Monday, August 25, 2008

hot showers

You have to love a hot shower. I stood under the gentle shower of hot water this morning thinking of the day ahead and I started to look forward to my day. School has been different lately. I can't explain it other than I am out of my comfort zone and I am not very happy. Things happen at school and at home that leave me feeling nervous, confused, and scared. I hate to sound like a complainer because like I said at the beginning of this post, the hot shower worked. Maybe it was the tingle as each drop rained down strength and assurance from God. I don't know. I just know it felt good this morning. Well I better get ready for school.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Nightmares

I woke up early this morning because of a terrible nightmare that I was having. It was so real that I didn't realize that I was dreaming until I woke up in my room. I remember vivid details and emotions from this dream unlike those other dreams that you forget as soon as you wake up. My heart's prayer is that my nightmare never comes true and that is all that I will share.
I have a student this year that I had been warned about prior to school starting. I usually listen to other teachers but I don't let that information cloud my judgment of the student. I start each year off with a clean slate on each student. Well this particular student missed the first day but was in school yesterday and he didn't even try to make a nice first impression. He was testing and sometimes pushing his limits from the very first moment I walked into the room. He doesn't know this but that only makes me work harder to win him over, so to speak. I will not give in and send him to the office because in reality that is what he wants. He wants to be home or out with his older brothers causing trouble, instead I will try my best to keep him in the classroom. I will also make it a personal mission to make sure he learns something even though yesterday on his paper he just scribbled lines and said, "hey, I'm done." He has no idea how much his actions yesterday just sparked a fire in me to change his mind about school. Now in reality I know I have a very slim chance of changing this student based on family history but I will try up until the very last day of school.
It's time to get ready for school. Have a blessed day and pray for our schools.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Friday Five

Friday is here and here is my Friday Five:

1. No more sleeping in for awhile. Schools starts next week but since I am a new employee to the school I have to start a few days earlier. I am ready to get back to work though because just sitting around the house is driving me crazy.

2. I was watching the Samantha Brown travel special last night about China. She went to a Giant Panda rescue place and she actually got to hold one of the pandas. I would be scared but it would also be so cool to hold a panda. I am not good with names but she also went to a city that still had the original city wall mostly intact from 5000 years ago. The city wall was to keep the attacking Mongolians out of the city. I would love to see the history of China first hand but that would be years from now for me.

3. Laurie Halse Anderson's write for 15 minutes a day challenge has ended. I will still be writing each day because I think this month really inspired me to get in that habit. I will miss her prompts for writing every day but I can think of some things on my own.

4. Monday night I had a work night with the IUSWP for our grant and writing conference next year. At first I was dreading doing all of the work that I had volunteered for but after Monday I feel better about things. It was fun to reconnect with friends. IUSWP stands for Indiana University Southeast Writing Project and it is actually one of the oldest professional development systems for teachers, not the IUS branch but Writing Project in general. Each summer teachers take a 4 week intensive class aimed at improving writing skills for students. You end up making life long friends because we write every day of the class and share our own writings. If you are a teacher or librarian you should check out the National Writing Project on the web.

5. My last item is actually a call for prayer. We need to pray over our schools as kids head back in the next weeks. A prayer of protection from violence but also a prayer that the new president will take a serious look at the No Child Left Behind Law and make the needed changes to help the students. We should really look at the candidates and see where they stand on issues like education and helping the poor. That is as political as this blog will ever get, hopefully.