My husband and I visited Waco to tour all things Magnolia back in June. It was an amazing trip — I love going on trips to new places because I can let my brain relax, and I feel so inspired. Magnolia was no exception – inspiration is everywhere. So, I said I can let my brain relax, but what really happens is that it just gets filled up with all kinds of new ideas at every turn because of all the awesomeness around me. Chip and Jo have truly built an empire that personifies their greeting “Welcome Home.” If you read my previous blog post where you toured my classroom, then you know my classroom theme is the journey, but it’s focused on reminding students that home is at the center. It doesn’t get much more perfect than that for inspiration. So, here’s what my trip to Magnolia taught me about teaching – and you’ll see that these are things I can do in my classroom, changes and implementations and thought processes that require nothing from admin or anyone else – just me.

Last week I took a handgun safety/permit class. My husband had accidentally let his permit expire, so we decided to take the class together this time around. I wasn’t super sure it was something I wanted to do, but I accepted the challenge. While I was taking the class, it dawned on me that I really hadn’t been a student in a really, really long time, so I’m glad that I had this opportunity. As a result, after the second day of class, which was the performance test, my head was swimming with ideas for this blog post – super fitting for this test-prep-time-of-year. Thus, I’m writing this blog post from the point of view of a student, but I’m going to throw in a few teacher take-aways regarding test prep strategies and ideology along the way.