Spring Break

I am on Spring Break this week. I do not have any plans but sometimes that is the best thing. I am just looking forward to having some time off. The past couple of weekends I have been getting things ready for a yard sale that my two aunts, my cousin, my mother, and I am going to have. It is amazing how much junk you keep over the years. Also, our corn is beginning to come up which is very exciting.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, it is amazing how busy life can get and I do not have any children. So to the ones that have children, Bless You! School life and home life has been busy. At school, we had a group come in called "Math in Motion" which was a cool group that did dances with math concepts. We have also had "Read Across America" week, which was a fun week. The kids and teachers got to have a pajama day which I wish we could have everyday. :) The children got to dress up as their favorite characters and we had a door decoration contest. Some of the doors were wonderful. I will have to add some pictures of the doors. We also had people come in to read to the children which the children really enjoyed. Now we are preparing for Spring Break and the SAT 10. As far as home life, we have been working on the garden. Last weekend we planted the corn and today it is raining. Next month we are going to plant our peas, tomatoes, squash, and watermelons. We are so excited and praying that God will bless our garden.

Snow in LA (Lower Alabama)!!!

Yesterday we actually woke up and saw snow on the cars and top of the carport. It began melting quickly but we did get to see snow until around 12:00 pm. It was beautiful to see it falling. Then after lunch the clouds went away and the most wonderful blue sky and bright sunlight began to shine. I love when God shows up and shows out with a gorgeous day. We have also decided to have a small garden this year so Josh's father drove the tractor to our house and plowed the top of the ground so that the snow and cold can kill the roots. Then next weekend he is going to bring the tractor back and finish plowing the ground. It is a blessing to have family close. :) Josh's family has had a garden each year for ever it seems so we are so excited to learn from them this year. I took some videos of the snow on the cars, carport, and the snow falling on our garden. I have added the one and will add the others real soon. Enjoy! I know we did. :)

Awesome Story I Heard on AFR Talk Radio

This is a you tube video of a 12-year-old girl speaking out on the issue of abortion. I heard about this little girl on the way to work this morning on AFR Talk radio. They told that the little girl was entering in a speech contest and that the judges did not want her to enter because her speech was pro life. Her mother finally even told her to just change her topic but the little girl said no that she wanted to do her speech on this topic. They even said that one judge left during her speech and would not judge it. After giving the speech the little girl ended up winning first place in the contest. I thought this story and speech is pretty awesome and inspirational. Hope you do too.

Fireproof

Last night Josh and I watched the movie "Fireproof" and we both enjoyed it so much. This was such a great movie with a wonderful message. I recommend that everyone watch this movie especially if you are married. I am so glad that we can find movies that teach biblical principles and tell people about the love of Jesus. This movie really touched us. Today I went to www.fireproofyourmarriage.com and they offer lots of extra resources and products. I think it would be awesome to do a "Love Dare" class with couples in the church.

What a Week

It has definitely been a wild week. Monday was my brother's birthday. Then on Tuesday, the reading coach asked me to be part of a planning video that she had to make for our state regional reading coach. For this video we had to plan a lesson together and discuss the things we planned to do. The state regional coach would then come to the school on Friday to watch the lesson we planned. For Black History Month we have speakers coming into the school every Tuesday and Thursday to talk to the children. Therefore on Tuesday afternoon, we had two ladies come to talk to the students. One of the ladies was a basket maker and the other lady was a quilt maker. It was very interesting to hear how theses ladies make baskets and quilts. I thought it was very cool that the lady that makes baskets told us how she cuts the trees and strips them herself.

On Wednesday we had a guy come in trying to sell the school some cool new technology and she used my class for the demonstration since my classroom has a projector. the other two first grades came into my room and then both reading coaches and the computer teacher all came in to watch the demonstration. Talk about a packed house. :) The guy was selling an eLearning pad that the teacher could use a projector to project the things on their computer onto a screen and then through the cool pad the teacher can write on the pad and it will show up on the screen. He also had remotes in which the students used to answer questions. I love all of this technology it is so exciting. My kids really enjoyed using the remotes to answer his questions.

Then on Thursday, we had another program for the kids. This time our principal and PTO president talked to the children and was encouraging them to always do their best and that they can be anything they want to be. And then today, Friday, was the big day. Our state regional reading coach came and was ready to watch our video and then immediately after watch the first grade reading coach and myself do a side by side lesson with my students. Thankful everything went very well and my students did a good job. God is good all the time.

I do have some prayer request for the week. Our resource teacher's husband had to have triple bypass surgery last week and now is thankfully home recovering. It is a great blessing that he is home and went through everything well and she was able to return to work this week. Another prayer request is for the workers at Weyerhaeuser. Yesterday the men and women working in the sawmill part of the mill lost their jobs. I am unsure on the number of people but I know it was a lot for a small town like Camden. Among these workers were my Uncle Donnie, our preacher, church members, and many more in the Camden area. This will be tough for some of these families so please pray that they will lean on God for the strength they need to get through this time. We always have to remember that we have a great big God and little bitty problems. So I have no doubt that with prayer God will be with these families. My last prayer request for this week is for one of our kindergarten teachers. She received a phone call this afternoon at school telling he that her grandfather had killed himself. This is a very sad thing so please pray that God will give them comfort and peace during this difficult time. It makes me so sad when people do this because God loves everyone and is always there for us. We can go to him at any time and can talk to him about any thing.

While on the topic of prayer, please remember to pray for our country and it's leaders. On the way to school in the mornings, I like to listen to American Family Radio and this morning on Jump Start they were discussing that Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D. Mich.) has threatened to hold hearings on "right-wing" talk radio. It is sad that they are already trying to push christian radio off the air. If you would like to know more about this topic then go to www.afr.net and click on blogs and then click on Jump Start. They have all the information there about this topic and the stimulus package.

Any way I just ask that if you will please join me in praying for all these things and remember that God loves us and that there is no greater love.

New School Year/New Hobbies

It has definitely been a while since I have blogged. One school year ended and another has begun. The summer was nice and is long gone and forgotten. Now I have a new class full of excited first graders. This year I have a class of 14. I guess we can go with fourteen. I have fourteen in the mornings for reading and then one little boy leaves me and goes to second grade for the rest of the day. His situation is special. He was a repeater at the beginning of the year but he failed last year because of his hearing. At the end of last year they found out that he had completely lost his hearing in one ear and had about 75% hearing loss in the other ear. The boy has just recently gotten hearing aids and it is so amazing to see the difference in him. He is so proud of them and now he is so wide eyed because he can hear everything for the first time. This year we also have a new reading program. This year we adopted the Scott Foresman Reading Street series. This has been an adventure in itself. This is my sixth year teaching and for my first five years I have used the Voyager reading series. So this has definitely been an experience. All of the teachers and reading coaches are trying to learn this new program together. With all programs I see some good and bad things withe the program. Scott Foresman absolutely covers more than Voyager which I really like because I feel that it is better preparing my students for the grades to come. But Scott Foresman does have a lot to cover in each lesson and getting my time down has been the biggest struggle. We are now half way through the second nine weeks and the reading program is now getting a little easier. I am also up for PEPE since it is my sixth year. This is always fun. The principal has already done one observation and I have complete my structured interview. This year I have also picked up a new hobby. I have began making and selling jewelry. I have had my first booth at an arts and crafts show in Orrville, Alabama this year. My husband and I enjoyed the show and did pretty good. It was a great learning experience because I got to see some booths of some veterans and got new ideas for my next booth. I am also currently working on getting pictures of my jewelry together for a website. I hope to have the website up and running very soon. Overall this has been an interesting year so far so I can't wait to see how the rest of the year will go.