Inspiration and a Birthday Cake

The thing I love most about my program (not including the lack of sleep and my new addiction to coffee) is the people. They're some of the most creative, intelligent, caring, and fun people to be around.

They're going to make freakin' awesome teachers. 

This weekend I traveled to Philadelphia for a conference for Noyce Scholars Conference, a.k.a. a future- science and math teachers conference. We were surrounded by inspiration (Michelle Shearer, the 2011 National Teacher of the Year) and more amazing education students. Needless to say, I was excited to get back into the school this morning; I was inspired and ready to tackle my work and my mind was buzzing again with new ideas.

However, my mind started buzzing with something else after lunch: sugar. We had planned a surprise birthday celebration for one our fellow classmates. Since the conference ate up a huge chunk of my weekend I wasn't able to create the 3D-cat-dissection cake that we had originally planned (the woman is going to be a biology teacher!). Instead, I whipped up a fun and bright chocolate cake to reflect this woman's amazing personality.

Having all of us together to celebrate her birthday only made me realize how much the people I'm with mean to me. I'm so thankful to have the chance to learn from each of them this year.