School's out...for the summer!

My last day of work was Friday. Students got out Thursday at noon, but staff had an extra day and a half of worktime, which was just about as long as it took me to empty my desk and reorganize about half of my closets. I'll finish the rest in the fall (or next spring)! I spent the weekend mostly outside -- Saturday, I watched Adam's team play three games in a local tournament, and today I worked in the yard (planting and transplanting) and went to a park for a barbecue to celebrate a friend's birthday. I applied lots of sunscreen! It's been beautiful here, in the mid-eighties, so it really feels like summer. Of course, it snowed a few weeks ago, so you never know..... Hopefully it won't get too much hotter, or Adam will start sleeping in the basement again! We're talking about installing a new furnace this summer (our current one is at least 25 years old) and doing A/C at the same time. Feels kind of like a luxury....but I know I'll appreciate it when it routinely hits the nineties in July!

I have a class all next week from 8 to 5. It would be nice to have a little more time off before going 'back to school' but it's probably better to do it while I'm still in work mode! Should be interesting, anyway, and hopefully useful. It's all about differentiation -- meeting the needs of different learners in the same classroom. It's a real challenge, and definitely something I'd like to work on as a teacher. My team teacher (she's also teaching fifth grade, like me) is taking the class as well, so it will be good to be able to work together. Supposedly we will be writing a curriculum together for a differentiated unit that we can use next year.

Once my class is over, I'm pretty free -- playing Ultimate a few nights a week, tournaments here and there, a trip to Seattle, and then my big cruise from Rome to Barcelona in August. I'm pretty excited -- even though I'm not really a 'cruise girl', I think it will be a lot of fun! Plus it's a relatively small ship. Anyone have recommendations for things to do in Rome before I set sail?