Faith, Hope, and Love

Back in April, I had to miss two weeks of school to go to Nigeria and celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. Because it was National Poetry Month, one of the lessons was a throwback to a project we did during my student teaching days. First, the students read Maya Angelou's poem "Life Doesn't Frighten Me," and then write their own version of it. When we did this with the 4th graders, we had them "publish" their poems and created a class book with all of them in it. While I didn't have the time or resources to do the same thing with my 8th graders, a few of them gave me permission to share their poems here. Enjoy! Original poem by Maya Angelou:  Student Poems: Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Yancy D. Ghosts creeping on the walls Strange things at the mall Life doesn't frighten me at all. Sharks circling around Bad songs in soundcloud Life doesn't frighten me at all. A stylist cutting all my nails A barber cutting off my hai...

April 29th. That will be my last day student teaching. A part of me is really sad. And part of me is beyond excited. I'm excited that I no longer have to divide my time and feel pulled in a million different directions. I'm excited that I don't have to spend eight hours a day teaching kids who are at times beyond unappreciative--especially with no pay. I'm excited to sleep in again, and catch up on all the shows I've been missing out on. But on the flip side... I'll kind of miss all the teachers and the kids. I'll miss trying to think of creative ways of teaching things. I'll miss having something productive  to do each day. I'll miss feeling like I mattered, and that I was contributing something to the world. I'll miss waking up knowing that there's a plan for each day and that this is what my life has been dedicated to. Because on April 29th, it's back to the job hunt. It's back to be unsure of what's next, or my future....

Right now there are two things I want badly: more time with my curly hair, and more time at the Dallas Arboretum. I got my hair did over Spring Break (it was MUCH overdue) and the lady who did it gave me some gorgeous curls. Now, I've gotten curls before, and I enjoy the way I look with them. But, in a way it never felt natural. And it was also generally a long, tedious process to go through. So, I don't get curls often. Usually I save it for special occasions (or when I feel like paying the extra bucks to get it done). Well, these curls makes me want to have them  everyday . Probably not the best view, but you get the idea.. Slightly better glimpse. And she did it all with a flat iron. No curling iron, no roller, no straws... just a flat iron. I need to learn this skill because, sadly, the curls are beginning to fall. They still look great--they've taken on this sweet waviness--but I'm not sure how much longer they'll last. Plus, I'm trying to ded...

Today my kids were taking their Writing TAKS test, and since I'm only the lowly student teacher I got to have the day off. I guess I could have gone and observed in the 5th grade class, or maybe helped out in the library. But since I've been sick over the last week, and just stressed and exhausted in general, my mentor teacher thought it'd be good for me to have a personal day. And did I need a personal day. For one, two weeks ago my mentor teacher went to a professional development workshop and was gone for the day. So, our 4th grade class had a substitute... who did nothing . I mean, I basically had a good handle of the class. I was teaching the spelling and grammar, and then guided them in their centers and stuff. And so I guess she didn't really need  to do anything. But this sub was on her phone a lot, and kept running off to the bathroom, and then would walk up to me WHILE I WAS TEACHING and start holding conversations with me and stuff. It was like, "oka...

I taught my first lesson today! And I was soooo nervous! My voice sounded silly in my ears. I felt like I was talking way too fast (although I guess that's not uncommon for me). But I think the kids actually learned something. We were working on the long 'a' sound. Later this week, we'll focus on the long 'e' and 'i' sounds. It sounds pretty elementary, but it might mean that a few of these kids might actually "crack the code" and be able to read and write English more fluently (my kids are all bilingual). I think that's probably been the most exciting thing about student teaching so far--I feel like these are all kids that really need me. They need me to give them that extra push, help them break through the language barrier that keeps a lot of them from succeeding, help them know that they can do it! They already have a great teacher, and she's worked really hard to get them to where they are now. But there's still a lot o...

Whatever I had this past Thursday didn't kill me! Most of the horror passed by Friday afternoon ( yes, I took a sick day ), and by Sunday I felt about 90% well. Now I'm just tired... I have like five schedules I'm trying to juggle and keep from colliding into each other and overwhelming me. There's the student teaching, there's the school itself, there's church stuff, there's tutoring, and then there's the I-just-want-to-have-fun stuff. So far, so good... but it definitely makes for some long days. And then  two  opportunities to make some money were presented to me... and can I do them? Nope! (Well, definitely not one of them because of student teaching, and I could maybe do the other one... but it'd be another schedule to juggle with the rest!) Mostly I think I'm tired and overwhelmed because I've been a bum for the last six months and I'm not used to working eight-hour days anymore. Nor have I had to wake up by 6 a.m. since li...

Today I spent the first half of the day at my school . It was a teacher work day, so none of the kids were there. But, I got a nice tour of the school, met a lot of teachers, as well as the librarian (yay!) and kind of got a feel for how things might be over the next 14 weeks. And I'm feeling excited about it all! While my co-teacher and I were in the library, she picked up some Cinderella books. They were different versions of the classic fairytale from different cultures/countries. I'm not sure what lesson this is planned for, but I got excited about it. For one, I love  fairytales. I'm not sure why, but I'm pretty obsessed. And I love reading a good variation of classics (Anyone else love "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine? The book, not the horrid movie). Well, the library didn't have a copy of the original story by Charles Perrault, so I offered to bring in my copy. It turns out... I don't own a copy. I'm not sure why I thought I did. ...