Today is a holiday in the United States — Valentine’s Day! My students have been busy making valentines for our friends in Japan. So the junior high school students at Omi-Sensei’s school can have something to look forward to in the mail (probably next week)! But here’s a wish for lots of love to all my friends around the world.

Students in Social Studies classes have also been busy making art for the “My Culture, Your Culture” assignment. Each student drew a picture of aspects of their own cultures, and then we are sending them to partner classes in Ukraine and Bangladesh. I have HUGE piles of art to bring to the post office. 

I’m very grateful to the Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) program, for helping me to make connections to teachers in Ukraine and Bangladesh, and can’t wait to see the art that their students create. How did I make these connections? I visited the Classical Lyceum in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine during my TGC fellowship year, and still keep in touch with my partner teacher, Lydia, from that experience. In October, TGC asked me to give a presentation at the Global Education Forum in Philadelphia, and one of my co-facilitators was from Bangladesh. TGC has opened up so many doors for me. For any teachers reading this, I highly recommend applying for this program — applications are due March 17th.

Here in Massachusetts, it’s school vacation week, and I’m staying in the USA this time around. Even though I’m not leaving the country, I’m excited that my mail will be! Here’s where it will be going!

It’s extremely cold here. I’m not sure what climate change is doing to us, but here’s the temperature right now:

For those of you reading this in other countries, that’s -9° Fahrenheit (which is -23° Celsius)! Note that in two days, it’ll get up into the 50s. This area is known to have weird weather, but this week is especially weird.

I’m lucky that I’ll be traveling to Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, where the temperature is expected to get up to 81° F. I’m going to a balloon twisting convention! I’ll get to take classes and learn from some of the best balloon artists in the world. People come from all over the globe for this event. I already know that there will be instructors from Australia, Spain, Italy, Israel, and more. Even though I’m not getting abroad this February, it should be a global experience! I’ll try to post some updates from the convention, so check back soon. In the past, there have been some amazing photo opportunities!*

*Note: Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to see balloon photos and updates in real(er) time. Also, I’ve posted a few entries about my experience at previous balloon conventions, which you can check out here: @globetwisting at EdCamp and The Jam Room.