Friday Favs

**Link up with Rachel**

• NO school tomorrow!!! Which means sleeping in, catching up (on sleep, housework, lesson planning, etc), and lots of time with my sweet husband!
• Enrichment Reading ... I teach a remediation class for kids who scored less than "Proficient" on our state tests. We focus mostly on math and some on reading. This is by far my hardest class to plan for because I have no curriculum and no pacing guide. But Fridays are reading days :) The students read a book of their choice and write a short summary for me at the end of the period. It's glorious! No planning for me and I'm able to sit at my desk to get caught up on everything else.
• Class Activities/Games ... I try to make Friday more relaxed for my students (AND me!) by setting it aside for games or hands-on activities. It's difficult to come up with things sometimes, but it's great for the kids to have a change in routine and it usually means no HW for their weekend.
• Leaving work early!!! And by early, I mean "on time"... Teachers are required to stay until the buses leave campus (usually around 3:30), but as a new teacher, I'm usually there until closer to 5 p.m. On Fridays, knowing I have the weekend to plan lessons, I can leave as soon as I pack my bags!
• Texting Lauren, my best friend from home. We're both pretty busy during the week (she's a brand new nurse), but we try to touch base almost every weekend!

He Gets It!

I experienced one of my first "success stories" in the world of teaching. I have a particular student; we'll call this student W. W wasn't sure if he/she liked me in the beginning and, to be honest, I wasn't sure if I liked him/her. We just didn't exactly hit it off. And I have this student during two periods of the day. :)

One day this week I was helping W study for a quiz that I would be giving the next day. W was struggling to understand the "power of a power" rule with exponents. We did several examples together and eventually I wrote out a more detailed explanation for W. Something clicked and W finally said "Oh! I get it!" Music to a teacher's ears for sure! In addition to that, it was a positive moment for me and W. A moment I was concerned we might not experience, but it happened!

I could hardly wait to grade W's quiz the next day. The very first question on the test required using the "power of a power" rule. And W remembered!!! W wrote out my explanation just the way I showed him/her and he/she got the answer correct. Their quiz score was also very good. I haven't passed back the quizzes yet, but I showed W his/her quiz during the next period and emphasized how proud I was of him/her.

Will this moment of small victory influence W's behavior next week? Maybe not. Will W ever remember the "power of a power" rule again? Maybe not. But it was a small victory for me and W. I'm going to enjoy it while I can :)

On My Mind...

1. List of "Top Ten Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Teaching"... I found this on the NCTM website here. Most applicable to my life right now are #10 (Not every student will be interested every minute.) and #8 (Teaching will get easier.). And #5 and #3... Okay, the whole list was encouraging for me!

2. Confession time. I'm struggling with bitterness in my life... It's affecting my time with the Lord and the relationships involved. :( Past time to hand that over to Jesus. Working on it!

3. 10 p.m. is looming and this is probably the most dreaded time of my day... I'm thinking about getting ready for bed, preparing my lunch for tomorrow, etc. And I have to tell my husband goodnight. I wish I could just stay up and hang out with him!

4. Tiger Tunes is 1 month from Thursday!!!! Both sets of parental units will be coming in along with my favorite little sister (her "child" in tow!) AND my roommate, Angelina!!!!!! Doesn't get any better than that folks. (Kayla's "child" is one of the kids she nannies. And yes, I realize that Adam is now techincally my roommate, but I'll always think of my roommate as Angela :))

5. Ready for the weekend already... Today was a tough day. Pretty sure some of my students are bored to tears with me (see #10 from the NCTM list). Tried to move on with my Algebra kids and clearly they weren't ready. Still not sure how I'm going to reteach. Still struggling to keep up with my Enrichment class - no curriculum, all up to me. I'm tired just thinking about it...

6. Thankful for a Savior who loves me in spite of myself.

Day 1 = Conquered!

So today was my first day teaching. I'm a teacher... When did that happen?! It went pretty well! I forgot a few things, but doesn't everyone? I think I had fun. Now that my "first day stress" has passed, I can say that! Here are few highlights from my day:

--- I'm not used to talking that much during the day... I was hoarse by 9 a.m., no joke!

--- I have a large tumbler that I took today with water in it. Well holding the tumbler and talking with my hands is not a good combination! Haha. Definitely forgot to close the lid and spilled water all over the floor. We just laughed it off in that class and then I used it as a "hey, want to know something embarrassing that happened?" story later.

--- Part of what my students had to do today was to come up with three words that described their personality. One student decided his best word was "attractive." I corrected him to "confident" :) Junior high boys... What can you say?

--- I was asked if I had kids. I guess that's a compliment?

--- I learned that 30 minute lunches FLY by. I felt like I blinked and it was over!

I know some of these are not the most exciting stories to hear about my first day, but that's all I've got. Everything was pretty standard, which is a good thing! So thankful for this opportunity and the grace/strength that God has provided every step of the way. All glory is His!

Dear OBU Class of 2016,

Today may be a hard day for many of you. There are often many tears shed at the end of one journey and the beginning of a new one. Let them be happy tears though! Have no doubt that God has prepared you for this moment. He will walk you through every step of the way. So cry your tears (Mom needs to know you'll miss her), but dry them afterwards and get ready for an amazing journey.

As a 2012 graduate, I have to admit that I'm a little jealous of you today! God gave me so much at Ouachita - including true friends, mentors for a lifetime, an education that prepared me to enter the career of my dreams, and a wonderful husband to top it all off :) Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all easy. I spent the first semester of my Mathematics degree crying in my professor's office. One of the blessings of Ouachita is that it was that same professor who encouraged me to remain in the Mathematics department and that same professor who took a picture with me on graduation day after I completed that Mathematics degree. I also experienced some very difficult spiritual and emotional growth during my time at Ouachita. God will use this time to grow you to be more like Christ. He will challenge you and He will encourage you.

Many of you may meet your future spouse at Ouachita. Many of you will not. God has it all planned out for you! Some of you may get saved during these next four years. Hopefully all of you will grow spiritually more than you ever have. Many of you will change your career goal. Professors and friends may bring out the best and the worst in you. You will learn about yourself and you will learn about your God.

I am praying for you as you begin this incredible journey. It's going to be a good ride!

PD, In-service, and Little Children

Professional Development (PD) and in-service come with the territory of being a teacher. Professional Development consists mainly of conferences and workshops designed to help us be better teachers through learning different strategies, new research, etc. In-service happens within a teacher's school and communicates state guidelines/requirements as well as information that is relevant for that district and specific school.

These meetings and workshops can be very boring and sometimes repetitive. I imagine the repetitiveness will be particularly frustrating after one has been teaching for several years. However, as a first year teacher, I have the advantage of feeling "fresh" and "curious" and "excited" about everything! I take notes, I try to be attentive, and (dare I say it?) I enjoy learning these things! I'm very open to suggestions and advice from others. (Granted, I don't always follow them, but I'll gladly listen :)) Wouldn't it be awesome if I were always like this? Certainly I don't want to always be a first-year... I'll be very thankful when my big "firsts" of teaching are over for a little while! But I want to keep this freshness and curiosity. I want to listen well and to be open to new ideas.

As I was thinking about this post, God reminded me of the verse in Matthew 18:3 that reads "And he said: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Jesus loves little children! He encouraged them to come near to him and to spend time with them. One characteristic of little children is that they are always curious, always asking questions, always AMAZED by something... even the simplest things. Perhaps this is one of the characteristics He was thinking of when He said we all need to become like them. What if we were always curious about Jesus? Always asking questions to learn more? Always AMAZED by His greatness?!

Oh Father, teach me to be continually amazed... Help me to become like a little child.

Recently.

Apparently I've been away from my blog for almost 2 weeks... When did those 2 weeks happen?! No seriously. I've debated for a couple of days now about what to blog about. I felt like I should have something wonderful and witty, but alas. It's just me :)

We're pretty settled into our apartment now. There are still a couple of "Where do I put this?!" stacks, but other than that it looks good! It definitely feels like home and that is what's most important! My favorite things are probably our new couch (Thank you, Wright grandparents!), our Mona Lisa puzzle (glued together and framed), and beautiful sconces that we hung today (Thank you, Nikolaishens!).

As Adam gets ready for apartment residents to move in (he's the apartment manager here) and for his classes to begin, I am getting ready to teach! This past week I was at a workshop for a couple of days as well as in my classroom. It's recently painted and it's slowly beginning to feel like my classroom. My list of questions for my principal that I started yesterday has grown longer and longer! I feel like all of a sudden there were a million things that just hit me. Shouldn't I know this already?! Oh well. I'm sure there will be a million more questions by the time school starts! I also had my first phone call from a parent/guardian. Let me just say, they left out the part about "This is what to say/how to respond to parents/guardians" during my time in college.

In other news, Adam has volunteered to make dinner tonight! He makes a pretty mean spaghetti, so I'm looking forward to it :) So blessed to be married to this sweet man!