Once a Teacher Always a Teacher

Happy Summer Break to MOST of you out there! I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in St. Simons Island, Georgia with my legs propped up on the bed and laying back in a chair.  A vacation to me is sometimes just relaxing and doing what you love.

I spent yesterday working on my Facebook fan page, Creative Ideas for the Upper Elementary Classroom.  I went through my Dropbox account pulled out my pictures that I had taken this school year and organized them into folders and potential blog posts!  I watched many videos from Teaching Blog Traffic School and tried to implement those tips and tricks on my pages.

Today my goal is to write a post in my blog (check :)), work on my guest blog post (tba), and to work on my TOTY essay.

So even though I'm on "vacation" I'm already planning and thinking for next school year, I'm continuing working on school related items, and I'm constantly thinking of my students.  Hence the title, Once a Teacher Always a Teacher.

When we arrived at St. Simons on Tuesday, we went to Zaxby's that evening and ate dinner.  While I was sitting and chatting I saw this awesome propaganda poster.  During our WW1 and WW2 lessons we discuss these posters and even make our own.  I thought this poster would be a GREAT "hook" for that lesson.

I know that I'm not the only teacher that does this, right?  On a trip that my husband and I took to Savannah last year, I made him stop at a cotton field.  We had been discussing slavery and the Civil War and many students didn't know what a cotton field was.  I was surprised since my school is considered "in the country."

At a professional learning that I took this year a man had this "friendly" booger out for everyone to look at.  I was quick to say, "Hey, can I hold that?" to get this picture for my students!  This is very surprising since I am not typically into reptiles!

Looking through a mail order magazine at my Mom's house in Arkansas, I stumbled upon these two items!  They would fit perfectly into my Civil War lessons!! Now only if I had the funds for them, right?

I could go on and on about the different things I've seen and done on my "me" time, but I think as teachers you get the point.  We are professionals all the time!  We may be on summer "break," but there isn't much "breaking" about it.

What are some things you've found or done on your vacations that only an educator would understand? :)