Make Way for Ducklings

I'm having a lovely time in Boston, thank you for asking. This morning I woke up to beautiful sunshine. This is the view from my hotel window (21st floor of the Copley Place Marriott). Such a wonderful juxtaposition of historic buildings and modern skyscrapers.

I walked a few blocks over to Frog Pond on the Boston Commons. It was a lovely, brisk December morning. 

 Of course there were ducks. It's a park with a pond. Not only that, it's a rather famous pond. Remember Make Way for Ducklings? I read it as a child, and then read it to my own children.

This is the cover I remember as a child. Now the book has a green cover with just the mama duck. It tells the story of a mama duck who raises her ducklings in a park in the middle of a city. When they have to go somewhere else in the city, the policeman stops traffic so all the ducklings can safely make their way.

 Here's the lovely little island in the middle of Frog Pond, where mama duck needed to take her family.

Today it features a duck-friendly ramp from the water to the island.

I was so happy to find the statues of mama duck and all the ducklings (at the east end of Frog Pond), marching along in their Christmas bows.

 Off they go!

Even the fence around the Commons is historic. Or at least it looks pretty historic. Cool.

 Lots of old brownstone buildings mixed in with the new. This is Boston's oldest church.

This is another old church. I don't know what rank it has from oldest - newest. These buildings are right in the middle of the modern city, with plenty of modern traffic whizzing around.

 The tortoise and the hare are in Copley Square. The hotel concierge told me they have something to do with the Boston Marathon.

I love the grin on the plodding tortoise.

Tomorrow we'll take a bus tour of the historic sites. I would love to walk the Freedom Trail, but the daylight hours are short and I spend most of them indoors at the conference sessions.

Last night the five of us enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner at Limoncello Ristorante. We agreed that our waiter looked like he was an actor from The Sopranos. Unfortunately we had him take a photo of us, instead of the other way around.

The woman in the center is my boss at the district office, Carol. She's the one who helped arrange the funding for all of us to attend the conference. The other 4 of us are all TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment). Our work is to train other teachers and help them strengthen the work they do in classrooms. April, on the left, is a full-time elementary math TOSA. Holly, next to April, is the full-time elementary literacy TOSA. I'm on the right, and next to me is Detta, the TOSA who oversees the programs for English Language Learners in the district. She and I are both half-time classroom teachers and half-time TOSAs.