80 Days

Have you ever seen the show, Phineas and Ferb? I have a brother who is ten years younger than me, so I watched Disney channel for much longer than most! Anyway, their theme song goes like this,

"There's 104 days of summer vacation
And school comes along just to end it
So the annual problem for our generation 
Is finding a good way to spend it"

Well, that's crazy. There is absolutely no way anyone has 104 days of summer vacation. I did some quick math, and I guess it's possible, but think about it:

School days:       180
Summer:             104
36 weekends:       72
Total:                   356

So you'd have 9 days left for Christmas and Spring Break. THAT'S RIDICULOUS.

My summer break is 80 days long, I counted! But they did get something right... the 4. Because for students, it's 84. But seriously, where did those extra 20 days come from?! Anyway, here's how I'll be spending my 80:

Days 2 is my cousin's wedding shower.
Day 3 my friend who is going to house sit while we're gone is moving in after church.
Days 4-7 will be spent planning an epic road trip to Skagway, Alaska and packing.
Days 8-10 are for going to camp with middle schoolers.
Day 10 is also when my friend is getting married.
Day 11 is for REST!
Days 12-19 will be spent on the road trip.
Day 19 is also take a ferry to Juneau day!
Day 22 is when we will meet the college students we will be leading this summer.
Day 66 will be the day we take a ferry back to Skagway and start the long trek home.
Day 79 my brother graduates from nursing school!
Day 80 I will whine about going to bed early.

Lots of excitement in the midst of all that, but those are the starting and ending points!

Ideas

I have been a terrible blogger lately and not updated at all. But I want to do better. The thing is, I worked at night school tonight, came home, had dinner, then went to the musical at our rival high school (don't worry, I'm going to my school's on Saturday). We (my roomie and her cousin went too) got home at 10. Needless to say, I'm extremely tired and when I finish typing this, I'm going to bed.

So why bother updating right now?

Well, I was thinking about blogging a lot lately, and I have lots of ideas. I'm looking for opinions on whether you'd be interested in reading about any of them...

First, since my blog is called "Adventures of a Second Year Math Teacher," I thought I should right more about my adventures.
Past Adventures like working at a summer camp, numerous mission trips to Chicago, and a summer project in Rome, Italy.
Current Adventures like teaching math (obviously), planning next year's prom, owning a home, raising support for a mission trip, and volunteering with 6th grade girls. ...and...
Future Adventures like driving across the country and then taking a ferry to Alaska, then another ferry to a little island to spend my summer living on a Tlingit reservation!

And then there's other things.

One thing I'm oddly passionate about is teaching teenagers social media/internet responsibility. I think that's a pretty hot topic in education, right? I have a Twitter page I use exclusively for school and our student council advisor had this great idea: #sweettweetfriday.

And more random things, like...

• Khan Academy (not only can you practice your math skills, but you can learn computer science!)
• "Survivor Algebra" (Check it out at coolmath.com) 
• XKCD (I've blogged about this before, but it never ceases to be awesome)
• The Oatmeal (because sarcasm is awesome... and grammar... and Tesla)
• Settlers of Catan (because I really am a nerd)
• The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (A modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice... math teachers can love literature too!)
• Appropriate use of cell phones as an educational tool
• How I hate when people use Facebook like it's Pinterest (Pinterest exists for a reason, people! Maybe you should sign up!)

There's probably more, but do you remember the beginning of this post when I said I was tired?