I have enjoyed guest hosting the Day in a Sentence feature this week. Thank you to everyone who participated in the first edition of 2008.

It’s hard not to have the transition from vacation back to work on the brain. It’s on my mind too as I wish everyone a productive and happy return to school and a happy and healthy new year.

Reflections on the New Year

Michaele: January 1: Resolutions have been brainstormed, weighed and selected not only for my self-improvement, but as guides for my experiment in and reflections of self-growth during the next twelve months…no pressure!

Delaine: Watching the waves roll in on the beach as the new year rolls in also, I think about what I will be teaching next week as we return from a three week hiatus.

Sue P: After careful examination of the year just passed, it is clear to me why I am smiling, yet exhausted!

Winter and Holidays

Kevin: We were just putting the finishing touches up on a giant snowman – using pistachio nuts as the eyeballs and a celery stick for the nose when I realized that the four of us (my sons and I) could probably use just one more snow day/holiday before heading back to school for 2008.
(and the podcast version here)

Christen: As any another Melbourne school teacher living in a seaside suburb would know, I am on holidays and in a perfect position to keep cool alongside the thousands of other sensible holiday makers and jet-ski users in the currently clear waters of Port Phillip Bay.

Eric: Today was slow and white until just before sunset when the sky burst into pink cottony streams on a golden backdrop and we flew down the tree crowded hill in the back on a silicon coated plastic sled that has seen better times.

Cynthia: I don’t know what I dread the most, decorating for Christmas or un-decorating after Christmas; however, this year as I undecorated, I came to a realization: decorating is a labor of love for my children who are very traditional and want the house to look as it did when they were small, and un-decorating is a time for reflection of Christmas present and Christmases past, especially as I carefully pack up each piece of our Christmas village and remember the joys both in the giving and the receiving of each house.

Back to Work

Larry: This has been a week filled with ignored intentions of getting caught-up with work.

Susan O: Working out, cutting out dairy (so sad!), and not looking forward to vacation being over.

April: Nursing unearned droplets of excruciating pain, I smile wanly at my eager students recently back from a too short Christmas break.

Angie: Coughing, sleeping and reading took up two whole days but I’m glad to be back cleaning, shopping and blogging now!

Liza: Three more days of freedom means it is time to return to my classroom and prepare for the onslaught that happens on Monday!

Expanding Horizons

Nancy: I’m going to try this with my kids.

Nick: This week I analyzed the stock market, researched body image, pondered religional’s influence on society, and soon realized that these things are all related.

Anne: Adding to the speed with which my classroom and staffroom walls are crumbling down, as I get more involved with web 2.0, collaborative projects and virutal teamwork with 5 great weeks of school holidays and web 2.0 surfing time.

Joyce: The whoosh of the moving air from 50 teachers paddling down the hall, all at once, each seeking immediate answers and the relief of having two weeks to recover before TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) ramps into full speed ahead…ahhh, to be a Literacy Coach-the fun never ends!

Gail (and I didn’t pay her to write this): With winds from the “storm of a decade” screaming, howling, and crashing throughout the Sierra foothills, I plan to spend the day in front of the fire finishing Into the Wild – but not before exploring the newest iteration of http://www.needleworkspictures.com/vic/ .

Prioritizing

Elona: When I think about Henry David Thoreau’s assertion that “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it”, I realize that I need to decide how much of my life am I willing to give to give up to accomplish whatever it is I am contemplating doing.

Teaching Philosophy

Durff: Education is not about the performance of the teacher, it is about the participation of the learners (some call them students).

Saying Goodbye

Bonnie: It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of this week we celebrated New Year’s Eve at Lincoln Center while by its end we stood in the cold at a cemetery, as my family said farewell to a beloved grandpa and even though Harry was been in pain for the last two years of his 84, are we ever prepared to say goodbye, his wife of 62 years isn’t; it’s the universal monkey on our back.

If you missed out and would still like to participate, you can post your sentence as comment here. Next week this feature will return to Kevin’s Meandering Mind. See you there.