Following through on the follow up

I woke up before 5:00 a. m. and started sorting through all the papers that I brought home from the trip.

I spent hours yesterday working on the financial paperwork from my grant. It is finally all entered into the computer. All that is left to do is copy it.

The next steps are writing the two page summary report, the reflective report, and, finally, the survey.

Going over the financial paperwork was somewhat frightening. I spent an incredible amount of money. Its a good thing that I received a little extra money in July. I added my money to the grant. This allowed me to stay on the road just that much longer. All told this trip cost me about $3000 more than the grant. Amazing!

Of course, that isn't including the books and gear that I bought before the trip. I'm now the proud owner of a tent and all the gear that I need to take off and go camping. Good thing, too, as this trip has made me remember how much I love being out in nature.

It will be a while before I'm going anywhere. I have a week before school starts back up to sort through all of the papers and materials that I brought back.

My brain is churning away with ideas for how to use my experience in the classroom. It's a marvelous state to be in! Between the workshop, Folk Art Traditions and Beyond facilitated by Nancy Walkup of SchoolArts Magazine and Mayra Walker of the University of North Texas, and all the traveling I've done the options seem endless.

I already have the majority of my professional development hours for this school year and school hasn't even started!

Got to go. It's time to make coffee, have a bite of breakfast and get back to the papers.