Summer lessons

Fear is a terrible decision maker.

True grace is disturbing.

I am stingy with grace.

True love is sacrificial love.

Me and you, baby.

A sweet conversation

Today, I finally was able to catch up with a dear sweet woman that has walked with me for over 10 years. We were able to share our hearts from the past year, and I am so thankful for her sweet trusting spirit in the Lord. She spoke such encouraging words. I hope I can learn to speak like her.

She has taught me so much about hoping in the Lord through extremely difficult hardship, and has that kind of faith that you find in people who have truly been refined by fire.

I think the best part of our conversation was rejoicing in what the Lord has taught us through suffering: that joy is not being joyful about the situation, but it is about being joyful in the growth of sweet relationship with the Lord. I would not wish to go through certain trials in my life again, but I am so grateful for what Christ has taught me through those things. He has loosed so many chains in my life, to where I am more free today than I was 2 years ago.

We spoke about redemption and anticipation of our future hope...the sweet peace of redemption in the present, but the unspeakable joy when all things are made new.

It was such a good reminder, on a Monday in North Raleigh after a normal day of school, to look to the eternal.

Organization

This is my fourth year of teaching, and I've learned a few tricks along the way. I have always valued other teachers' willingness to share ideas and post the routine things they do in their classrooms to make the day smoother.

So I have decided to post pictures and ideas from my classroom, some borrowed from others or worked out after months of frustration in terrible routines. I hope they are helpful!

This post is dedicated to some simple organizational techniques that keep me sane. I am not naturally inclined to organization, but have become better by sheer necessity.

First: I label everything now. I downloaded a cute font to make me more likely to use the labels (it's truly the little things), and I bought these magazine files from the Target One Spot. In the important basket, I've placed my grade book, contact information, plan book, and observation notebook. Done. These baskets are lined up on top of a bookshelf that contains all of my files. I don't really use my file cabinet. It's not easily accessible, so I have all of the objectives that I teach labeled on cardboard magazine files. I then placed folders of each set of activities within that file. For example, I have a box for "Measurement," and file folders for elapsed time, length, capacity, and mass within that box. It's right behind my desk for easy access. It's not the cutest looking thing in the world, so I made a polka-dot curtain to cover it all up!
I make anchor charts for EVERYTHING. If we learn it, I write it down.

It's really easy to lose these anchor charts on the walls. It's only the second quarter, and I've already run out of wall space. So a couple of years ago, I covered my cubbies with homemade curtains. Behind the curtains is, well, a mess. But it's out of sight! I laminated circles with numbers on them. I only put the most important anchor charts here.

That way, I can refer to a specific chart when conferencing or doing a mini lesson. One year, I had students who really had a hard time responding to text. I ended up having them choose a number and focus on that skill when they were asked to respond in their journals. It wasn't my favorite thing to do, but it worked for those kids.When we're finished with that skill, I have the hardest time throwing away anchor charts. They just contain so much learning! So this year, I have started taking pictures of the charts and printing them off. I have one notebook labeled "Reading Anchor Charts" and another for "Math Anchor Charts." I keep them in the area of my room that contains extra practice activities.

Lastly, a stolen idea for managing Writer's Workshop. I give each student a number at the beginning of the year. It corresponds to their cubby, mailbox, job chart, etc. I despise remaking things year after year, so this helps cut down on wasted time and resources. During writing, students move through the writing process by moving down a clothespin. I used to use magnets, so the clothespins are attached to a magnetic strip. The magnets drove me insane, so I threw those away this year.
What are your techniques for keeping your classroom organized?

Biscuits

So many years ago, through a long and somehow unrelated story, our friends began calling blessings biscuits.

(If you've ever had a bo'berry biscuit, I think you'll understand the connection.)

This fall has been a season of biscuits...or maybe growing in gratefulness. The Lord has been teaching me to be more thankful. It is not my natural disposition. So this post is a short update of biscuits.

We have moved! About a month ago, we purchased our first home. We are more or less moved in. Joel and I have a habit of forgetting about the little things. So if you visit and still see a mirror leaning against a wall, or a headboard unattached, get used to it. It may stay like that for a while. Seriously though, we are thoroughly enjoying our home.

My dear brother is staying with us now! He has returned safe and sound (praise the Lord!) from his second deployment.

I have joined a new community group at a new church that I love. I am so thankful for wonderful communities of believers.

My classroom is amazing! Entering into my fourth year, I feel so much more confident as a teacher. I really enjoy my job.

A year and a half ago, I truly felt like I was hanging on by a thread. Looking back, I am thankful for that time. The Lord is so faithful, and He is the God of all comfort. This verse from Joel 2:25 has been so true in my life: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten." He IS the Great Redeemer.

On sleep

"Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps.

Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day:

Man is not sovereign.

Man is not sovereign.

Man is not sovereign.

Don’t let the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never tires and never sleeps.

He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him and sleeps."

-John Piper

Thankful for rest as summer officially started for me yesterday. I will be leaving for Haiti in about a week and a half. I'll only be gone for a few days. Please pray for our trip to be a blessing to the people we'll meet, for safety, and for change.

Fear

Anyone who knows me is aware that I am not the most courageous person in the world. I get anxious about making a sandwich. The Lord has been dealing with me in the area.
Most recently...

We got a new car a couple of weeks ago. It's a super cute Kia Soul. Well rated by Consumer Reports. Affordable.

Oh, and I did I mention it's a stick shift?

I don't know how to drive a stick shift.

But this is my car.

So far, I haven't been able to drive it, and I've been practicing a bit everyday. I'm totally nervous about it. I'm not the quickest learner.

Prayers are welcome. This has been less terrifying each day. And I really want to know how to do this.

On an interesting note, it has made me very aware of how my struggling students feel about learning. They are coming to a difficult environment each day, and they feel like they're failing regularly. I get it now in a very real way. With testing approaching soon, I feel the pressure for them. This is my car. This is their learning. It's not like we have a fall-back here. Joel has been amazingly patient in teaching me to drive, and I'm reminded of how much repetition and patience is required for my students.

Grace Upon Grace

I am struck this week at the freedom of God's grace.

It comes in really surprising ways, this unmerited favor. As a person who admittedly has this terrible idol of human approval, the freedom that grace provides is immeasurable. I did nothing for this. I don't have to do anything for this. It is a free gift.

I am thankful for the blessing of marriage this week. But that thankfulness has come out of an unexpected weekend.

In 24 hours, we realized that Joel's car needed engine work and that my car died.
(The short story of my car dying involves me having driven to and from Chapel Hill without a hitch, but when starting up my car later, hearing a terrifying screeching noise and an extremely loud clunking. It involved me having to take a quick, not crash!, course on driving a stick shift at 9pm.)

I felt like every time we made a plan this weekend, something happened to change it. The cars were just the beginning. It even got to the point tonight where I ordered a salad for dinner (at nine o'clock, because that's how our day went), not knowing that it had bleu cheese. I tried to scrape it off but gagged just from the smell, so loving husband drove me to McDonald's in the middle of the Final Four. And we get up to the pick up window only to find out that they are out of the fruit and walnut salad I had already paid for. At that point, it was comical. But now I have a tummy ache from my dinner, and I am praying praying praying is not weird food poisoning.

We each had our breaking points today. Joel's happened not when the cars died or the vacuum had to be completely taken apart this morning, but when one of our microwave safe plates (we only have, like, 4) broke in three pieces in the microwave, thus rendering his meal inedible. Mine was when I realized a store I needed to go to closed an hour earlier.

But we went for a run and discussed the crapiness of the day. And we tried our hardest to remind ourselves of the providence: the cars died on a weekend. My dad is now able to drive me to work until we get a new car. We had paid off our debt literally this month. But it was still a weird day.

Except for the fist bump when we remembered: we're ok. We've had a season when we weren't ok. And nobody wants to go back there. Compared to that, two broken cars seems like a sitcom joke. This we can handle.

I am thankful for the grace that brought us here this weekend.