Excited Hands!

This is a much needed post. I have been so busy in the past few weeks visiting friends, getting ready for the school year, and, in all honesty, being lazy when I could take the opportunity to! I enjoyed every ounce of my summer I could and it was unbelievably amazing!

Now I am ready for school to start and to get back in the groove of school year life. Last week I spent a good deal of time at school getting my room ready. I also spent a good deal of time talking to my fellow teachers. We all love talking. A lot! (Go figure....teachers loving to talk, crazy!)

It was beyond invigorating to talk with them about the upcoming year, what they will be teaching, and the various activities going on. Everyone is so dedicated to Christian education and to the students that you cannot help but get jazzed about it all! It also helps that I teach with some of the most fun, hilarious, amazing, talented people. I cannot even imagine how different my first and now second year of teaching would be with out them!

Heading into this second year, I am so relaxed and ready for it all to start. I realize that times will still come where I may not be as prepared as I should be or moments where things won't go as planned. Life is not perfect and I most definitely am not!

However, I am happy to know that I am aware of what is coming as far as curriculum and what I am expecting from my students. Plus I have revved up my plans to give my students better lessons. I had a great discussion with my principal about really continuing to learn and to push myself to do better and better. I couldn't agree more. I am ready for the challenge and excitement of another year!

Is my enthusiasm annoying you yet? Sorry if it is. I think it's just the side affect of being a 2nd grade teacher. It's also partially my ridiculous personality. When I was a kid, I would get so excited about something that I would get excited hands! This involved me squeezing my hands together crazy hard just because I couldn't even bear how excited I was. Weird? Yep. And I just told you this willingly. Please don't mock me. If I was still that weird little kid, I would so be doing excited hands right now!

Lastly, I finally got pictures up of my room! The camping theme didn't really work out. Now it is more or less "God's creatures". No matter what you call it, I really like the way everything turned out!

My desk and the back of the room!

Front and side, including what I like to call the "reference and work area", the library, and far to the left you can just see the reading corner.

I am probably most excited about this! The new writing center! An area where my students will have time and resources to write, write, and write some more!

The science section of my classroom and the one and only Gus Gus Nane! He is already quite popular!

Finally, the new reading corner! Comfy chair, pillow, and rug to encourage some hard core reading.

News Flash!

It's August.

When the heck did that happen?!

Last thing I remember is saying goodbye to my precious 2nd graders for what seemed like an incredibly lengthy summer vacation.

Now, it's August.

School starts in August...

...and when it does,  I will no longer be a first year teacher. I am so unbelievably excited to be able to say that! I have experience. Only a year, yes, but experience nonetheless.

I must say that this year, I feel a million times better about school starting. I know what is going on, the ins and outs of what my school does, I know what I want my room to look like and how it should function, and I also know exactly what I want to be teaching and how!

I'm a whole new teacher this year. It feels absolutely fantastic! I learned so much last year and have already done a good bit of work this summer to get myself ready.

A few things I am excited for in this coming school year:

1. Writing Center:  I want my kids to be challenged to become great writers and to really enjoy it, so I have researched and will be setting up an area in my classroom dedicated to all different types of writing.This gives my students time to practice, practice, practice!

2. Reading Corner: I'm going with a camping theme this year and I have some awesome ideas for decorating my classroom, especially the reading corner! I love reading and we do quite a bit of it in 2nd grade, so anyway I can encourage reading I am all for! If my idea works out, I'll be sharing!

3. New Year, New Kids, Same Curriculum: While it is a different year with new kids, I'll be teaching the same thing! I am so much more calm knowing what will be coming, how projects work, what I want to change, and what I want to do the same. This year will be infinitely easier, planning wise!

4. Confidence: I always doubt myself and worry about how I am doing, but this year I am feeling a hundred times better about myself! Given a year under my belt, I feel so much better about what I want to do and why. I've also learned that I am a bit of a kooky teacher...and I am embracing it full on :)

All in all, I am really excited for this school year! Not that I am rushing it coming, but when it does arrive, I am going to be brimming with 2nd grade excitement!

Also, pictures of my classroom will arrive as soon as it's all set up. Lots of work ahead!

Just a little teacher humor for ya :)

What Comes Next...

God has this great way of keeping us in suspense. We don't always get to know the plan far in advance, in fact, I would say we rarely do! But we know His plans are always good and right, because they are HIS!

It is hard for me to keep this in mind. A few things about me: I am very OCD, I love plans, and I love being in control. Great characteristics for a teacher, not so great for giving up control and trusting the Lord. And as far as my life plans are concerned, I will be the first to say my life has not gone as I had once imagined.

I attended a small, Christian college that is very marriage minded. Freshman year I thought I would meet the love of my life, date through college, and have a wonderful wedding after graduation! Then I would become a Christian school teacher in a small mid-west town, we would live in a precious little house, and live happily ever after. Yeah...this didn't happen.

Now this is not to say that I am not happy, because I am so thankful my life has gone the way it has. It just didn't go according to my 18 year old self's plan. I continued to make plans throughout college, plans to teach here, do this and that, live over there. Silly, silly me...

God must get so frustrated watching us try to control and plan out every aspect of life. I fried my brain and nerves trying to figure it all out. I should have relaxed and known that the Lord had an AWESOME plan for me!

This week marks one year of the three of us, Ryan, Julia, and myself, living here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh definitely did not even come into my brain until a few weeks before graduation! Scratch that: the entire eastern side of the country was not even a possibility to me! Now I am a resident of PA, teaching at an incredible school, and I've met the most incredible people. God works in the most phenomenal ways!

Since my dear roommate has gotten engaged, lots of people have asked me, "What are you going to do after she gets married?! What is next?!" They all seemed rather nervous, worried, or concerned for me. Well I've learned better. I'm not going to worry about it! God will lead me to where I need to be, to do what He wants me to do to better serve Him and His Kingdom. I am blessed to be teaching another year of 2nd grade at RTCS. What comes after that, I don't know! But I know God does and I have peace knowing that He is in control and He has something fantastic in store for me.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

            Matthew 6:25-27, 33-34