Day 345: Wednesday, October 21

A couple of weeks ago Leslie and I were invited to head up to the Utah State office of Education to evaluate textbooks. They would provide a sub for 2 days while we looked at different elementary math textbook options. So, when Leslie decided she just didn't have the time to do it, I decided to go by myself. I was a little nervous about driving the hour up to Salt Lake in traffic and finding a building I have never been to before, not to mention being in a roomful of people I don't even know. But hey, I have spunk, so I knew it was going to be fine. I hit a short snag when I drove by the extremely hidden sign for the parking lot and had to make a figure eight around the one way streets to make it back there, but I parked and arrived right on time. When I found the room, which was down in the basement with no windows, I actually knew someone! Julie Peery from our district was there as well as another fellow district member that I didn't know. We could have carpooled if we had known we were going to be there! After the introductions, the 6 of us got started evaluating 9 different series' of books, including the much talked about Singapore math. Here is the spread from just Singapore math:

There was a set of at least 20 books per grade level, and there were 3 sets of each grade level - that's a lot of books! Being our first time, it took us about two hours to evaluate this set. We had to decide things like whether it matches our state core at least 80%, teacher friendliness, student appropriateness, ESL compatibility, etc. Our reviews will then be posted on a website for all districts to look at when deciding to adopt a textbook for their district to use. After we all did this one series, it was most of our first time being there, we split up into groups and finished 6 of the 9 series' before the day was over. We all became very comfortable with each other. In fact, two of the other teachers typing their review kept laughing at me while another teacher and I were evaluating a different textbook! When I asked them what I was doing that was so funny, they said they couldn't help but laugh at how animated I was, that the kids must love me, and that they thought it would be fun to teach with me. That's right, I am awesome. haha And yes, I am very animated and outgoing with my opinions. I hope my current team feels the same way.

We finished around 3:45 when they told us they wouldn't need everyone's help tomorrow. Most of us had subs for two days. It took a little tinkering to make it work, but I agreed to not show up tomorrow. Since I really couldn't cancel my sub at this point, I decided to just take the day off and relax. Why not? I didn't feel too badly about this one. But heading home was the best part. Since we were looking at evaluation copies of the textbooks, we got to keep whatever we wanted! We all piled different several different series of textbooks, big books, whiteboards, math literature, and differentiation cards into the backs of our cars to take back to our schools.
I even grabbed some things to help a friend of mine in fifth grade that is struggling with our textbook. A lot of this stuff is probably going to sit in my cupboard and never be touched, but there are several of the things that I am really excited to use! It was definitely worth it for the knowledge, free stuff, and the resume. Oh, and the day off tomorrow.