Sewing and the Midwest
Joy is helping me finish sewing my knitting bag this weekend. We are enjoying a nice time so far in College Station with family. Nate is helping his dad install new burners in the grill (they basically rusted out) so we can have a Memorial Day weekend cookout. I just finished practicing on a curved piece on the machine. I can't wait to see the finished product.
Now to respond to Lisa's comment so my parents don't worry too much :):
Nate and I have been chatting lately about where (in humble submission to God's will and plans) we live after he finishes at Rice. I have heard some good things about the areas around Evansville, IN and St. Louis, MO from a fellow teacher. Not that those are at all definite, but their areas are possibilities. Mostly I would prefer a place with a mild winter, fall colors, and a warm/hot summer. In my mind, Texas is not my ideal place. I love the midwest--it's where I've spent my whole life. I love the lakes. The ideal would be to be within a day's drive from both sets of parents and from our close friends (Mikey will have to move a little closer to the midwest than CA :) ). We would like our children (Lord willing) to know all of their grandparent's well and to see them as much as possible. Who knows where the Lord will take us. We are just planning one year ahead at a time and dreaming a little further on than that. :)
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Last Day
I am officially not a first-year teacher anymore! Hurrah! My kids "graduated" and had their last day today. And I'm doing the summer vacation dance! Not that summer vacation will be all relaxing (although, there will be a lot of that)--I plan on planning once a week, working on home projects, volunteering as a tutor, teaching Vacation Bible School, seeing a bit of Houston, spending lots of time with Nate, studying Galatians, exercising, visiting with family around here, and of course, coming to the Midwest (those are not in order of importance or time spent on them).
I'm off to edit Chad's paper. Cause he's still in school! :) He can rub it in to me when I start school in the middle of August.
I am officially not a first-year teacher anymore! Hurrah! My kids "graduated" and had their last day today. And I'm doing the summer vacation dance! Not that summer vacation will be all relaxing (although, there will be a lot of that)--I plan on planning once a week, working on home projects, volunteering as a tutor, teaching Vacation Bible School, seeing a bit of Houston, spending lots of time with Nate, studying Galatians, exercising, visiting with family around here, and of course, coming to the Midwest (those are not in order of importance or time spent on them).
I'm off to edit Chad's paper. Cause he's still in school! :) He can rub it in to me when I start school in the middle of August.
Friday, May 21, 2004
Things I learned from my first year of teaching
Some are silly; some are serious; some have come from failures; others have come, by the grace of God, from success.
1. There is such thing as a stupid question.
2. Responses I don't like: Huh? I didn't know. I didn't hear you. You didn't tell me that.
3. Kids have real questions that need to be answered with real truth from God's Word--they just need someone to listen to them.
4. Write the date on the board everyday or you'll get asked it all day long.
5. Find something positive to say to everyone of your students--I now see that there are some students I only had negative one-on-one interactions with.
6. As the teacher, apologize when you've wronged a student, many students, or all your students.
7. Sometimes you just need to laugh along with them.
8. Positive reinforcement, along with good, thoughtful discipline and punishment that is followed up with conversation about the problem, will be 10 times more effective and helpful than frequent yelling and humiliation. If you have to yell a lot (more than a couple times a year) you don't have control.
9. Counting to five--on fingers and out loud--still works in fifth grade. In fact, it works very well.
10. Fifth graders still love to play the quiet game--the person who is "it" chooses the quietest person to be "it" in their place.
11. Kids of all ages (even me) love someone to read to them. Read to kids and talk about what you are reading.
12.Leave your floor as clean as possible for the janitors. Also, be kind to the janitors and remember that they have a lot to do each day. Make friends with them.
13. Don't let your students interrupt your conversations unless it is actually urgent and don't interrupt their conversation with you if it is possible.
14. Make your students ask the complete question: "May I go to the bathroom?" Instead of just holding up the bathroom pass or saying "Can I go?"
15. If they are walking too slow, chase them down the hallway. :)
16. Don't gossip about your students or their parents behind their backs--gossip is my biggest struggle. I must remind myself everyday--and I don't do a very good job of it--not to talk negatively about others. To present the facts only, and then discuss what can be done to solve the problem.
That's all I can think of for now.
Some are silly; some are serious; some have come from failures; others have come, by the grace of God, from success.
1. There is such thing as a stupid question.
2. Responses I don't like: Huh? I didn't know. I didn't hear you. You didn't tell me that.
3. Kids have real questions that need to be answered with real truth from God's Word--they just need someone to listen to them.
4. Write the date on the board everyday or you'll get asked it all day long.
5. Find something positive to say to everyone of your students--I now see that there are some students I only had negative one-on-one interactions with.
6. As the teacher, apologize when you've wronged a student, many students, or all your students.
7. Sometimes you just need to laugh along with them.
8. Positive reinforcement, along with good, thoughtful discipline and punishment that is followed up with conversation about the problem, will be 10 times more effective and helpful than frequent yelling and humiliation. If you have to yell a lot (more than a couple times a year) you don't have control.
9. Counting to five--on fingers and out loud--still works in fifth grade. In fact, it works very well.
10. Fifth graders still love to play the quiet game--the person who is "it" chooses the quietest person to be "it" in their place.
11. Kids of all ages (even me) love someone to read to them. Read to kids and talk about what you are reading.
12.Leave your floor as clean as possible for the janitors. Also, be kind to the janitors and remember that they have a lot to do each day. Make friends with them.
13. Don't let your students interrupt your conversations unless it is actually urgent and don't interrupt their conversation with you if it is possible.
14. Make your students ask the complete question: "May I go to the bathroom?" Instead of just holding up the bathroom pass or saying "Can I go?"
15. If they are walking too slow, chase them down the hallway. :)
16. Don't gossip about your students or their parents behind their backs--gossip is my biggest struggle. I must remind myself everyday--and I don't do a very good job of it--not to talk negatively about others. To present the facts only, and then discuss what can be done to solve the problem.
That's all I can think of for now.
Great weekend
This is a long overdue post about my time up in Michigan.
At the end of April, I flew up to Michigan for a bachelorette weekend of justice with Lisa and Kortnie for Kort. Before that, though, I was able to spend a little bit of time with all of my grandparents and one of my uncles. Also, while stopping by the church I grew up in, I got to see a good friend, Linda, and the church custodian, Jim, who Justin and I used to know really well when we lived next to the church. How great it was to see them! It was overall a wonderful weekend.
The funniest part of the whole weekend was surprising Kortnie. For months Kortnie has been talking about taking a trip on her week off between semesters at the end of April. It has been all we can do to keep her from going anywhere. We had convinced her that she needed to come to my parents for dinner. She was so bummed (and actually told me this on the phone the day before I was leaving for MI) that I wasn't going to be there. So, she walks into my parents' house, and my dad calls her out onto the porch. I'm in the corner waiting for her to see me. As soon as she gets out there, she sees me, screams, pulls me up out of the chair by my arm and hugs me while she laughs and cries. It was the perfect reaction to make it all worth it!
The rest of the weekend consisted of:
1. A yummy cookout
2. Seeing my brothers
3. Relaxing in the hot tubs with Pina Coladas (Kortnie drank mine since I'm not a fan :))
4. Lunch at Riverstop (right?--I love that place--yum)
5. Missing our turn on the way up North cause of about 100 jeeps in a field distracting us (Kort would have caught it, but she was sleeping--in fact she did catch it when we ended up in Cadillac)
6. A beautiful hotel room at the Cherry Tree Inn at the beach in Traverse
7. Great Wolf Lodge for dinner--quite a cool little place to eat that resembled the outdoors and camping
8. The Wings losing :(--I'm still wearing my RedWings shirt today, though!
9. Giving manicures
10. Yummy caramel apples
11. Lots of time to talk, laugh, and some good prayer time together
Nate and I will be up in the midwest again this summer. I can't wait! It's already in the high-80s here. Although, I did like the winter. I told Nate this morning that I didn't know if I could stand living through a cold winter again.
This is a long overdue post about my time up in Michigan.
At the end of April, I flew up to Michigan for a bachelorette weekend of justice with Lisa and Kortnie for Kort. Before that, though, I was able to spend a little bit of time with all of my grandparents and one of my uncles. Also, while stopping by the church I grew up in, I got to see a good friend, Linda, and the church custodian, Jim, who Justin and I used to know really well when we lived next to the church. How great it was to see them! It was overall a wonderful weekend.
The funniest part of the whole weekend was surprising Kortnie. For months Kortnie has been talking about taking a trip on her week off between semesters at the end of April. It has been all we can do to keep her from going anywhere. We had convinced her that she needed to come to my parents for dinner. She was so bummed (and actually told me this on the phone the day before I was leaving for MI) that I wasn't going to be there. So, she walks into my parents' house, and my dad calls her out onto the porch. I'm in the corner waiting for her to see me. As soon as she gets out there, she sees me, screams, pulls me up out of the chair by my arm and hugs me while she laughs and cries. It was the perfect reaction to make it all worth it!
The rest of the weekend consisted of:
1. A yummy cookout
2. Seeing my brothers
3. Relaxing in the hot tubs with Pina Coladas (Kortnie drank mine since I'm not a fan :))
4. Lunch at Riverstop (right?--I love that place--yum)
5. Missing our turn on the way up North cause of about 100 jeeps in a field distracting us (Kort would have caught it, but she was sleeping--in fact she did catch it when we ended up in Cadillac)
6. A beautiful hotel room at the Cherry Tree Inn at the beach in Traverse
7. Great Wolf Lodge for dinner--quite a cool little place to eat that resembled the outdoors and camping
8. The Wings losing :(--I'm still wearing my RedWings shirt today, though!
9. Giving manicures
10. Yummy caramel apples
11. Lots of time to talk, laugh, and some good prayer time together
Nate and I will be up in the midwest again this summer. I can't wait! It's already in the high-80s here. Although, I did like the winter. I told Nate this morning that I didn't know if I could stand living through a cold winter again.
Back again
I hope there are still people reading my blog. I know I haven't posted in, oh, about a month or so. Sorry about that. I am now officially in the last week of my first year of teaching, so I have a bit more time.
As y'all can see, Nate changed my template for me. I like this one better than the last one. It seems like Blogger has made some positive changes.
The fifth graders had their big P.E. program, called "Zero 2 Hero", last night. It went well. Today they had their fifth grade luncheon. Boy, they were wired after that. Our computer teacher suggested that fifth graders should be done today and should just come back on Thursday for commencement. Great idea!
My main thing left to do is to organize my room. I'm completely reorganizing it, and just like my dad, I want to get it finished before I leave for the summer instead of waiting until right before school starts. I can still hardly believe that the fourth graders are going to be mine next year. I will miss my first year guinea pigs. :)
I hope there are still people reading my blog. I know I haven't posted in, oh, about a month or so. Sorry about that. I am now officially in the last week of my first year of teaching, so I have a bit more time.
As y'all can see, Nate changed my template for me. I like this one better than the last one. It seems like Blogger has made some positive changes.
The fifth graders had their big P.E. program, called "Zero 2 Hero", last night. It went well. Today they had their fifth grade luncheon. Boy, they were wired after that. Our computer teacher suggested that fifth graders should be done today and should just come back on Thursday for commencement. Great idea!
My main thing left to do is to organize my room. I'm completely reorganizing it, and just like my dad, I want to get it finished before I leave for the summer instead of waiting until right before school starts. I can still hardly believe that the fourth graders are going to be mine next year. I will miss my first year guinea pigs. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
