Busy, you ask? How busy? Well, this past week, my middle school after school program began. I now spend two afternoons a week teaching a room full of unruly but fun 6th-8th graders about bugs and spiders and adaptations and all that jazz. I also started teaching on-site classes. In my non-work life, I planned worship for the second week in a row, and my brother came to visit. Everything was awesome and fun, but it meant that there wasn't any time for me.
And this week? Yesterday I taught a class to a group of preschoolers....who also spoke no English. I think I rose to the challenge, and was able to teach a lot of the class in spanish, and to rely on my translators as little as possible. I don't know how much the kids got out of it, but I think they know spiders have 8 legs and insects have 6, which is pretty good, as far as I'm concerned. My second class that day was a group of kindergartners whose school I had visited earlier this month for outreach. Often when I do outreach, I wonder what the kids have learned when I leave. But at the end of our class at the BP yesterday, one little girl raised her hand and told me that she remembered me from my visit to her school, and that I had brought Rosie (the tarantula) and a black spider with a red stop sign on its back that you shouldn't ever touch (black widow). I grinned from ear to ear, so glad that I'd made an impression. I got some hugs after that class.
Also yesterday, I spent several hours in rehearsal with the CO Chamber Players, working on our Insect Fables event for next week. Yours truly will get to narrate 6 fables with insects/spiders in them, while the chamber players provide the music (original scores written by folks in the group), and large groups of school kids get to learn about music and science at the same time. I'm pretty pumped.
So I've been a little busy. Today's day of indulgence (which will hopefully include such pleasures as getting new books to read from the library and shopping at Goodwill) is well deserved, and I plan on relishing it.
