Currently...April

I am a few days late linking up but here is the latest Currently link up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade!

listening...I have a bunch of playlists on iTunes. The yoga one is a favourite of mine. Unfortunately, I have been listening to it but NOT doing the yoga part! See my comments on needing below....

loving...I was so darn tired all last week and am so glad that it is a four day weekend! I slept all of Friday and much of Saturday, too. Now I get to have two days of weekend while I am awake!

thinking...I have been participating in the book study Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites and am falling so behind on linking up for each chapter. This week will be a bunch of catch up posts. Stay tuned....

wanting...I hate allergies!!! I especially hate that I didn't get any of them until my 30's. I was doing just fine without them, thank you very much! It's bad enough dealing with the dust allergy all year long but throw in the pollens etc in the Spring and I am one unhappy camper. And they are especially bad in our home office right now so I avoid coming down here to use the computer, hence my not posting as often! Ugh!!!

needing...this one is pretty self explanatory. I have been feeling sluggish, blah and generally not good for awhile now and I know that it is in part due to my self care (or lack thereof!) I haven't been exercising enough, getting enough sleep or eating enough of the right stuff. So, this month I am going to get my act in gear and get back to taking care of me.

Eggs-plain my name...well, the blog one, anywho. Many, many years ago (in my last school) I had a wonderful colleague who would hide turtles all over my classroom for me to find. I was going through some tough times and the turtles were meant to remind me to persevere. You know, that whole slow and steady wins the race thing...To this day, when I see a turtle, I think of her and what a strong, steadying support in my life she was during those early years in my teaching career. I used to call her my "other mother, mentor, friend" and know that I am a better person (and teacher) for having had her guidance and support during my first 8 years of teaching. I still miss teaching with her!

Well, then students started giving me turtles as gifts and, before I knew it, turtles had become my "thing". The funny thing is that everyone always assumed that turtles are my favourite animal. I like them well enough but am not sure they are my fave. Not really sure I have a favourite animal...

When I moved to my current school, my classroom got christened Turtlepond, and I found myself with a turtle shaped swimming pool (a class gift one year) filled with turtle fabric covered pillows, a multitude of stuffed turtles (over 40 by the time we moved to the new building) and more metal, glass and wood turtles than you would believe.

The move to the new building (and the community model of teaching) got rid of my themed classroom but I kept the blog name and still have a few special turtles around my current room. But my classroom is no longer known as Turtlepond and I very rarely get turtles as gifts any more, though I did get two beautiful Swarovski crystal turtles for my birthday this year from one student (her older brother was in Turtlepond a few years back so her family knows about the whole turtle thing!)

It's funny, though, because the primary monitors working in my class this term were all reminiscing about Turtlepond and all we did there when they were in Grade 1 in the old building. And I had a parent tell me that the turtle shaped name tag from grade 1 still hangs on her grade 4 son's door AND he still sleeps with the stuffed turtle he got from me (I let the kids in the class the year we moved buildings each take a stuffed turtle home with them) on his bed. So, while the pond doesn't exist anymore, it is still living on in the happy memories of former students which makes me feel great!

And there is another month of Currently for you!

Cheers!

Olwyn