What to do if You're a Moron

Clearly I am sometimes an idiot.

Well, maybe occasionally more than sometimes.


Josh and I went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon.  By the way, St. Lucia is AH-maz-ing!  I will definitely have to post more about it and our adventures.  It is beautiful.  The people are incredibly nice.

Josh is very into photography.  And I think he's pretty good at it, too.  Granted, I do not have a trained eye in this field, but he did his brother's engagement photos and I think they were great.  So, naturally, he has an awesome camera.  Some of the photographers at the resort offered to trade cameras with him, haha.  Thus, we took a lot of pictures, especially when we were out doing things like zip lining, we took my not-as-nice little digital camera with us.  Not complaining- I love the camera, but it's no professional deal.

I took a bajillion pictures.

Now comes the I'm a moron part.

It's the last day of vacation.  Many, many pictures later.  I'm looking at the menu on my camera.

And you've guessed it- I have reformatted my camera.  All pictures GONE.  Deleted.  The end.

Well, crap.  Where's my dunce cap?

But apparently enough other people have done this that there is a market for data retrieval software.  Hallelujah!  All I have to do is pop my memory card into my computer and run the software and it's like magic- I get my pictures back!

So, if you are also sometimes a moron and find yourself in this predicament, I highly recommend the EASEUS Data Recovery software.  Although, I do hope that you are smarter than I am.

And now I look back at this and more recent posts and realize that I am an incredibly boring person.  Especially now that I no longer have crazy teaching stories.  So, thanks for sticking with me. ;)

More pictures to be posted soon, but I wanted to preview one of my favorites.  This was Josh's favorite guy. We kept seeing him everywhere at the resort.  He inspired Josh to make me swear never to let him do this.  Little does he know that I have so many more ways to embarrass him.  Hahahaha

Thank you, Annie, for the new blog title.

So I have decided to take Mrs. Annie Wrigley's suggestion and go with an ambiguous new blog title and I actually liked her specific suggestion so much that decided that I would go with that.

I have approached the sunset of one career and am hoping that I will not be unemployed forever and will be approaching the dawn of a new (and hopefully better fitting) one. 

Thank you to others for your suggestions.  They were fun and I appreciated the input. 

Again, thanks to those of you who read.  Hopefully these posts will be a little more interesting (although hopefully not too interesting) soon.

Also look for a post on our trip to St. Lucia soon!

New Blog Name?

So... this is my first post past the end of my teaching career....

woohoo!!!

That final week was the longest in recent memory.  I never knew that 5 days could be so long.  This was due, in large part, to the fact that both the kids and I were so long past done.  It's really hard to keep kids motivated post-test when the entire system has been set up to worship a standardized test.  But I really don't want to get into my thoughts and opinions about the current state of public education at this time. 

Perhaps over the summer when I have copious free time.  :)  I have a fabulous fiance who fully supports my need to have a little bit of a breather post teaching.  Because, as I have outlined in previous entries, my hat is off to career teachers.  Way to go!  However, I am not a career teacher, neither was I designed to be one.  As such, I am completely burned out.  I am looking forward to a time when I have normal emotions and feelings.  Things still frustrate me, make me angry, but not in the way that they probably should.  After that first year, I could not take on kids' hurts in the same way anymore.  Did I still feel their injustice and hate their situtation?  Sure.  But if I were to survive, I absolutely could not internalize it in the same way.  Part of me shut off.  It had to.

In other events...

Today I applied for my first job past teaching.  Again, I am looking to take a little time off (I still get paid for a bit- I could disperse my paycheck through 12 months instead of 10, so I'm still receiving money I already earned).  It was hard and took me forever.  I have been trying to complete the application for about a week now without success.  But today, I finally finished it.  KSA's with little direction, other than "write one or two paragraphs about each position that you are applying for and why you would be an asset" is difficult.  But it did feel good to use some of my big girl language and not dumb it down for 8 to 10-year-olds for once. :)

Additionally, I have decided that I need to change the name of my blog.  First of all, I haven't taught Pre-K for two years and now I don't even teach, so the name isn't really so appropriate anymore.  (btw, those of you who read this when it downloads into facebook, I actually write this on Google Blogger-the link's under my links on my info page).  I solicited some ideas on my facebook status:

First, "Post-K stories of insanity." A good one.  And true.  My life is still insane after pre-K, just a different type of insane.

"Tales of the Newlywed." Also a good one.  Reflective of what my life is changing into.  One week from today, I will be getting married.  Which is so SCARY.  And exciting.  Then I'm moving back to Virginia, which is terribly exciting, as well.  So (hopefully) lots of tales (hopefully goood ones). 

"Everyday Stories of Insanity."  True.  I was insane prior to this job.  And now I'm definitely more insane. ;)

"How to Stop Attracting Crazy People."  Good one.  I have attracted many a crazy person in my day.  Now is not the time to recount them....haha.  But I have appeared to have attracted a reasonably normal one. :)

"Pre-K stories: Cause of Current Insanity."  So true.  So true.  I will not elaborate further, there is no need. Just read earlier posts.

What do you think?  One of these?  Different suggestion?

Lessons Learned- Things NOT to do when I have a Kid (way, way in the future, btw)

If I have learned nothing else, I have seen some pretty interesting examples of parenting while teaching, both good and not so good.

Today's example:

While I am relatively (I hope!) certain that anyone who reads this considers this a "duh" lesson, it is worthwhile to mention because there are clearly those who think this is a good choice.

Clearly, MADD and other organizations have warned us of the perils of drinking and driving.  Generally, I considered that most people did this at night or on the weekends.  Apparently not.

I guess some consider 3:15 on a Tuesday afternoon right before you pick up your kid from school an awesome time to get hammered.  Or at least start.  Because if you're not quite buzzing enough, you can continue drinking while driving and picking up your kid and after you've hit another parent in the parking lot. Because taking a big swig of your drink when you get out of the car to inspect the damage really helps your case.

Lesson: Getting wasted to pick up your kid from school results in a car accident and the school calling the police.  Who knew?

New Directions- Resuming the old Blog

While preparing to wrap up my third and final year of teaching in the next 8 days, I came across my blog from my first year again. Although I thought that I would never forget some of those events, time has a way of numbing some of the memories.

On the other hand, time and mind-preserving psychology also has a way of erasing particularly bad memories. I have found (even months after that first year) that I am missing large blocks of memories. Pretty much everything minus major events following the first 20 minutes of the first day through most of December of that year.

I am very appreciative of those of you who read my blog that year. It really helped to know that others cared enough to read and I can honestly tell you that that is part of what got me through that year. I was in a really bad place emotionally and psychologically. However, we sometimes experience less than pleasant things so that we can appreciate the more positive experiences. (How cliche, I know.) And things are much better now.

I don't really know why I have randomly resumed today. I'm sure if I continue, it will take on new flavor as I re-emerge into a realm of slightly less crazy things. I hope you continue with me on this new journey.

Leaving teaching is bittersweet. The kids are currently making it very, very sweet. ;) Oh! I moved to third grade last year, if you didn't know. They are a different kind of crazy than Pre-K, but they are still insane. I have to admit, though, I like them much better. While I always felt that I was called to do this, I also always believed it to be a temporary calling. And now I think that God is making it abundantly clear that that calling is coming to a rapid end. At the end of the day, a person who is becoming burned out cannot possibly be remotely effective. Feeling this way, it is better to serve the kids by leaving than by clinging to this field. I feel guilty that I feel so burned out. There are people who have been in this field for 5, 10, 15, even 30 years. I respect them more than you can know. It is a back-breaking, soul-crushing, tiring job. I admire them for their persistence and perseverance. Who am I, after 3 measly years, to be burned out? I feel completely ridiculous. However, I also know that this is not my permanent calling. Maybe it is theirs. The scary part is trusting God to show me what it is that I should do next.

I know what it feels like to receive a very specific calling. Yet, I don't think that God always communicates to us in this manner. How do we, then, determine what it is that He is guiding us to do? Prayer, obviously. But how do we hear His voice in the many ways that He might choose to speak? How do we ensure that it is His voice and not merely our desires speaking? I don't have the answers. But I am excited (and scared out of my mind) to learn more as I move on to the next stages in my life.

My blog posts might not be as exciting as they used to be (I am very excited about that prospect), but I hope that you join me on my new journey in finding my next path in life.

"When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." Acts 16:7-10

What an example of obedience to God's will.

This is Why I'm Here

Okay, so I'm here to teach and to form impressionable young minds. We all know that. But sometimes it's hard to remember or understand exactly why I was called here, because I do believe I was called. So, I just quickly wanted share something that I heard at church last week because I think it's something we can all employ in our lives with many different people.

I think I have a different approach than TFA a lot of times. My job is to teach and to "close the achievement gap," but, as corny as it sounds, I believe in educating both the heart and the mind. My job is to teach the letters and patterns and basic literacy and math. My job is also to teach these kids that someone loves them and, therefore, they should love themselves enough to work hard and learn to follow their dreams in life. School is a place that is safe where people love them and will take care of them.

For several of my students, I think that this approach is what will (hopefully) "save" them from being the 13-year-old fifth grader. They won't be so disruptive and angry (i.e. T) that they don't learn anything and are held back year after year, ultimately dropping out or incarcerated. As much as I hate to admit it, there are certain students of mine for whom I fear this future and I'm trying to teach them enough love that they can make something of their lives. It's so corny, I know, but it seems to be working for some of them. The saga of T will probably be a near-future post (I could have a blog just on him).

The results make me believe that this approach works for me and my students, but more importantly this is what I heard in church last Sunday. A couple from Emmaus Ministries (not the Emmaus of the Emmaus walk) work in Chicago and in Houston with men who are homeless hustlers (male prostitutes) and drug abusers. Of their work (which can be applied to anyone), they said, "You can't tell somebody about love. You have to love them. They have to know what it is to be loved so that they can experience love at the table of God." How incredible is that? It is our job to love one another, especially those who don't know love, so that we can all experience the indescribable love of God. That's why I'm here, to love these four and five-year-olds, some of whom have no concept of what love is. These little babies who, when I say, "Just come and talk to me, I'm not going to yell and I'm not going to hit you" when I'm upset with them, respond, "That's right, only mommies hit."

"'A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.'" John 13:34-35

It's a Quick One

Alright, I know that I keep saying that I will do more updates soon...and I will. Things have been crazy, good and bad. I'm going to give you a real quick update on me, personally, then a short funny story from my room.

So, I bought a new car in January, a 2007 Saturn Ion. So, for those of you who knew me in college, my awesome wagon with the billion bumper stickers, Fred to those of you who knew me well, is gone. I was really excited because I've never bought a car on my own before and it really felt like my car. My parents were amazing and got me the old car in high school to replace an awful deathtrap that my grandfather gave me (I feel like that car was sort of symbolic of our relationship, but I digress). So this car was really mine. I knew that I was going to get a new car in two years after TFA because Fred was 10 years old and was not going to make it back to the east coast (which presently is where I'd like to go back to, even though I have no idea what I want to do with my life anymore!).

So, I went in to the dealership just to look around because there was a possibility I could get some money from the state to replace my car with a car with better emissions. It turned out that I didn't qualify, but I could get 0% interest on the Ion and Saturn had just discontinued the Ion, so there were really great deals. I couldn't afford a brand new car before, but I could afford this one with all these deals. I kept thinking about it and my financial situation isn't going to change a whole lot over the next two years. So I decided that this was the perfect opportunity and took it. So, for one month I had this brand new car and I really liked it and made one payment on it.

Then, after driving home from church, I was rear-ended on the highway. Traffic stopped, I stopped and the car behind me didn't. It hit me and pushed me into the SUV in front of me. It was very scary, but I called On-Star (because my car came with it) and they called the police, my mom and finally EMS (because I hit my head and kept telling them it hurt- I didn't go to the hospital, though). My friend, Keena, was amazing and came to get me and took me to the doctor. I just thank God that the Nissan Sentra hit me and not the SUV. Fortunately, Saturns are really super-safe cars because they have great crumple zones and the car takes more of the impact than you do. Unfortunately, that also makes Saturns much more likely to total out. So, my new car is dead. They showed me the bottom of the car and it was a wreck. I'm really fortunate that I really didn't have anything wrong with me- my back is still sore sometimes and things pop and crack that I didn't know existed, but truly I'm blessed.

The problem is that once you drive off the lot with a new car, your car devalues. So, even though the insurance company of the guy who hit me is paying for the value of my car, it doesn't cover the whole car and they can't get me 0% interest and amazing deals back. Fortunately, I had gap insurance, so that's taking care of the value of the loan that the insurance doesn't cover. Unfortunately, that means I couldn't get a brand new car. Truly, it's not a huge deal considering everything that could have been and comparing my "misfortunes" to those of my students. However, I must confess that I was initially very disappointed. I have a "new-to-me" 2005 Saturn L300 with 55,000 miles (instead of 2,000). It's a very nice, well-cared for car and I do really like it. The thing that really gets me though is that my payments for my used car are higher than those for my new car. Oh well, this is life.

So, now that you're caught up on the crazy bit of my personal life over the last two weeks, let me share a funny story from this past week.

Now this story is funny and a little bit sad to an extent. When I was a kid, I had a really stable environment and awesome parents and didn't even know half the things my kids know and do. Like, I played house and I've caught them playing "Getting arrested." So, from what I remember from preschool, this conversation would never have occurred in my class as a four-year-old, but did occur in my four-year-olds' classroom.

So, theoretically I am supposed to teach all subjects, including social studies and science and I just can't seem to get them all in. Also, I can't use some of the resources my school has, like only the fifth grade is allowed to use the science lab because they're the ones who take the science standardized test and our school fails it every year (correlation possibly?). So, I teach some science, but not a whole lot of social studies.

Thus, I was supposed to teach about Texas for the last two weeks (do I even know anything about Texas other than their pride is ridiculous and often completely unfounded?). I think I read them one book about Texas. But I had to make this stick horse craft project with them as my team has caught on to the fact that I write my own lesson plans and don't follow theirs, so they were checking up on me to make sure I did it (I don't believe in giving Pre-K worksheets all day!). To add some academics to it, I made my kids "write" a story about their horse and give an oral presentation (tell us your horse's name and what you like to do) on it because their language skills are really severely lacking.

The presentations are reasonably predictable. Everyone's horse likes to eat Happy Meals at McDonalds and play on the slide at the playground. The names run the gamut, from "Fluffy" to "Princess" to "Soulja Boy" complete with song and dance. (If you're not familiar with Soulja Boy, you clearly don't listen to hip hop or teach in the inner city. It's not exactly an appropriate song...at all, but it's catchy and has a cool dance so the whole school is obsessed. You can watch it on YouTube here ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpocrqvP2Yg This is the slightly edited version, the word "ho" has been replaced with "oh".)

They're a little wound up and I've got J (the Chucky baby kid) pinned down in my lap because he's particularly fired up that day. I'm absolutely convinced that this child has ADHD (not joking) and I've been to some trainings with some checklists of probable indicators and I can check every one off on him. He truly can't control his body and he was running around, screaming. So, I've got J and little M is about to give her presentation. Oh M, I love that baby, but she needs so much help in so many ways. She's the only one that can't write any part of her name. At least To is To and J is Jo. But M is absolutely convinced that any random string of letters is her name, so if I get a paper with QXRPWY, I know that's M. She's babbling in front of the class, so I ask her what the horse's name is and she says "Sexy" (oh heavens).

**Pause real quick to get some background in case you haven't read the Chucky Baby incident or don't remember. At home, J's family ONLY calls him Sexy. I refused to call him this at the beginning of the year and had to teach him that his name was J (he didn't know). All his school supplies came in with "Sexy" written on them and I was truly confused for about a month until I heard his mom calling him Sexy.**

After M announces that her horse's name is Sexy, J becomes incensed. Absolutely upset and starts yelling, "That's not Sexy! I'm Sexy! He's not Sexy! I'm Sexy! I'm Sexy!" I couldn't help it, I just laughed at them, while the rest of the class just looked at me and couldn't figure out what was so funny.

I live and work in Crazy Land.