It is another three-day weekend for the kids and they need it. Yesterday was a teacher institute day (teacher learning) across the county and all schools were out. I sat through a class on vocabulary acquisition our district rolled out at the beginning of the year. It is a pretty successful program focusing on Greek and Latin roots. I like it because it is concrete. There is a right answer and a right way. As much as the kids needed a day out of school because state testing begins next week, I needed a day in the classroom. I got a lot of the learning yesterday and am looking forward to applying it, but most of all it was it was good to get confirmation that what we are doing is helping kids learn.

I remember taking French I in high school. It wasn’t easy and I wasn’t a great student. All I remember from French my first year was that I sat near one of the varsity cheerleaders. The next year, when I retook French I, I sat next to Andrea, the student council president and daughter of the Oilers head coach. I learned my lesson that year and took French more seriously. That was my French experience in high school. I retook it in college and did much better. I was older, wiser, and far more focused. In addition, I wanted to learn to speak French, because my dad lived in Paris and it was cool to be able to speak French and get my way around the city without reverting to English. My time in French class and learning to speak Spanish, when I was in the restaurant business, has helped me relate to roots and it all makes sense.

Which leads me down the path I take today – to the past, I opened Facebook and made the jump to the new platform – timeline. I needed a picture for my page so I went way back in time to June 2010 and my trip with my brothers, Julie, and dad – for the final time. I posted the picture of all three of us, together in front of the playground we played on when we lived in Paris as kids in 1966. We have all grown since and man, my hair was short in that picture. I went back in time to that picture and that day. I re-read my post and discovered that all of the pictures from the blog of June 2010 are un-linked. I know what happened, but it’s gonna take some time to fix it. Time I don’t have today, maybe in the coming week. I did fix the post’s pictures so, if you read you can see the pictures. Day 17: Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Seine

So, my way back adventure was good for the soul, but not for the day’s agenda. I planned to write a short post and distracted myself, Mon dieu! Somehow, that happens more than it should! But, I had better jump up, jump in and get a move on. Today is gonna be a great day. I know it. Making the days Count, one day at a time, even when I am distracted and off task!

What gets you distracted? Does it bother you or do you just go with the flow?