Back To School!

The time has come, and how the time has gone!  Summer always stretches endlessly in June.  The beginning of September seems forever away.  But then comes the last week in August, and we hear ourselves saying, "Is it time to go back already? Where has the summer gone?"

Yes, it's time to go back.  Emotionally, I'm ready.  It's been a very full summer, lots of activity, several mini-trips, great weekends away with my husband.  Mentally, it's still a little hard.  Teaching a new subject is still making me quake in my boots a little.  I don't know what to do the first day.  Need to ask Sharon!  Sharon was/is the best social studies teacher I have ever known.  She is the most organized and the most creative teacher.  She retired a year or two ago.  I miss you, Sharon!

Even though part of my emotions are saying "scary," the other part is saying, "Woo-hoo!"  I am so excited about being able to teach social studies and Language Arts this year.  I have wanted to do it for at least 8 years.  I added my social studies endorsement five years ago, but this is the first time at my face-to-face that I will actually be able to teach the "blocked" classes.  At Sandpoint Middle School this year, that means I will be teaching the same students both social studies and language arts.  So much will be new for me.  Well, they say that's one of the things that keeps us young: challenging the mind with new and different endeavors.

Help!  Anyway, I'm sending out a call for "Help!"  If you have some ideas of how I can incorporate social studies with language arts, please pass on your ideas to me!  The social studies content is early American history, to 1877.  I hope to have as many cross-curriculum activities as possible, to make the whole blocking thing successful.  Lend me your ideas, you wise teachers out there, wherever you are.  :)

One of the best courses I've ever taken has helped prepare me for teaching social studies is "We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution."   It was a seven-day workshop in Jackson Hole, WY, this summer; one of my weeks away from home.  It was so encouraging to get this information and be around history/social studies teachers for this week.  Of course it revealed how much I don't know as well, but it was mind opening!  If you ever have a chance to attend a We the People institute, do it!  I hope to attend more in the future. 

We had one afternoon off to go to the Teton National Park and we hiked around Jenny Lake.  The pictures are from that day.

Pick Up a Bow

Sitting here at school, trying to make my new computer do what I want it to do. Just spend 15 minutes trying to get the signature right on my email. Vanity, I suppose. Thank God for new computers, even if it is a hassle setting them up at first. My old computer was starting to act up, so I'm glad Dell had the recall. Every model of that computer was recalled, and we got a good deal on tech support, I guess, when we got new ones. So I have 10 new computers in my room (including mine). With my school laptop, that means I can have 10 students on a computer at a time. At this point, my largest class has 21 students. What are the chances that all 21 kids will show up on the same day?

So we went to one more shoot: Thompson Falls, Montana. Don and I really enjoy this shoot, for one reason really, the Clark Fork River. It is so cool to go down to the river to swim after a hot day of trudging around in the dusty hay fields and through dense underbrush in the forest, sweating going up hill and down shooting targets.

The river (I'll have to put a picture in later) is cool and strong. It has deep spots so you can climb the boulders at the edge and jump in. Don likes doing that more than I do. Mostly I just like crawling upstream, using my hands to pull against the current. You have to be really careful swimming there. It is just a few miles below the Thompson Falls Dam, and the current, when you get far out, is very strong. At the edge, it's not too bad. It did frighten me imagining Don getting towed downstream and not being able to get out. I'm not sure what I would do. It takes about 20 minutes to get back up the hillside to the hotel. He'd be far away by then... Thankfully, it was only my overactive imagination.

It was not the best shooting weekend for Don. The first day, I shot really well. The second day, not so good. I still won my class. I was the only one in it. :) That has happened several times this summer. Where are all the recurve women? Come on, girls. Pick up a bow, buy some arrows, and get out there!

It takes practice. The first time I shot a bow, I tried about three shots and said, "Forget it." It was about a year later I tried again, and kept trying. And now I'm pretty good (but not consistent!). We'll see how I compare to the competition at the IBO World Traditional Championship, in Erie, Pennsylvania, in September. There's definitely going to be some quality shooters there. Hope I turn out to be one of them.

Another thing about archery, make sure the weight of your arrows is consistent with the requirements of the bow and your draw length! Find someone who knows how to help you set up your equipment. It doesn't take a lot of money to start shooting traditional, but it does take a good set up. You can save yourself a lot of anguish with the right bow and arrows. Make sure the bow is not too heavy (in the pull weight). Lots of people make the mistake of using a bow that is too heavy. It is frustrating, and can hurt you. Don't let your personal vanity get in the way, i.e., "I can shoot a heavier bow that this!" Start with the lighter bow. You'll be happier and more confident. You can always move up to a heavier bow later, if you want to. My bow is only about 35 points. I shoot a DAS metal riser with some Olympic style (low end) composite limbs. It shoots great! Some people prefer an all wood bow. There are some really nice ones out there. Just find something you'll like!

We really need more female traditional shooters. Pick up a bow!

Idaho State Bowhunters Jamboree

Well, as a culminating event of the archery season, it was a little bit of a let down. The scenery was beautiful, of course, at the foot of the Sawtooth Range of the Rocky Mountains, and the trophy was nice, but... the competition for me was lacking. I was really hoping there would be lots of women recurve shooters, and I could find out once and for all if I'm any good. Didn't happen.

There were only six traditional shooters at the Idaho State Bowhunters Jamboree in Stanley. So yes, I won, but what an empty win. The Libby Traditional Shoot in Montana at least drew about 15 traditional recurve women (and I won that one, too, this year. That meant something). I think I liked Libby more. It was cooler in Libby (Stanley was nearly 100 degrees). If the Stanley shoot were in the Spring instead of the middle of summer, I'm sure the daytime temperature would have been better. At night it got plenty cold in Stanley. We woke up one morning with ice covering the little table and cooler at our campsite.

Last thing about this shoot. It was a really long drive to get there! 10 hours. We had to cross over the Bitterroot Mountains twice, going into Montana, and then crossing back into Idaho. I don't know if we'll make it again.

We, Don and I, have decided to go to the International Bowhunters Organization World Traditional Championships in Pennsylvania in September. Rick Welch told us about it, and encouraged us to go when we were at his archery school in April. This is the first time IBO has had this event just for traditional shooters. And since it is the first one, a person doesn't have to qualify, so this might be the only year we can go.

Don will be going for a whole week. His brothers live in Pennsylvania, close to Pittsburgh, which is about two hours south of Erie, which is close to where the event will take place. We found a time share available (that's a miracle!) close to the event also, so Don will be able to stay in a nice place for the week, and hopefully his brothers and their families will come see him there, too.

School: I'm really excited that I get to teach Social Studies and English at my face-to-face job at Sandpoint Middle School this year. I have wanted to do it for at least five years, since I earned my endorsement in Social Studies, specifically for the purpose of being able to teach this block situation. I am so happy! I am also really scared. I haven't taught Social Studies before at the 8th grade level, so the curriculum will be new to me.

I know I'll have lots of help from the two social studies teachers I'll be partnering with, still... I've brought home the textbooks. Now I just have to crack them open.

Here's the last picture from the Idaho State Shoot, part of the picturesque Sawtooth Range.