BTW - thanks Brian and Lisa for reading my blog and posting a comment! I appreciate the encouragement and support. Those of you who are preachers, be strong and courageous (and the rest of us, too!). And give your wives my love and appreciation, preacher's wife to preacher's wife!
Friday afternoon I had to stay very late after school to do lesson plans and help my co-teacher prepare for several meetings she was having during the weekend. But it turned out to be a blessing because we were all caught up and I had very little school stuff to do this weekend.
We're having a campaign this week. The group is from Heritage University with some others from supporting congregations in AL and MS. The campaigner assigned to stay with us didn't come after all so we don't have any campaign guests. Sad, but a relief, too, with all that is overwhelming me at present. There was a workday at the building Saturday, but I stayed home to clean house and do some grocery shopping and tried not to feel guilty that I wasn't at the work day. (You know, part of my guilty feeling was probably remembering all the years of mentally criticizing people who didn't come to church activities like work days. It has been a real eye-opener to me to work full-time for the first time ever! It's so hard to have to miss all the things I'm used to being involved in.) Anyway, Bob and I actually had a quiet dinner out Saturday night together, just the two of us, and a quiet evening at home to rest in preparation for the Lord's Day and the week.
So Bro. Stephen Guy preached this AM on Revival and several (7) of us responded asking for prayers to be more dedicated (me wanting to be more aware of opportunities to share the gospel). After the potluck (the biggest we've had since our arrival), a bunch of us went out door-knocking. I tend to feel that d/k is ineffective in this day and time, but some of the pairs/groups had some "success" - eight Bible studies set up already. It was a good experience for me to stretch myself out of my comfort zone. I was encouraged to see who and how many showed up from the church here to go out into the neighborhood. Many others are contributing by serving food to the campaigners and house them, etc. I'm glad I got to go today at least since I am not in a position to take a day off for more.
We sang at the nursing home and campaigners joined us - 40 rather than the usual 18-20 or so. All those extra male voices - terrific!
The theme for the week is "Light the Fire," a song I love and which is not that familiar to the church in general, although the youth and Bible school folk know it. It's such a good "revival" song. Please pray for the Mount Dora church and the campaign that we can connect with seeking folk in this area.
Signing off.
Have a great week.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Joke punchline
For the few who read my blog and haven't seen the answer elsewhere (thanks, Bob!):
What's Irish and stays in the backyard all night? Paddy O'Furniture!
Th-th-th-that's all, folks!
What's Irish and stays in the backyard all night? Paddy O'Furniture!
Th-th-th-that's all, folks!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Whew! It's been two weeks since my last post!
First off - in honor of dear old Saint Patrick -
What's Irish and sits in your back yard all night?
Tune in to my next post and find out!
So o o o, I've been a salaried teacher for two weeks. I've been in this teaching job for FOUR weeks with four to go. I can't believe it's half over. Yup, I'm planning to apply for a full-time teaching job as they come available. Hopefully, now that schools have asked teachers for indications of intentions to return in the fall they will soon know how many positions they will have. I know that Loni is hoping to work closer to home, so she and I will once again be competing for teaching jobs. Only this time, she has a year's experience under her belt as well as all the right answers at interviews! My only hope is to get a job at my current school or at the Bible school where I'm better known than she is . . . .
Well, to update a little -- the first student I zeroed in on as a prospect for my effecting change in his school life got transferred to another classroom before I even had a chance to meet Dad and convince him to let us continue to work with his son. We weren't making much progress, though, in how much work his son was willing to attempt (read none!), and his new teacher across the way is having a bit more success. But poor lady has her hands full with 24 other students AND this uncooperative one.
Since my last post, my co-teacher and I have: reorganized the room arrangement; sorted books; gotten caught up on paperwork and grades (these were way behind); cleaned out the closet (and I DO mean cleaned out [ packed away boxes and boxes of stuff to another closet - but this week we have a tornado drill and have to squeeze 33 children and two adults into that closet and next month there is a fire inspection - nothing can be on the top shelf of the closet and it was packed to the rafters; there was hardly room to move through the closet); reorganized some of the teaching pattern - more instruction, less papers; determined which children are in danger of retention and had meetings, paperwork, parent-teacher conferences, etc. about this; learned how to post grades on the computer; input weekly grades, done final grades and other kinds of reports; had a teacher work day full of meetings; had lunch with small groups of students several times; stayed after for several hours every day and come in 45 mins or more early, too; come up with new systems of incentives and implemented them. In addition, my co-teacher has gotten over being pretty sick, moved, found a new home for her dog, and had a formal observation. In further addition, I've met with my mentor and done a lot of the planning for the days/weeks.
Some things I've learned: that teaching takes a LOT of planning (if you don't have every moment planned, the students will take advantage of momentary lulls and run you ragged); that it pays to be strict at first; that a calm, quiet, firm voice works better than a rant (hehe - wonder how I learned that!); that a teacher has to make a point to encourage and notice the well-behaved children rather than spend all her time noticing and working with "needy" or obnoxious ones; that co-teachers need to be carefully selected for compatibility -'nough said; that politics is large in schools; that schools would be better off without lots of government involvement; that No Child Left Behind isn't accomplishing its purpose (and I'm a conservative who blames Ted Kennedy and Bush's attempts to molify liberals for its failure); that teachers would rather be teaching to the student than "to the test", but that really isn't an option in today's climate; that teachers work VERY hard and their days are LONG (I knew this but now have experienced it); that there's LOTS of paperwork involved in schooling; lots about how I want to run a classroom of my very own and lots about what I don't want to do.
I don't know how much difference I've made in the lives of these students - doesn't seem like much, and soon their regular teacher will be back to finish out the year. The students will have to readjust from the changes I/we've made to the ways of their regular teacher. I probably shouldn't have made so many changes, but they were changes I needed to make for me, for my peace and way of teaching. If nothing else, these weeks have been a great learning experience for me, a wonderful preparation for starting fresh next fall, Lord willing. I'm kinda old to be starting out as a teacher, and I'm lots more tired than my daughter is and I need more sleep, which I'm not getting. I have four more weeks, then it's back to substituting, boo hoo (but occasionally taking a day off at my choice, too, yea!).
Do me a favor. If you have children in school, take a minute to thank your child's teacher. You'll probably make her or his day!
Have a wonderful day of worship tomorrow.
What's Irish and sits in your back yard all night?
Tune in to my next post and find out!
So o o o, I've been a salaried teacher for two weeks. I've been in this teaching job for FOUR weeks with four to go. I can't believe it's half over. Yup, I'm planning to apply for a full-time teaching job as they come available. Hopefully, now that schools have asked teachers for indications of intentions to return in the fall they will soon know how many positions they will have. I know that Loni is hoping to work closer to home, so she and I will once again be competing for teaching jobs. Only this time, she has a year's experience under her belt as well as all the right answers at interviews! My only hope is to get a job at my current school or at the Bible school where I'm better known than she is . . . .
Well, to update a little -- the first student I zeroed in on as a prospect for my effecting change in his school life got transferred to another classroom before I even had a chance to meet Dad and convince him to let us continue to work with his son. We weren't making much progress, though, in how much work his son was willing to attempt (read none!), and his new teacher across the way is having a bit more success. But poor lady has her hands full with 24 other students AND this uncooperative one.
Since my last post, my co-teacher and I have: reorganized the room arrangement; sorted books; gotten caught up on paperwork and grades (these were way behind); cleaned out the closet (and I DO mean cleaned out [ packed away boxes and boxes of stuff to another closet - but this week we have a tornado drill and have to squeeze 33 children and two adults into that closet and next month there is a fire inspection - nothing can be on the top shelf of the closet and it was packed to the rafters; there was hardly room to move through the closet); reorganized some of the teaching pattern - more instruction, less papers; determined which children are in danger of retention and had meetings, paperwork, parent-teacher conferences, etc. about this; learned how to post grades on the computer; input weekly grades, done final grades and other kinds of reports; had a teacher work day full of meetings; had lunch with small groups of students several times; stayed after for several hours every day and come in 45 mins or more early, too; come up with new systems of incentives and implemented them. In addition, my co-teacher has gotten over being pretty sick, moved, found a new home for her dog, and had a formal observation. In further addition, I've met with my mentor and done a lot of the planning for the days/weeks.
Some things I've learned: that teaching takes a LOT of planning (if you don't have every moment planned, the students will take advantage of momentary lulls and run you ragged); that it pays to be strict at first; that a calm, quiet, firm voice works better than a rant (hehe - wonder how I learned that!); that a teacher has to make a point to encourage and notice the well-behaved children rather than spend all her time noticing and working with "needy" or obnoxious ones; that co-teachers need to be carefully selected for compatibility -'nough said; that politics is large in schools; that schools would be better off without lots of government involvement; that No Child Left Behind isn't accomplishing its purpose (and I'm a conservative who blames Ted Kennedy and Bush's attempts to molify liberals for its failure); that teachers would rather be teaching to the student than "to the test", but that really isn't an option in today's climate; that teachers work VERY hard and their days are LONG (I knew this but now have experienced it); that there's LOTS of paperwork involved in schooling; lots about how I want to run a classroom of my very own and lots about what I don't want to do.
I don't know how much difference I've made in the lives of these students - doesn't seem like much, and soon their regular teacher will be back to finish out the year. The students will have to readjust from the changes I/we've made to the ways of their regular teacher. I probably shouldn't have made so many changes, but they were changes I needed to make for me, for my peace and way of teaching. If nothing else, these weeks have been a great learning experience for me, a wonderful preparation for starting fresh next fall, Lord willing. I'm kinda old to be starting out as a teacher, and I'm lots more tired than my daughter is and I need more sleep, which I'm not getting. I have four more weeks, then it's back to substituting, boo hoo (but occasionally taking a day off at my choice, too, yea!).
Do me a favor. If you have children in school, take a minute to thank your child's teacher. You'll probably make her or his day!
Have a wonderful day of worship tomorrow.
Friday, March 02, 2007
It's official!
I am now a salaried teacher, for six more weeks anyway! It would be great if when this temporary job is done another was waiting so that I could just keep right on, but it would also be excruciating to fill in yet another class from mid-April to the end of school (3rd week of May). On the other hand, going back to subbing will be sad, too. (Bob, couldn't we manage on what I earned these weeks and let me start summer break early??) I could hope that this teacher decides to take the rest of the year off, but that would mean that she wasn't recovering well from her grief and stress and I don't want to hope for that!
It has been a trial by fire. That's why I haven't blogged at all. I've stayed late after school every day (until 5 or 6) and spent 5 hours there on Saturday. I get up every day at 5 and go to bed at 11 or midnight, way too little sleep for this old lady! Yesterday and today I actually got to leave right as the children did to run to the county office (about 45 minutes from school - our house is midway between) to take care of paperwork before they closed at 4!
Yesterday my principal handed me a note and told me to go see "MT" at county office right after school. I hoped that it was good news, but she didn't say and I didn't ask. "MT" wasn't expecting me, though; she went to check and came back to have me sign some forms. After signing a couple, I asked her, "Does this mean my highly qualified status is okay and I'm hired? Or can you tell me?" She assured me that I was a salaried teacher starting that day, yesterday. She shook my hand as I left and that was all the ceremony that was involved! Bob was helping out with meals at camp for the Christian camps meeting, so we didn't even get to eat out to celebrate. Since I was home earlier than usual, I did get to go to Curves with Loni for the first time in two weeks, then she and I stopped at Subway to bring dinner home. Whoohoo!
Right now is a very tense time, especially for my co-teacher. This is the time of year teachers "explain" which students are likely to be retained (and why, I guess?). We had our Teacher Talk scheduled for this morning during prep time, but meetings were running late so I was excused to go collect our children from their "special." Because of the illnesses of the two teachers (the one I'm replacing and the one with whom I'm working), record-keeping and so forth has really suffered. Now she's having to gather and organize all the documentation and she's not (how shall I say it kindly?) a very organized person. Also, she's a "new" teacher in this district and in her first year as a regular classroom teacher (after 30 years in special ed), so I think this is much more than she's had to deal with in the past. Although -- special ed requires LOTS of paperwork and documentation so it shouldn't be TOO new.
We've cleaned the room and organized - the teacher on leave doesn't specialize in organization either, apparently, and it's hard with 30+ students in a regular-sized classroom. She DID have certain routines, like copies of dittoes made, on a schedule and a regular schedule of what occurs when in the classroom. But I'm determined to cut down on dittoes and have more writing and instruction, so this next week I'll be pushing for some significant changes in our routine. She may be very unhappy when she returns and finds so many changes, but I have to do what works for me (along with my co-teacher, of course). Plus I have all these ideas I've been gathering for 13+ years that I want to try out!!
We have a several children with "issues" - as a matter of fact, I spent about 1 1/2 hours this evening trying to redo our seating arrangement I created just last Saturday, trying to separate certain children. Some of the children just need academic support (LOTS of it) and some have emotional issues which impact their learning. Still others are just chatty or immature. My BIG IDEA of having lunch with some of them had impact for . . . a few hours! The child I was hoping to bond with still resists my efforts and gives me his special "evil eye" (he's pretty good at it, for a second-grader!) when I speak to him abut his behavior or "request" his cooperation. I know that it will take more than one 20 minute lunch to build a relationship, but I only have a few weeks!!
We're pretty strict with them, have to be because whenever we try to loosen up and have fun, they take advantage and chaos results. I tried having them stand and stretch for a few minutes this afternoon; you never saw so many falling over or heard so much noise from a group of children standing and stretching. We can't walk from point A to point B without arguments, fights, pushing, etc. Amazing! I wish I knew what we aren't doing right.
We do have good moments. We were having a pretty good one this afternoon, if very noisy, Friday afternoon. We'd completed the math test and were paired off for a math game all around the room. The problem was, I forgot that THE PRINCIPAL was our special guest for "Read Across America" and she arrived to read to the class right after the children had all scattered and begun to play. Yikes! Trying to get them quickly quiet and leave their games and sit around the rocker took her authoritative voice and posture. Good job, Mrs. Bliss! Oh, well, what can you do?
Well, this novel has gone on long enough. Thanks for hanging in there to read it. Continue to keep my in your prayers, please. It's not easy, but it is wonderful experience and I am SO GLAD to finally have "my own" class! (singing) "I am a teacher. I am a teacher."
Have a great weekend.
It has been a trial by fire. That's why I haven't blogged at all. I've stayed late after school every day (until 5 or 6) and spent 5 hours there on Saturday. I get up every day at 5 and go to bed at 11 or midnight, way too little sleep for this old lady! Yesterday and today I actually got to leave right as the children did to run to the county office (about 45 minutes from school - our house is midway between) to take care of paperwork before they closed at 4!
Yesterday my principal handed me a note and told me to go see "MT" at county office right after school. I hoped that it was good news, but she didn't say and I didn't ask. "MT" wasn't expecting me, though; she went to check and came back to have me sign some forms. After signing a couple, I asked her, "Does this mean my highly qualified status is okay and I'm hired? Or can you tell me?" She assured me that I was a salaried teacher starting that day, yesterday. She shook my hand as I left and that was all the ceremony that was involved! Bob was helping out with meals at camp for the Christian camps meeting, so we didn't even get to eat out to celebrate. Since I was home earlier than usual, I did get to go to Curves with Loni for the first time in two weeks, then she and I stopped at Subway to bring dinner home. Whoohoo!
Right now is a very tense time, especially for my co-teacher. This is the time of year teachers "explain" which students are likely to be retained (and why, I guess?). We had our Teacher Talk scheduled for this morning during prep time, but meetings were running late so I was excused to go collect our children from their "special." Because of the illnesses of the two teachers (the one I'm replacing and the one with whom I'm working), record-keeping and so forth has really suffered. Now she's having to gather and organize all the documentation and she's not (how shall I say it kindly?) a very organized person. Also, she's a "new" teacher in this district and in her first year as a regular classroom teacher (after 30 years in special ed), so I think this is much more than she's had to deal with in the past. Although -- special ed requires LOTS of paperwork and documentation so it shouldn't be TOO new.
We've cleaned the room and organized - the teacher on leave doesn't specialize in organization either, apparently, and it's hard with 30+ students in a regular-sized classroom. She DID have certain routines, like copies of dittoes made, on a schedule and a regular schedule of what occurs when in the classroom. But I'm determined to cut down on dittoes and have more writing and instruction, so this next week I'll be pushing for some significant changes in our routine. She may be very unhappy when she returns and finds so many changes, but I have to do what works for me (along with my co-teacher, of course). Plus I have all these ideas I've been gathering for 13+ years that I want to try out!!
We have a several children with "issues" - as a matter of fact, I spent about 1 1/2 hours this evening trying to redo our seating arrangement I created just last Saturday, trying to separate certain children. Some of the children just need academic support (LOTS of it) and some have emotional issues which impact their learning. Still others are just chatty or immature. My BIG IDEA of having lunch with some of them had impact for . . . a few hours! The child I was hoping to bond with still resists my efforts and gives me his special "evil eye" (he's pretty good at it, for a second-grader!) when I speak to him abut his behavior or "request" his cooperation. I know that it will take more than one 20 minute lunch to build a relationship, but I only have a few weeks!!
We're pretty strict with them, have to be because whenever we try to loosen up and have fun, they take advantage and chaos results. I tried having them stand and stretch for a few minutes this afternoon; you never saw so many falling over or heard so much noise from a group of children standing and stretching. We can't walk from point A to point B without arguments, fights, pushing, etc. Amazing! I wish I knew what we aren't doing right.
We do have good moments. We were having a pretty good one this afternoon, if very noisy, Friday afternoon. We'd completed the math test and were paired off for a math game all around the room. The problem was, I forgot that THE PRINCIPAL was our special guest for "Read Across America" and she arrived to read to the class right after the children had all scattered and begun to play. Yikes! Trying to get them quickly quiet and leave their games and sit around the rocker took her authoritative voice and posture. Good job, Mrs. Bliss! Oh, well, what can you do?
Well, this novel has gone on long enough. Thanks for hanging in there to read it. Continue to keep my in your prayers, please. It's not easy, but it is wonderful experience and I am SO GLAD to finally have "my own" class! (singing) "I am a teacher. I am a teacher."
Have a great weekend.
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