Thankful #2

I'm thankful for family traditions. I enjoy the time at home that the holidays provide. I love spending quality time with Mom, Dad and Angela. We chat and laugh while we cook. We share heartaches while we sit comfortably in the living room. We share life while we shop. We simply have time with each other and I love it!

I love our traditions of shopping the day after the holiday. The day after Thanksgiving, all the ladies head out to the stores. We pile into Vicki's van with my cousins and aunt as we go shopping. Since we're all together, and we are primarily Christmas shopping, we have to be pretty secretive. It's hilarious how one person keeps another person occupied in conversation or trying on items or looking in a certain area, while another person quickly moves to the register to check out and get that item in a bag! :) For the most part, no one figures out they're being manipulated!

We go to Mardels and several of us will buy the Christmas shirt of the season. Then we'll change in the car so we're appropriately decked out for the upcoming holiday. We laugh and hum carols as they're played over the loudspeaker of whatever store we're in at the time. Vicki and I will want a Sonic drink, but Aunt Barbara will think we can go to 'just one more store.' Typically we win though, because Vicki's the driver... :) It's a high energy day and so fun!

We end the day out with Del Rancho. It's a restaurant that we don't have in Texas and they have phenomenal chicken fried steak sandwiches. One sandwich feeds two people easily! The out of towners always want it when we're in OkCity. And the locals usually do make your own pizza.

After dinner, some cousins will head home or to their in-laws so the kids can see both families. Numbers in a small space will decrease and the games get pulled out. Some will play Wii, others will play DDR, while others will be deep in a Spades game. I vacillate between Spades and Scrabble. We're hard core, but only Rhonda likes Scrabble so I never get to play except when we're together. Spades has been a family game for years. I first learned when I had the flu on a family ski trip and it's been a favorite ever since.

I love family traditions!

Something I've noticed...

Each year, I can tell I'm becoming a better teacher. The first few years are all a learning curve. I felt like I had it under control my 2nd and 3rd year, even my 4th year, but looking back...(shakes my head.) I can see how many mistakes I made. And sometimes, it wasn't mistakes necessarily. It was just lack of experience. Each year, I can tell I am able to go deeper with content, ask more probing questions, think outside the box more often, etc. I have taught pretty much the same thing for 6 years in a row now. Because I don't have to think about the topic, I can really focus on how to get the objective across. I love it!

Now that is totally not to say that I'm fantastic...because I know there are definitely ways I can still improve, but it's nice to be able to do a self-assessment and see pluses!

On a different note, but still in reference to my job, I've started becoming more organized in my classroom. I've always been super organized in my computer. I have lots of computer files and can find any document I need. I clean out, update and edit regularly. I'm the same way with my inbox. I never have more than a handful of emails in my inbox at one time. I have appropriate folders and go through those consistently to keep them up-to-date as well. However, my filing cabinets, bookshelves and storage cabinets are a different story. Over the past two weeks, I've begun and completed small projects that help to tailor my classroom into a more manageable work area. It has been wonderful!

I still have major growth areas. Some I'm aware of and some I'm sure that I'm not, but it's nice to see some progress!

Thankful

The first of November has come and gone and I haven't started my "Thankful" posts yet!

I'm thankful for many things this year. I'm going to start with my wonderful girlfriends. I was taking life kinda hard for awhile and they swooped in and did everything they possibly could to make life better. I received cards in the mail, flowers on my doorstep, brownies hand delivered, listening ears at all hours, firm shoves and tender words assuring me it was okay to take a step back from life and relax. You know who you are and I love each and every one of you!

Can I just start over?

Ugh! Today has been sooo frustrating, the type of day where I just want to start over. Blink my eyes and be back in bed, ready to rise for the day.

Today's wrongs

We're giving a practice TAKS Writing. After we've passed it out, we realize the students have already taken this test. We have to find, create, and copy a new test. Oh, yeah, except the copier is out of staples. Then it breaks down all together. Great.

One of my co-workers doesn't deal well at all with stress or change. I have to put out her emotional fires, and frankly, I'm sick of it. (I know that's not the Christian reaction. I'm sorry.)

My partner teacher is out today. Her sub is great, but still has questions. Questions that take time to answer. Time I don't have because I'm putting out emotional fires and dealing with making new copies (and finding a copier that does work.)

My students have all day to take this test. I take a few minutes to go over test-taking strategies, remind them of certain lingo the test directions will have, and answer any last minute questions. My students started asking questions like "Do I have to write in cursive?" "What does 'prewriting' mean?" "What is a graphic organizer?"

This may seem innocuous to my dear readers, but it is most frustrating to have questions which I've spent the last 10 weeks of school teaching the answers. The question that drives me absolutely batty is, "What do I do when I'm done?" They haven't even seen the test yet. They have no idea how long it's going to take them. But they are REALLY worried with what they're going to do afterwards. Not to mention that we have the EXACT SAME routine EVERY DAY for what to do when we finish an assignment!!!!!!!!!! Do you hear me yelling!? I'm still...ugh!

I want to pick up creamy jalapeno and a margarita and take it home tonight for dinner. I want to watch Criminal Minds and veg on the couch. I can't really pick up a margarita to take home. I also don't have any Criminal Minds to watch. :(

Sigh...

Breathe in, exhale out

I was told that our new superintendent has recently said, "It is not a child's fault when he fails. It is the teacher's."

This is bad....very bad

Uh, oh!

Looks like I'm going to be making a drastic change...

Family Fun

Jon and Bryanna came to visit this weekend. They live in OkCity, but were in town for a friend's wedding. They arrived about 5:45 Friday morning. I left for work about half an hour later and they went to bed. We didn't see each other much on Friday as they were leaving for the rehearsal dinner when I got home from work, but Saturday we were able to chat while running errands, etc. We were able to have some great conversations and I loved every minute of it. We don't get to hang out very often, and never have over the years. This was the first time we'd ever hung out by ourselves, and I really enjoyed it. It was great to get to know them better!

I know I posted earlier about having zero motivation. That ended up changing and I was able to accomplish SO much! It was a great feeling to leave work on Friday knowing I had completed so many cleaning-out-type of tasks. The kids will notice a difference tomorrow morning and that is always fun. Even better is that I felt a sense of renewal in my profession. It is so easy to get burned out at work. To do things the same way they've always been done. To ignore other things that crop up because they're new or uncomfortable. I have planned for several new or different things over the next few weeks and am excited to try them out!