I was supposed to have a formal evaluation by my principal, and I had made these terrific lesson plans and had it all ready to go. We were halfway through our lesson and outside of my classroom door, on the outside of the building, two llamas walked by and it caught my students' attention. And my lesson, that I had so wonderfully planned, was now totally in disarray because these fantastic looking llamas were going by our classroom.

So we went outside, and took the principal with us, and got to touch the llamas and watch them spit and watch them kneel over backwards the way their knees bend the wrong way. And it was just fascinating to be around the llamas when that's not something that is ordinarily on a schoolyard, much less in southern Idaho.

And it had meaning for me because so often we talk about shaping the future, when in fact the future is just a series of connected nows. And by grabbing that now, that lesson that was going on right then and there, I was really able to enjoy my students, and we learned so much—far more than my formal evaluation lesson plans would have ever taught us. So it had a lot of meaning for me to grab what's going on right now and just have fun with my kids.