevented me from going anywhere out of town.

Starting with the ouster of our Superintendent on Monday to having to meet with our CFO tomorrow along with one of our teachers, this week schedule has been crazy/busy.

I'm hoping that both Jenn and Deb and any other of the SoCal gals will partake in a margarita on my behalf. I think we should synchronize our watches so that we can all have a margarita making a toast to fabulous women everywhere.

15 Places for Math Teachers to Find Lesson Plans and Curriculum Ideas Online

Below is a guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about accredited online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

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Math teachers who are in need of new lesson plans or curriculum ideas for the new school year can find many of the resources they need online. There are many websites dedicated to providing lesson plans, classroom games, student activities, and other teaching aids for the classroom. Here are 15 places for math teachers to find free lesson plans and curriculum ideas online.

TeAchnology - TeAchnology offers more than 1,000 free lesson plans and units for K-12 math teachers. The site also provides rubrics and worksheets for classroom use.

Education World - Education World provides more than 600 free lesson plans for mathematics teachers.

The Math Forum - Drexel's Math Forum features an Internet Math Library with more than 1,000 free lesson plans and other resources for primary and secondary math teachers.

Columbia Education Center - The Columbia Education Center offers dozens of free teacher-created lesson plans for math teachers. Lessons are sorted by age group and saved as text files for easy reading and printing.

K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center - The K–12 Mathematics Curriculum Center provides research and publications to help classroom teachers develop a curriculum and instructional materials that engage students in mathematical learning.

NCTM - The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics offers guiding principles for math curriculum and assessment on their website. The NCTM guide is an excellent resource for math teachers who are developing a new curriculum.

CyberBee - CyberBee has been providing Internet resources to teachers for more than 12 years. The site offers a wide range of math curriculum ideas, lesson plans, and student activities that are easy to implement in the classroom.

We the Teachers - Although this site was not designed specifically for math teachers, it is a good place for educators to connect and search for lesson plans online. We the Teachers also offers a search engine for classroom games.

TeacherTube - TeacherTube is a YouTube-like site for teachers who want to post video lesson plans and other instructional videos online. Math teachers can use the site to find curriculum ideas and classroom-ready videos for students.

NumberNut - NumberNut is an interactive online math textbook that can be used by both students and teachers. Resources are available for basic math students and advanced math students.

AIMS Education Foundation - The AIMS Education Foundation provides a wide range of free math activities through their website. Activities are designed for grades K-9.

Illuminations - The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics created this site to provide teachers with standards-based lessons for the math classroom. Illuminations also offers a selection of student activities and curriculum ideas.

Math Playground - Created for elementary and middle school students, this interactive math resource provides fun games, videos, and others study aids to supplement classroom learning.

Math Drills - Math Drills is a fantastic resource for teachers who need math worksheets and other printables. The site offers more than 6,000 worksheets with answer keys.

Math and Reading Help for Kids - This site provides teachers, tutors, and parents with a comprehensive directory of math articles that can be used to develop curriculum and lesson plans for students who struggle with various math topics.

My Go-To Guy

That would be my husband. The one that I married twenty-three years ago today at the very young age of 20 but knew from the day we met that he was the one for me.

He is the one who proved with tireless effort that the CHP had it all wrong when I was in a very bad car accident in 1997. When my attorney looked at the work done by my husband which convinced the CHP to change their report stated that he had never, ever seen CHP do that in his years as a personal injury attorney.

When I decided to return to school, he was the one who didn't complain when the housework wasn't done. He was the one who took care of all three of our kids when I needed to study, often times taking them to the mall or to the park to give me an hour or two of quiet.

He is the one who has loved me when I ballooned up to 175 lbs and still told me that I was beautiful. He was the one that was there encouraging me, helping me at the gym when I decided that 175 lbs wasn't a good look for one who only stands at 5 feet tall.

He has been my rock when we almost faced every parents nightmare, the loss of a child after our daughter made an attempt to end her life over a year ago. When I have doubted my "success" as a parent, he has been the one to tell me that we both have done the best we could and that our kids know that.

There are times when I cannot believe it has been 23 years of being married to one truly wonderful man. We have had our differences, but one thing that I can say without hesitation is that for almost two and a half decades, I have been married to my best friend, the one who has had my back no matter what.

Happy Anniversary to my Go-To Guy!