I'M A REAL TEACHER NOW!

When I say that, I feel like Pinocchio, "I'm a real boy!" But whatever. It's true! I'm a real teacher now! And I've been hard at work trying to create my classroom into what I want and need it to be! It's been such a crazy week. I have so much lesson planning to do and there's no curriculum map, so I feel like I'm basically pulling it all from scratch. I don't have the resources I'm used to, so I'm going to have to get creative. But that's something I can do. The thing is, none of this even really feels like work. It's just doing what I love to do! So maybe it takes a little longer to do things because I'm a cutesy-type teacher inside. Hey, I'm elementary certified! Pardon me if I don't want it to look like a guy did everything. I like fun fonts and creating notes to go with cool, attractive PowerPoints and lessons. To me, this is my playground.

Things that like to trash my playground are things like spending an hour at the Central Office when I could be playing in my playground and having to fill out an inch and a half thick stack of paperwork when I was super tired. Poor woman was probably excited to finally see me go. I couldn't remember anything, or sign my name quickly by any means. Everything was such a chore with the fatigue. I realized when I got home that night I'd written the wrong number down to contact Dad in case of an emergency. Super. I have some more things to send through the corporation mail on Monday so I can finish everything off, so I'll just send a Post-It with it I guess. And follow up on it later. I mean, my phone has a few contacts listed as ICE. So really, it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Besides the lesson planning, one of the very first things I need to do is establish rules for my classroom that are easy to understand, enforce, and remind students of. So I spent some quality time with my computer and made these lovely things!

I spent a lot of time on them getting them to be like I want them, and making sure the owl went with the polka dot background :) You know you wouldn't expect anything less from me. But I mean, if I'm gonna have a permanent teaching job, and have to look at them for more than a few months, I want them to look pretty. So I'll have to get them all printed off on cardstock and laminated! Yay! That'll be a project for probably Wednesday night after school. I have to work at Ruby's Monday, and I don't teach on Tuesday.

So great. It's kind of sad how excited I get about these sorts of things.

I have a long list of things to accomplish, like labeling my files. Heck, creating the files I need....okay, finding what files I will need to begin with. See how desperately stuck to square one I am? I need to find out about the McRel evaluations and get a hold of a rubric for me to start studying. All my evidence of what I'm doing will need to be filed throughout the year as well.

In more exciting news, I bought a beach ball on Amazon. But not just any beach ball. This is a beach ball that is a globe. Complete with longitude and latitude. Guess who got excited about her lesson planning activities? That's right. This girl.

I'll have to try to keep up with blogging so I can inform and record exactly what's going on. I missed all of the chaos of the job hunt this summer. Really, getting this job was not expected. I know I'd blogged something about it, mentioning I thought I'd be great for the position, but how I got it was totally off the wall. I'm kind of bummed I didn't blog all of that. I guess I feel like no one reads this thing anyway, so why bother? I'm not much of a "celebrity" at all. No one really follows me and my life. Oh well.

Well, I believe that's all for now! I've been working like a busy busy bee, trying to get everything sorted. Hopefully as things fall into place, I'll be able to talk more about school and my classes and all that fun junk. And eventually, when I get everything set up how I want it, I'll take some pictures of my room to share! Yay!

Until next time! Whenever that may be...


Thanks to these guys for the graphics. Just FYI.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Hazel-Owl

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The Final Word in Generosity

Be generous. With your life, with your money, with your time, with your kindness, with your love, with your...fill in the blank. As a woman who has grown up in a Christian household, I have grown up with the command of generosity. My mother was always a prime example of this trait. Her gently, humble spirit was the perfect home for a spirit of generosity. Now, I'm not saying she was perfect. But she may as well have been. I tried to avoid thinking of my inner spirit up against my mother's, just like you don't put something stark white up near your teeth. My dad always told me, and I most certainly agreed with him on all counts, that if I want to become a woman of Christ, follow Christ, yes, but also, watch my mother.

It goes without saying that our calling to generosity is to bring glory to God, not to have our own names shouted out in praise. In fact, we are even instructed in Scripture to keep what our right hand is doing a secret from our left. Although taking these words literally is impossible, the message it's sending is very clear. Don't go boasting about your acts of goodness and generosity so everyone knows. Instead, make a move for Christ as a demonstration of his love to be a blessing to others, and allow God to be the focus of that blessing, not you and what you did. Acts of generosity bless the giver as well. God knows what we have done in secret, and he will be faithful to bless us in return. I know this is true, because immediately my heart is always overflowing with joy seeing how a person has been blessed by Christ's work through me.

We are instructed to give freely of our resources to others. Oftentimes, I find myself holding back or hesitating, wondering if what I have to offer is really going to make that big of a difference. But when you think about it, the difference that's made, is you putting someone else's needs before your own. Sure, I may have been working 65 or so hours a week last year, but when I set time aside for someone, that small sacrifice brought joy. I gave what I was able to give. I don't want to go listing examples of what I've given, because that would be going against what I've just said about not telling the world everything you do, but I'm beginning to understand that my acts of love do not need to be extravagant. I hope that I can continue to look for even the smallest of opportunities to bless other people.

Recently, at Ruby's, one of the servers got into quite the predicament. Without going into the full scenario in which this woman had been placed, I'll suffice it to say, she needed $700 to pay her mortgage by Tuesday, on top of a few other very expensive necessities for her family. It was Saturday night. Typically, this young woman is very on top of things and hardly misses a beat. But all these things had been piled on top of her at the last moment and had thrown her completely off balance. We all did what we could. She was working in the cocktail area, so the other hosts and I sat her as much as possible, and tried to put the bigger parties under her name. The other cocktail server that night would switch out her four top tables for two top tables to do the same. We pitched in taking food and drinks out so she wouldn't fall behind and reap all the profit from having that much table action. Still, by the end of the night, it was becoming clear that it probably won't be enough, even with her having a few more shifts before the mortgage was due.

The next night, during my shift, I was surprised to see an individual who knew the situation hiding behind my host stand. I was yanked down to join them and handed a very full envelope with this server's name on it and a verse on the back. I had to hold onto this thing for two and a half hours, trying not to bubble over with excitement.

At closing, I pulled her out from behind the bar and told her something had come for her. Taking the envelope in her hands, she looks at me and asks, "What's this?" I simply reply, "Yours."

She followed me out, determined to discover who had given me this envelope for her, but I refused to give her anything. When she realized I wasn't going to tell her or even help her narrow the pool of possibilities, she just cried and hugged me.

I cried too.

This woman is such an encouragement and a blessing to everyone. She's strong. She's an overcomer. She never backs down. But not all battles can be won on your own. Sometimes you need a helping hand. What would have happened if this certain individual had ignored the prompting from God they had received? What if they had decided the sacrifice was too big and refused to move forward? Someone you will come in contact with, or maybe already have, is fighting a battle. Everyone is, really. Will we leave them to fight things out on their own? Or will we instead use our time and resources to demonstrate God's faithfulness and love to be a blessing to the world? We don't have to pay someone's mortgage to bless them. Where is the need? How can we touch it? Do they feel unneeded? Do they feel like no one has time for them? Do they not go out with friends because they don't have the cash to do it and feel isolated? Are they overwhelmed with planning an event? What is it we can do to alleviate some of the the stress and tension of the world in which we live? Are we available to others, or have we closed ourselves off because we have our own battles to face....

We have been richly blessed in order that we may bless the world. Something to think about.