if i have to do a saturday training, at least it was in the keys!

friday i flew into key west to meet one of my colleagues, as we had a training in marathon. we opted to fly into EYW and drive the short hour north. next time, we may just fly into MIA and drive south, catch the keys from both sides! i'm glad we flew into key west, as jane had been there before on a cruise stop, and knew to find some of the fun spots to visit, so we detoured on in, and parked the car for a bit to walk around and take in some of the sites!

southernmost point!

airport-eyw

statue man blowing his conch shell-should have read more of the history plaque and committed it to memory...

 

it was great to see the repairs and restoration that has already taken place. obviously the first call of duty had been to clean up and work on the tourist-y areas, and evidence of irma in town was minor. it wasn't until you were near the coast, and headed up hwy 1 that you saw the piled up debris and several boats that had be salvaged...and there was plenty of that between key west and marathon. it just takes a bit longer to remove everything when you're on islands with one main drag in and out!

but don't let that hinder you from visiting if you were considering it! the sea food is still delicious, the shops are still up and running, the weather is to die for this time of year!

as we were driving up to marathon, we got a text from one of our very thoughtful colleagues, who is very familiar with the keys. pam gave us several great dining suggestions! the one that we chose in marathon was the keys fisheries. when we arrived, we went upstairs and found a seat, then realized that this was the RAW Seafood bar...well, we weren't in the mood for anything on the raw menu, so we figured maybe we were in the wrong place and made our way back downstairs, where a gentleman pointed us in the right direction. the menu on the wall looked a lot closer to what we were craving!

jane went with the lobster reuben, which was touted as their most popular item, and i opted for the fish tacos. yum! the food was great, and the view was not half bad, either!

the following morning, we got to the marathon high school for the training, and fortunately there was man pulling in and he pointed us in the right direction-we had pulled into the first lot, and it was actually the 2nd lot, in the attached middle school. we got set up, figured out the technology, without any help (they were impressed-we were impressed...each site has their own tech set-up, so you never know what to expect)!

we had a pretty good turnout, and jane began the session, and it ran longer than expected,because the teachers had questions, and we wanted to make sure they had the answers! so i kept looking at the clock to figure out how to adjust my session and what to cut...i started to get nervous, but we ended up making it work and changed the original rotation, where everyone would see each station, to a jigsaw, meaning they would work in their station and share out, and i would provide a debrief for the session. the goal being to not drag them through a long boring powerpoint. we had some good conversation and ended on a good note!

i was a little bummed that we didn't get to do the 'fun' piece due to time! we were going to have a jumble word game throughout the session to tie up each station...no worries, i've saved it for next time!

we did get to end with a sentence stem activity, though, which is always good for our english learners to work on sentence structure!

we ended up getting out on time, and headed back to key west, my flight was a 5:15, jane's a 7:10, so we had time to stop and grab lunch-found parking in front of a delicious little panini shop. we both had the cuban, and the flavors were such a great combination!! hoping to go there again on the next visit! i need to just take a trip down for fun and not work to have more time to explore and play around!

upon arriving at the airport, my flight was delayed, so we ended up having great conversation at the restaurant in the airport- it was great working with Jane to get a different perspective and catch up on the areas that she's been working in! plus, i get a little insight on what's going on in the disd network! looking forward to the next adventure!

the one thing i missed out on because of the training was the Christmas gathering in miami with friends! that was a bummer. i'd already booked my tickets (non-refund), and there was no turning back! planning is everything! (there was an inspirational email about preparing the other day! next time i will prepare to see friends on the front side, or backside of the trip, depending on when it falls!) 

it's december!! still waiting for my Christmas cards to arrive! this one is on the post office, because i tracked it, and ups did their job...i'm going to be very  upset if they aren't in my box tomorrow! dear usps, don't make me come down there!

'tis the season!
julie