Cool Winter Breeze, Runny Nose for Me

The cool winter breeze blew in today, however, so did a cold for me. Runny nose, soar throat, popping ears, what's next? It always seems just as I get over one thing, something else starts again. I really need to find a way to build up my immune system better. I love working with kids, but I dislike catching colds from them all the time. If they have something, it won't take long and then I will have that same thing as well. Although staying in bed all day feels good, but knowing that you just have that much more when you get up is a totally different story. Seems as if I can never just catch a break anymore. Instead, there is always something that I have to worry about. 

Inspiration from a Writer- Quit Kahliah!

Quit Kahliah!

Dr. Deirdre, a writer, an educator, and an overall inspiration to anyone who sets foot in her path or takes a look into her writing. She has a passion for her niece and nephew which is what she bases her first series of stories off of. Quit Kahliah!, expresses memories of her niece that she choose to bring back and form into a book. It demonstrates the great amount curiosity that she expresses as a child in real life. Her talk really emphasized getting to know every student within your classroom. Every student has something to offer and it is really important to remember that. As well as focus on a story that you are telling, not the name of the characters so much. They can come later because without the story the characters won't be displayed to there fullest potential.

I encourage everyone to go check out her website and purchase her book at www.booksbydeirdre.com

Time, Slow Down...Please!

Here lately I feel I just don't have enough time in my life. Everything goes by so quickly and I fail to get everything done that I wanted. Many things to do in such little time and I'm doing so much that I forget what I've already done. I just wish I could slow down or stop time to allow myself to catch up with everything that is going on. With thinking about time I began to look up a poem that expressed myself and the way that I am feeling about life right now. 

Time moves too fast

It is going too fast,
like the speed of light,
I used to wait so long,
now it is out of sight.
Looking back and seeing it gone,
faster than the blink of an eye,
one second morning,
next its dawn.
Nothing I can hold,
grasp real close,
only fading memories,
of when I wish time froze

By. MST Leipzig

Joy of Halloween

I get so excited for Halloween every year although I never dress up anymore. Every year for Halloween we make it a family thing to go to my aunt's house and pass out candy. Being that a lot of my family lives in the country we don't get the opportunity to pass out candy at our houses so instead we go here. However, this occasion is just another reason to be able to spend time with my family. Also, I enjoy watching the children walk up to the house and see what all kinds of creative costumes that they came up with this year. Back when I was a kid I feel like a lot of the costumes were just bought at the store, now we have many websites as Pinterest to be creative and design our own costumes. The joy of Halloween for me, is not about me or the candy for me it is much more than that and it comes from the children!

Pencil Peeve

A huge pet peeve that I have developed in my corresponding teacher's classroom is students with their pencils. I would have never guessed that a pencil could entail so many different things that become a distraction such as pencil top erasers, grippers, and most importantly a pencil sharpener. Students are constantly getting erasers tearing them up and tosses pieces at each other where you later see them all over the floor as well as the grippers besides using these items for their actual purpose. I don't even know where to begin with students sharpening their pencil because first of all they no longer get to use the teacher's pencil sharpener due to already breaking one of hers. However, they all bought their own little ones now. You would think that this would be a good thing, but its definitely not. Students now find a reason to break their pencils just so they can keep sharpening them during class even though they are already perfectly sharpened. They keep finding reasons to mess with their pencils instead of being fully focused in class. I never realized how much all of this bothered me before until now. All I can do is find myself being highly annoyed hoping that I will eventually get used to it.

Grateful, Thankful & Blessed

Here lately I have really been thinking about my life a lot and the reasoning that brought all of this was when I had a conversation with a student and was really trying to get to know them. The student began to tell me about his split up family and how he doesn't really enjoy his step family that he lives with, how they had only local channels on television, no internet and their water had to be turned on and off constantly. As I listened to the student tell me about the life that he has my emotions began to build up and feel sad for the child. It made me really take a moment to look back and reflect on my own life. Many times in life we take things for granted and do not realize how much we should be appreciative of these things. "If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we'd be happy with more. -Unknown" It teaches me that I need to appreciate what may seem like little things such as a roof over my head, the air I breathe, the fresh water I drink, the food that is in my household, waking up and being able to get out of bed & walk, for being to see and hear, having a cell phone, a tv to watch almost any show I want, being able surf the web and most of all having a family who loves me and gets along with one another. Although I could have a list that goes on forever I think that is where I will stop for now. The main three words that I need to remember is "Grateful, Thankful & Blessed" because that is truly what I am.

Is There Ever an End to My To-Do List?

I felt like this weekend I really took a lot of time to work on things for school as well as my personal life to check off my "to-do list". Homework...check. Passports...check. House chores...check. The list that I had written after many countless hours was finally completed, but of course, just as one list is completed another list begins again. Instead of feeling great about accomplishing something, I feel as if another load has been thrown on my shoulders. Do they ever end? If it's not one thing it's another ! I feel like I can never fully catch up on life and the "to-do list" go on forever.