Becoming Ms. Frizzle

Do you ever have a day during which you wonder if those around you actually do possess a brain, heart, or courage?  Welcome to my daily world known as freshman teacher.

I'm not sure when it happens, nor why, but it seems that all of my students came to high school missing one (or more) of the three, and almost always the brain.  I have now made it my personal goal to help my 129 students find theirs and begin to make good use of it. Perhaps we're part of the way there.  Or maybe it was just a Monday....

Whew!! 

What a month it's been so far!  I have never been so busy in my life, but luckily, I am loving it!  The first week I lost my voice by the end of every day.  The second week I used my mother's trick and stopped yelling over the students.  I have quickly realized that every moment is a teachable moment and every day teaches me at least one profound lesson.

Here are some of the lessons I've learned so far:

1. Beg, borrow, and steal everything  you can from more experienced (a.k.a. older) teachers
2. Be flexible when planning for students
3. Project EVERYTHING on the board so that you can point instead of talking
4. Work smarter not harder
5. Don't grade everything, it's okay to have check grades
6. Students will retain about 1/50 of what you say
7. Every quiz will be a pop quiz for somebody in your class, even if you announced it the day before
8. We must figure out how to make students into independent learners
9. I will never see 20% of my paycheck
10. I still look like a high school student, but that makes me a cool teacher to some students

So "The Life in Between" has come to a close. The purpose of that particular blog was to fill you in on the musings of my life between college and the real world. For those of you unaware, the real world has begun!

For the last week I have spent my days in meetings and trainings, and have yet to develop one lesson plan. Go figure. Technically I am now employed by Amarillo ISD, though I won't receive my first check until Sept. 15. Now onto bigger and better things, and "Becoming Ms. Frizzle!" If I could get my graphic designer to work faster (you know who you are), I'd have my new blog lay-out. For now, know that I'm in transition and keep looking for the new design!!!

I have no natural light in my classroom...there is hardly any in the whole converted warehouse that is my school. I like sunlight. Obviously I can't cut a hole in my wall to the outside world, but I could fake it! The sunlight that is. So the question I pose to you is whether or not I should hang a cardboard sun in the middle of my classroom so to trick my mind that I have sunlight! Yes or no?

This afternoon I was bored because I am not working and I live alone. No surprise there. SO, I went to a craft store, bought a canvas and paintbrushes, and began the piece you see to the right. Most of you know that the image of the anchor, cross, and heart is very dear to me, I have it tattooed on my body after all (picture compliments Ashley Karlen of Joye Photography). Some of you may not know what it stands for, though; faith, hope, & love.

"And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13

I have heard this verse constantly throughout my life and always took it at face value. Until today. Why is love the greatest? We are told to have faith, to rest in hope. Are they too not of great importance? As always, my curiosity got the best of me and I dug in deeper. The commentary in my study Bible reads "Love supersedes the gifts because it outlasts them all. Long after these sought-after gifts (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, etc.) are no longer necessary (when we are in Heaven), love will still be the governing principle that controls all that God and his redeemed people are and do."

I want you to think about that. Why would faith be necessary when we are united once and forever more with God? Why would we need to have hope when what we've had our hope in has come true? Love will never end, it was, it is, and it will always be. It is for these reasons that love is the greatest of the three. Jesus after all is the embodiment of God's love for his children. True, he came to bring hope and inspire faith, but he is love.

What implications does this hold for our lives then? Does it mean that we stop hoping and having faith? NO! Absolutely not! I think that it indicates (and the Bible does agree) that everything should be done out of a spirit of love. "Do everything in love." 1 Corinthians 16:14. From love will spring hope and faith, for us and those around us. Focus on love. Rest in God's vast and embracing love. It will not fail you.

As I am reading the chapter on beauty in Captivating, an interesting thought is forming in my mind. The authors quote "The soul's inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it." And my first thought was about mountains. To me, mountains are God's most beautiful landscape, cloaked in graceful trees swaying in the soft breeze and teeming with creatures of all shapes and sizes which capture the heart of all who venture but a step into their world. I would wager that I am not alone in this great reverence of the majesty and beauty of mountain ranges. In fact, I believe them to be the most alluring of places for most men. So are men attracted to the mountains solely for the adventure they promise, or is it first and foremost for the extravagant beauty they are able to experience when exploring the depths of the mountain?

I am beginning to think that it must be the beauty that first draws him in, or in the end wins him over. The taste of the crisp air, the symphony created by the living creatures, the remarkable sunrises, and the sense of wonder and awe that are instantly felt upon the journey upward. Mountains themselves provide not only their own beauty, but also a ladder, a better view to the rest of God's beautiful and boundless artwork. So, next time you venture to the mountains, ask yourself "is it the adventure or beauty that truly captures and wins my heart?"

New lesson learned: Don't tell God you're swearing something off (unless it's a bad vice). I had sworn off long distance relationships, they're just too much effort! I wanted someone who lived in town, someone to do the boring things with like laundry, grocery shopping, and lounging. Want to hear God's response? "Ha HA Ha!" (it sounds much like Santa's Ho HO Ho in my head).

Recently I reconnected with my old high school boyfriend which began as an hour long conversation here or there and turned into hours on Skype every day. Once we realized that friendship had become inevitable, it dawned on us that there was most likely something more than we thought. BUT, it's complicated. In high school we were long distance (surprise, surprise), but that was a measly 100 miles. Today those 100 miles we would both find refreshing instead of the 10,000 miles that currently separate us. You see, he's a marine, in Japan.

Since both of us had sworn off long distance, it took a lot of convincing to finally take the plunge and decide that we wanted to see if we could make it work. Well, here we are officially Facebook complicated. Now I just anxiously await his arrival back to the US next month so that he's not living in tomorrow while I'm still trying to get through today. Our 14 hour time difference will change from timezones to driving time. So we still have a long road ahead of us, but I have hope that it was more than fate that brought us back into one anothers' lives.