GOOD?

Every event in your life can be causing only one of two things. Either it is good for you, or it is bringing up what you need to look at in order to create good for you.  ~ Deepak Chopra

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#54

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#53

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#52

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#51

THE GRASS IS NOT GREENER!

I was so excited when I was told I get a 75 minute prep period every day and I only teach one subject.

Oh, but wait....I actually teach 1, 6th grade class and 2, 7th grade classes so I have to prep for two subjects, since they are not learning the same processes....

Oh, but wait....one of the 7th grade classes is accelerated and one is below average so they are never at the same place at the same time....so can that be considered a third.

Oh, but wait...then I am also the adviser for yearbook. So I have to prep for that too.

Oh, but wait....two days a week it's only 30 minutes of prep because of Professional Development meetings. So I actually get three...which is still great...

Oh, but wait....I usually call at least 5 parents during that prep period....So I actually get two.

At least one of my 1/2 hour lunch breaks is sucked up by a grade level meeting.

So, is it any wonder why, I get to work around 6:15 a.m., work while I eat lunch, stay for 45 minutes after kids leave for the day and still take stuff home to finish.

It can be really discouraging when you do all this work and then don't feel support from parents.

I thought I would be working with more mature kids in middle school. I thought it would be great to focus on one subject. I didn't realize that some teachers in other subjects drop the ball and don't follow through. I don't feel as connected to the kids since I don't have them all day. We have great resources, like agendas, but when the teachers don't use them and parents don't sign them, they are rather useless. I also don't have free time or recess, to hold over the kids heads, if they don't do their work. I'm certainly learning a lot, but I'm really missing elementary school.

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#50

A Mother’s Love

 After the Earthquake had subsided in Japen, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow strange. She knelt on her knees like a person was worshiping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting an object. The collapsed house had crashed onto her back head.

With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure.

He and the rest of the team left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruin house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his hand through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement, "A child! There is a child!"


The whole team worked together. Carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made the ultimate sacrifice by saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said, "If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passing around from one hand to another. Everybody that read the message wept. Such is the mother’s love for her child!!

WEEKEND IN REVIEW......

This was Friday afternoon....

....after my 75 minute commute (normal commute is 20 minutes) it was a much needed break.

This is my TO DO list after 24 hours....I love crossing things off my list.

Plans are done and ready for the week....

....next weekend we are planning a trip to the DINO-CORN MAZE!

SUNDAY INSPIRATION

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#49

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#48

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#47

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#46

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#45

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#44

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#43

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#42

SUNDAY INSPIRATION

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#41

365 DAYS IN MY LIFE...#40

F-#-@-K...I've heard this word way too much this week!

My week started with a child and mother confronting me in the hall about why "I" had her child suspended. I explained that the week before her child had said to me, "F@#$ YOU." Her son, of course, denied it. I explained that all I did was write the referral to the office and they decided the punishment, not me.

Later in the week, a different child, in the same class, called me a "F$%^!*@-WHORE" (count the letters)! He has been diagnosed as ED (emotionally disturbed) and with ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). After dealing with DAILY outbursts from this child, for the past 5 weeks, (....going home feeling like a failure and ready to cry....) I told the lead special education teacher that I had had enough. If this child was not moved from my room, I would leave the school before I would deal with him again. I don't have the training to deal with him and I am not doing him any justice. She agreed that this was not working out and that he would be moved.

Then the end of the week I decided I needed a change so I swapped my room around. We went from this....

....to this.

I changed the entire direction that the desks are pointing.

This.....

....became.....

...this.

This corner.....

....now....

...looks like this.

Then the last corner....

......looks like...

....this.

If nothing else, it (swapping the room around or swapping where they sit), will keep the kids on their toes. They'll never know what to expect from day to day. Keep 'em guessing!