Student Teacher

For the first time in my teaching tenure I have a student teacher. It's a pretty interesting experience. Miss Haleigh is from Niagara University. She's great. Young and open and willing to learn. She is going to be an English and Special Ed teacher so it's a nice fit for my classroom. At this moment, she is teaching To Kill a Mockingbird with my kids. Though don't be mislead, I still need to be on my game. See - I was just asked for clarification on this quote, "Matches were dangerous, but cards were fatal."

Thus far, the only negative thing about having a student teacher is the really real realization that I am old. You like that "really real realization"?! The obviousness and reality of the fact that I graduated from Geneseo 14 years ago. That means that I was graduating college and Miss Haleigh was 7 years old. UGH! The good news is that I don't feel that old on a regular basis.

And it's now U.S. History time. I have to teach. I haven't handed over the control of that yet, next week. So today I will be enlightening my students on the reformation. Good times!

Procrastination

Yes, I am the picture of procrastination. Always have been. There is hope for me but after almost 37 years of being a certain way, it may be difficult to change. I really, really wanted to stick to this whole blogging thing and now it's almost been a month. But let us not focus on the past, we'll move forward and keep the hope. Because in addition to being a procrastinator, I've also always been an optimist. The glass is always half full for me. It's just my nature.

So on that note, we'll end this post and move on. :)

Fire Evacuation

Let me set the scene for you... it's the middle of winter, a balmy 28 degrees with some decent wind gusts, and the snow is blowing and swirling.
But that's all fine and good because we're warm and cozy in this
big fortress called a high school.

That is until the fire alarm starts blaring.

The students look at me like I'm crazy or I'm the one who made it go off and the complaints begin spewing before the blistering wind even hits their faces. My students quickly blend into the sea of hundreds as the students file out of the school.

If I presented with more forethought, I would have been thinking about "project 365" (which I have not been 100% about yet). I would have pulled out my camera and captured the moment.

Students huddling together, students jumping up and down, all together not happy about the situation. My school is diverse and the economic population is also diverse. Many of these students are living in poverty. Many don't have boots on their feet or sweatshirts or sweaters on to keep them warm; some due to poverty and some because they're teenagers and they don't think it's a big deal to wear thin, short sleeved shirts and cute shoes with heels.

Either way, they were cold.

Fortunately it was a false alarm. The drama of being out in the cold without jackets lasted all of about 12 minutes. You would think they had to stand outside for an hour or more. They complained for another 15 minutes about how cold it was and how stupid it was and whatever they could think of to complain about. Get back on task and get work done, not a chance.

These kids don't realize how fortunate they are, in spite of the fact that some of them really do live very difficult lives.

I wish I could share that with them.

I wish they could see through my eyes and see the opportunities that lie at their feet. I wish they would understand that they are still young and that they can make a change albeit difficult.

Let's put things in perspective. The country of Haiti is in shambles due to an earthquake that rattled their poor country yesterday. These people live in shacks that can't even be called houses and even those are gone. I wish my students could see that even though standing in the cold is not fun, they have so much to be thankful for.

I try to teach them these values and ideals. Though who am I? I'm just another teacher telling them things they've heard over and over again. I try to give them the confidence that they can and should set goals for themselves and aim high.

Here's a glimpse of a portion of my classroom. I am determined to give them a larger vocabulary. We do a "Word of the Day" every day. They have learned over 75 words thus far. I'm not moving mountains here but if I can give them the tools and confidence... maybe, just maybe I'll have made a difference.

I can only hope that what I am teaching my own children will sink in and that when they are 16 years old, they will be strong and see the bigger picture when they are presented with a bit of adversity in their daily lives.

Just Another Monday...

My first hurdle, what do I when I find that I don't have anything interesting to take photos of or my blog posts are going to be about the same old, same old?! Do I skip days or just bite the bullet and write and photograph the same topics? I guess I'll play it be ear since I don't have any "readers" yet anyways, it's a work in progress.

Highlights of the Weekend:
*We went to church.
*I taught church school.
*I did grocery shopping with a list and stuck to it.
*Meals are planned for the week.
*Sebastian got invited and went sledding with friends.
*Ben had a friend over to play in the snow.
*Grace slept over and they all had fun.
*We babysat Alissa - gotta love some baby time.
*Family offered to help with the kids (thanks MB and Bon).
*Gramma T is getting the help she needs.
*I got to go to Target and get my Magic pants - love them!
*Friday night pizza with Gapa.
*Got to see Cioci.
*Lots of cuddle time with Lucian.

Lowlights of the Weekend:
*Gramma T went to the hospital and was in ICU.
*Lucian was not feeling too well (strep).
*Philip wasn't feeling too great either (diabetes blah).
*I didn't get as much cleaning done as I had hoped to do (not unusual for me).

And since I'm a list making mood, here is a list of blog topic ideas for those days when all I can think of writing about is my day to day happenings which you'd find to be very routine.
*Random bargain deals
*The joys and hurdles of being a mommy (are you noticing a pattern?!)
*The weather (yeah, I know... another fav topic... can anyone really tire of updates about snow?!)
*Teaching stories

This is my weekend, in a nutshell. More good than bad and it's nice to put it all in perspective. Gramma T is getting out of the hospital tomorrow and we'll pray that she makes some lifestyle changes that will help improve her health so she can be with us for many more years.

And to think that I expect my students to answer daily journal entries EVERY DAY and my list consists of 4 things. Go figure they only write a sentence and call it quits.

Time to do a couple IEPs, I have CSE meetings tomorrow at work and I got an email from the school psychologist who runs the meetings because nothing has been done yet and he was concerned. *sigh* Sorry Michael. I'm really not a slacker, I just am not a fan of writing IEPs and sometimes I procrastinate (yeah sometimes). Oh yeah, and sometimes I priortize teaching (at school) and my children (at home) so when does that leave me time to do this... the day before, I suppose. Though truth be told, I'd much rather curl up on the couch with Lucian and enjoy some time with him before the big boys get home from school.

Here's a thought I'll leave you with... time flies by so cherish each and every day and moment (even when it's stressful)... you'll miss it someday.

Lucian made this "2010 Hat" in school. He was so proud of it and asked to have his picture taken. Poor pumpkin, you can almost see the "sickie" look in his eyes.

Benjamin and AJ had a whole bunch of fun in the snow. They tried shoveling a tunnel in the big snow pile and ate a bunch of snow too. Silly boys!

*

Goals for 2010

We all have the best intentions for starting our years anew, but often get lost along the way because it can be so hard to make changes to habits. The key is to make a plan and have the tools to implement it. These tools can be a myriad of things including (but not limited to) support, ambition, guidance, inner strength to "begin", and organization. I have the inspiration to make it all work - now it's time to implement "the plan".

In no order of importance, these are some of my personal goals for 2010.

• Write a blog.
• Learn a little graphic design.
• Take more photos. Project 365.
• Learn photo editing.
• Lose weight.
• Exercise - realizing that there are many ways to workout - gym, dvds at home, walking, biking, swimming...
  
• Organization of paperwork and finances.
• Improve planning and organization for work and Scouts.
• Eliminate clutter
• Read more.
• Vision Board
  
• Law of Attraction - Practice The Secret
• Listen to Philip better.
• Make quality time with the boys individually
• Me Time - and don't feel guilty about taking Me Time.
• 
  

• More to come... since life is really a work in progress.
  

Serenity

Serenity
-the absence of mental stress or anxiety; peace of mind; peacefulness; calm.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

This is not a photo that I took... but it's a photo my wonderful friend, Amy Gendrou (Amy Gendrou Photography), took of our family this summer.

This is my serenity even in the chaos of life.

Life is difficult sometimes. Challenges and decisions push you and make you question how strong you really are and how much can you really handle. But then you realize, God only gives you what you can handle. So that realization, in turn, helps you see that you can handle all the challenges being thrown at you.

It's in His hands.

Monday, January 4th - Lots of, Lots of Snow (that's what the boys said)

Long first day back to work for the new year.
So, I'll just say the exorbitant amount of snow has made today even more interesting. I took a minute before it got really dark (it was only a bit after 5) to take my wonderful model, Benjamin, outside to "measure" the snow for a photograph. He was happy to oblige. And was thoroughly amused to be "walking" in such deep snow. According to weather.com, we have gotten over 32 inches. Yes, that's almost 3 feet of snow! The pictures are pretty fuzzy because it was STILL SNOWING!!