An Amazing Accomplishment in Anaheim!

Kecoughtan DECA 2013 ICDC Competitors

All school year I have been working with my state officer on an international officer campaign. I've done this before with another student and we were unsuccessful. It was an extremely painful experience after working so hard, but it was also an amazing experience that I learned so much from. This time I was more prepared and my student worked very hard. She was always very positive. Running for a DECA Officer position is no small feat. It costs anywhere from $5,000-$10,000. It takes all year to put the campaign together and the campaign only last about 3 days. You basically run for those 3 days with no sleep and barely any food. This is not for the weak! 

At the campaign booth

But to win...to win means you are one of the 5 student leaders that will lead over 200,000 DECA members worldwide for the next school year. This is the highest position a student can get in DECA and a huge honor - and this year one of those officers is my student! I can't possibly describe the feeling of hearing her name called in a room of 16,000 people after all of this time and energy and emotions have been put into the campaign. Not only have we been investing in the campaign all year, I have had this student for four years and have been able to see her grow and mature. In that moment all of that emotion has to come out and the only way we are capable of letting that much emotion out is to cry...and we definitely cried. 

Our new International Southern Region Vice President!

I'm so incredibly proud of her and all of the students that helped her get here. She will be a great leader and I'm so excited to watch her on the International stage through the next school year. While we were at this conference I missed my teacher of the year banquet and found out I was not selected as the high school teacher of the year. While this was disappointing, I realized that nothing I could ever accomplish in my professional life would be more rewarding that helping a student accomplish something that will change their life forever. 

We spent our very few hours of downtime at Disneyland!

So I check something else off my list. I did not get to check off the finalist or winner at nationals this year. My students that competed did an amazing job and I really thought they would make it, but these contests are subjective and it just didn't work out this year. I unchecked one thing - I am the VAME Eastern Area Teacher of the Year but we don't find out who won overall until August. I also added some things because I don't think we should ever allow ourselves to have a completely checked off list. You have to keep adding new goals so you can continue to learn and grow!

My Big 4 Year Old Boy

To say that I am overwhelmed to have a 4 year old baby boy is an understatement. I cannot even begin to explain how much my heart aches with the love I have for this child. He has my whole heart and I am beyond thankful for him. Tanner is such a loving little boy. He loves to snuggle and give lots of kisses. He is almost always smiling! He loves to play with his cars and trains and more than anything loves his big sister Izzybel (love that he calls her that but is calling her Izzy more and more). While they fight like siblings should...they play together more and more and simply adore each other. He loves slurpees, Pop's Diner, and Golden Corral (because he can have all his favorite foods at the same time)! He is doing gymnastics once a week now and will probably play soccer in the fall. Tanner has lots of friends and all the kids in his class love him. They get so excited when he gets to school. His speech has come such a long way and he is now in his first phonics book. He is learning to spell small words and already knows so much. He still takes naps in the afternoon and goes to bed pretty easily. He loves to play outside, ride his scooter and bike, and go for walks. I can't say enough just how loving this child is and how blessed we are to have him! 

Top middle newborn, bottom middle 4 years, left 6 months and right 3 years.

 Mommy and Daddy love you Tanner Wayne and we are better because of you! We'll love you forever, we'll like for always, as long as we're living our baby you'll be!

Yesterday we celebrated his birthday with our family and his Godparents with dinner at Friendly's since I have class until late tonight. He took cupcakes to his class today and will have a special afternoon with Daddy. 4 year pictures and his birthday party post will be coming soon!

With Izzy and their cousins Baby Rowan and Baby Jackson!

Easter 2013

About 8 or 9 months back we booked a cruise for spring break with our friends Candace and Matt. We were sailing out on March 30th and coming back April 4th. The fact that Easter may fall on that Sunday didn't even cross my mind since last year it was on Tanner's Birthday - April 8th. Turns out we missed Easter...and that was tough for me. We decided to celebrate with our normal Easter brunch the Sunday before Easter. We had some of our closest friends and family over and had a wonderful day. The weather kept us from our annual egg hunt, but we still had a nice time. Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter holiday and celebrated more than just the bunny!!

And a bunch of posts to come in the next few days!!!

Teacher of the Year

I can't deny that this has been an amazing year for me. I have had this list of things I wanted to accomplish while I am teaching high school and this year I have been able to mark off quite a bit in the last 7 years. I was just recently named the Kecoughtan Teacher of the Year. 

This was such an exciting accomplishment for me. A lot of other teachers think that electives are just for fun and that we don't work as hard, so to be selected for this honor means even more. They told me I was the winner one morning and I didn't even know how to react. A little later in the day the whole administrative team, a few other people, along with the drummer from our marching band came into my classroom to make the official announcement! It was super embarrassing but exciting too. I will now move on as a candidate for Hampton City Schools Teacher of the Year - that would be awesome, but I am very satisfied with this. 

This list is almost complete. The last three were moved to the bottom of the list to make it easier to see what I have not accomplished. This year I have been able to mark off National Boards, Kecoughtan Teacher of the Year, and I am the VAME Eastern Area Teacher of the Year. I also have a student teacher right now and I have really enjoyed working with her. It's crazy to think how close I am to accomplishing all of these things when some teachers do not ever accomplish any of them, but I am excited and thankful that I have been able to do so much. I have the chance to accomplish the last three at this year's ICDC at the end of April....fingers crossed!!!

DECA State Competition

The weekend of March 1-3 in Virginia Beach my students competed at the state DECA conference. This is always one of the highlights of our year, but it is also one of the most stressful and exhausting weeks/weekends for me. This year we had a state officer so I went on Wednesday with her to prepare. My 21 other students came on Friday and the events began. I also had a few former students come visit. It is always rewarding to hear about their successes since high school and find out that I have had an impact on their life. Competition ended Sunday with Grand Awards and we had quite a few finalists. We ended up having 4 students qualified for the international competition, which will be April 23-29 in Anaheim, CA. What do you do after you win at states? You go to Disneyland!!!

Seriously though, as hard as I work and as exhausted as I am after this event, it always reminds me of what I do this for when I see my students accomplish such amazing things and be so proud of themselves. It's such a wonderful feeling and I'm such a proud teacher/advisor/sort of parent of all of my amazing students!

With my state officer Lexy

The 2012-2013 VA State Officer Team - Love these kids!

My chapter - and that is the DECA Diamond we are making

Two of my chapter officers after we received our first award

One of our written event competitors

A few of our winners and my Outstanding Advisor Award

Kiara (on the left) won 1st place and Emily won 3rd place!

Our chapter President and I have been through a lot and she has done a wonderful job

Disney Trip 2013

Below are links to all the postings for our trip so you don't miss anything :)

Disney Trip

Sea World

Animal Kingdom

Epcot and Hollywood Studios

Magic Kingdom Take One

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

Magic Kingdom Day Two

Magic Kingdom Take Two

We spent the day in Fantasyland. I decided to be perfectly fine with taking our time and seeing whatever we could see. The new parts of Fantasyland are pretty fantastic but I can't wait to go back and see the finished product. While waiting in line to ride Dumbo (a requirement as far as I'm concerned) the kids got to play in a huge circus play area. We saw a show and rode the Winnie the Pooh and Little Mermaid rides. 

We met Ariel and then waited in a long line for Enchanted Tails with Belle (there is no fast pass for this). Beauty and The Beast is the kid's favorite Disney movie especially since this was their Halloween costume so we felt that this line was something we had to wait in. It started out as story time and then we moved into another room where the magic wardrobe told us we were going to put on a play for Belle. Noah was picked to be a guard and Tanner was picked to play the Beast! He had to roar and surprised us all with a nice big one. During the play we thought he would be super shy but he roared and then at the end he got to dance with Belle!! My shy boy made it all the way through and it was so exciting. Then we got pictures with Belle and Izabel was on cloud nine. 

These kids asked if they could take a picture with our beautiful Princess!

 

Video of Tanner dancing with Belle

For dinner we went to Cinderella's castle and ate at the Royal Table. We got to meet Cinderella and Izzy got her picture taken while she was all dressed up. We met Ariel again, Aurora (sleeping beauty), Jasmine, and Snow White and had some amazing food. All-in-all it was an amazing magical day and a great way to end our wonderful trip!