Ahhh Education

I was browsing the internet on my day off and found some interesting articles.

Read this in light of the fact that all my students are African-American

(and check out the demographics of Greenville)

Read this about the nationwide teacher shortage.

(I know my teacher friends can agree.)

Many people probably see this post as irrelevant... but what happens in education now will affect our children (regardless of how we will choose to educate them). Vote wisely :)

Killer Ants

Turns out the problem with our A/C unit was that it had been infested by ants. Thankfully, Alabama doesn't seem to have the fire ant problem that Texas does, but there are massive amounts of little black ants everywhere...including our old air conditioner.

In other news, we're kicking off our first Wednesday night youth program in two days.

Live from the Hampton

Well our A/C unit has failed us. It ka-putted somewhere in the middle of the night on Friday, though it took us until mid-day Saturday to realize it for sure. Saturday morning, we woke up, and I dropped Eric off @ the gym and made my way to our friendly Wal-Mart. When I got back, I turned down the air, but because I was "playing house" in the kitchen over the hot stove, I didn't realize the air wasn't actually working until later when Eric got home. We escaped the heat and spent the afternoon in Montgomery (as always I am thankful for Starbucks) and returned home since we were having a couple* over for dinner. We ended up eating outside, which was nice, but that night I had a very hard time sleeping. This afternoon, Eric and I went home after church, grabbed our stuff, and lived up at church so we didn't have to be in the heat. And now, we are at a hotel, graciously paid for by our landlords. Hopefully, we will be back home in the cool tomorrow. :) Sometimes, I am just so thankful that I live in the 21st century.

* The couple I referred to is in their twenties and w/o kids... it's very exciting indeed :)

Grace in Alabama

Tonight, Eric and I had the privilege of getting to hear the band Indelible Grace perform. For those of you who aren't good ol Presbyterians or RUFers, they are a band that has taken a lot of the old hymns and rewritten them to new tunes. It was a youth group event, and I guess hearing them play is one of the perks of being the youth director's wife! It was enjoyable to listen and sing the music and was closer to my much missed days of JBU worship than many of my more recent worship experiences.

When I sat down to write this blog, I was thinking about what to "title" it... does anyone else ponder these things???... and realized that this is indeed a day where I have needed much grace and have needed to give grace at my job and within the church. It is so easy to sing about it sometimes, and yet so hard to turn around and give it when you feel wronged by another. It's easy for me to think about giving Eric or close friends/family grace (maybe because I have to give/receive it much more frequently from them), but it is much harder to even stop and realize that I need to give my students grace, my co-workers grace, and my acquaintances in the church or community grace. How thankful I am that Christ did not just die for his disciples!!! May God give me grace to see how I need to show HIS grace to others.

Circle K Ranch

Still no A/C in my room, though the bus line flowed much smoother today (thanks to an hour long practice in the morning). I'm still feeling overwhelmed and having doubts of my ability as a teacher, but I read an encouraging article last night about faith in the PCA magazine and am trying to remember that my faith is not in my ability but in God's work in me. Please pray for me in my new job!

Now for the promised pictures (see above). Our school decided upon a "Read Around the Town" theme, each teacher had to pick a "store" or "place" that could be represented in/near a town. Since the pet shop was already taken (bye-bye old frog theme), I decided to draw upon my "Texas years" and became the Circle K Ranch (K for Kindergarten). Thanks to the help of my sister-in-law Ruth, I was able to produce the above product. We'll see how long it lasts! As Eric said, "If I was a kindergarten boy, I would want to punch that haystack. I still want to punch that haystack..." :)

The First Day

How is the best way to describe "mass chaos?" How do I even begin to describe first day for the teacher, first day for the students, and a room with a broken A/C unit.... I don't. I'll spare you :) But I do have cute door decorations ... it's a western theme for all of you Texans! Pictures coming soon!

My Collection

Some people collect things... antiques, books, decorative items, license plates, movies... I collect teaching licenses. Today, I made the next big step towards my third one- I took another teacher test. Which means that if I pass, I will have acquired 3 teaching licenses in less than 2 years. This was done by graduating in Arkansas, moving down to Texas, and now of course moving to Alabama. As I apply for the certification process in each state, I have to laugh... to be a teacher in Arkansas I had to write four hours worth of essays on how to teach, in Texas I had to take a multiple choice test that included questions on music and art, and for Alabama I had to answer college level questions such as "What is the process in reproduction that forms the zygote.... " ( I hope we don't go there in my kindergarten classroom...) Their only common thread is that they each cost a lot of money. Assuming I passed this last test (come on Biology 101!), it means that 3 states will have deemed me to be a "highly qualified" teacher each with highly different standards... and hopefully in the process of studying for all of these tests I won't leave any students behind ;)