Hello There!

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted! Prepare yourself, this is a long one.


It seems like each day holds enough exciting things to fill about a week. I am really starting to settle in to teaching. I just love it so much! Life is still extremely hard, though. I hit a major low point this week: I ate fast food TWICE and went to petsmart to pet the cats...and almost bought a fish. And no, Emma did not give me the petsmart idea.. I had already sat in the parking lot a couple weeks ago after running other errands debating going in... Kvetching... it's going around. :)

I thought I would share a few of the best moments of the past few weeks with you. Here's a huge one: Someone donated the money a Promethean board to me. Pretty much out of the blue. I feel so blessed to be a part of a community that is such huge supporters of the program I am trying to build. If I ever needed a sign that this is where I am supposed to stay for awhile, that was it! The board should be in anytime. I'm about going CRAZY waiting!

I have been doing a Listening Log every day with my jr. high students. This week, I hit a goldmine with the 8th grade and it sparked some AMAZING discussion. I played the song "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. They listened to it once and then wrote and discussed the message of the song. For those who haven't heard it, you could look pretty deep into it! At the most basic level, it's about having something in your life that holds you back and ties you down. We talked about relationships, additions, bad habits, etc.. it also could mean something in your life that keeps you grounded, helps your stay on the right path. We talked about God, parents, friends, etc. It was awesome. They were so interested that it's going to lead to a cross-curricular activity (sort of) with the focus of dance as an art form and how dance and music complement each other. (There is a beautiful dance to this song). Sometimes, it's really cool to take a step back and see what the kids are taking from the music... to not be so caught up in what I want them to learn and let them learn what they are interested in learning!

We have been learning about the National Anthem in all grade levels. I was hurting for something to do with 5th grade, so I just made up a random assignment, and it was a HUGE HIT! I had parents coming up to me and talking to me about it... and all it is is for the kids to pick an event in their lives or something that has happened in America recently and write the lyrics to a song about it. (just like the national anthem started as a poem about the attack on baltimore during the war of 1812). They also had to answer a few questions like "What instruments would you use?" "Would it be major or minor?" etc.. Anyway, i'm pretty proud that i came up with that assignment all on my own. It doesn't happen often.

I'm not quite sure how to put this one into words....It's kinda more about my development as a person... I guess I could say that through conversations with students and other teachers, my students are showing me my character. Even though I find the balance between "close enough to make a difference and be an effective teacher" and "friend" a little on the difficult side sometimes, over the past few weeks, my students have shown me that I am the person that I have been striving to be - and they notice. They show it in funny ways, but I can tell that they KNOW that I love teaching and care about them as people... and that's a really good feeling... I'm not a master teacher by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm on the right path.... and even if my kids don't remember a lick of music, if they leave my care as better people, i've done my job.


Okay, funny story since we're on the topic of my relationships with kids... There's this 7th grader. We'll call her suzy. She's got kind of a rough home life, but she's a really good kid. She stops in my room in the morning to say hi, If we are in the hallway at the same time she'll stop to talk to me, you get the picture. I was walking down the hallways with her and another student today, when he friend turned me and said "Suzy said she wants you to be her big sister" (Say WHAT?!) Suzy proceeds adamantly to deny the comment, turn BRIGHT red, and shove her friend. The whole situation was just ridiculous... and funny. I have no doubt that she said it. We both know that I can't be her sister, and she doesn't expect me to be, so as long as things stay the same as they are now, we're fine, but man... it was funny. bright red. I love that girl.

Who knows how long it will be until I post again. I'm in the thick of preparing for the Christmas Program, so if no one hears from me until after Dec. 16th, that's why.