Gearing Up for A New Year

I can already feel the excitement in the air as I await my new students and classroom set up time. I am ready for this year to be better than the last, as every year should. I was even perusing proteacher.net and stumbled back into my Vista Print obsession! I love being able to be creative and help my classroom at the same time. I have gotten my class list, seen my room again (which now has tables!!!), bought many things over the summer for the room, set up my website, edited my beginning of the year letter, and on and on the list could go. There is so much prep work for school, but I know that the more I do now, the less stressful my job will be later. God showed me that as I prepare for my class, He is preparing me spiritually for the battle at hand. I am so grateful for a God that cares about me, is patient with me, and sees my needs. This was very evident at high school camp this year. I digress...

...I was appreciative of the opportunity to minister to my 10th (make that 11th grade) girls this year. However, similar to my previous post, God is still teaching me. I love that I can still go to camp and learn along with my girls! Anyays, during one of my quiet times, I decided to commit to God that I would read my Bible all the way through this year. As I had finished praying and started to read in Genesis I saw something flying by my leg. I moved frantically thinking it was a bug! When I looked back at the unidentified flying object, I saw a feather slowly floating to the ground. This however was no ordinary feather. It was a baby feather. How cool is that?!? I had just prayed that I would mature in my faith by reading my entire Bible, and I felt like the feather represented that maturation process. Just as birds slough of feathers as they get bigger, I was getting rid of my old immature christianity and trading it in for a life even more wrapped up in Christ. Again, I am so grateful for a God that cares about me, is patient with me, and sees my needs...

...Originally, I was just going to post about my Vista Print creations, but as always God has shown me that He has more to share. Gearing up this year has been so much more relaxing with my perspectives in the right place. My goal this year is to first of all put God first at everything. I have already had the urge to think I know all I need to know or that I am prepared on my own, and thankfully God is very patient and keeps bringing me back. My other goal is that I can get a handle on organization and time management. I know that may come as a shock to some, but as organized as I thought I was last year...I wasn't :) Well without further adieu, here are my VP creations! God bless!

HE is still teaching me.

So...I didn't post at all over my past year of teaching. :) I never would've guessed how time consuming and just plain exhausting it was to teach. But even with all of the work, God used this time to grow me as a teacher and continued molding my philosophies, prayer life and PATIENCE. 1 Corinthians 13 says that "love is patient, love is kind," these are words that I had to pray continually. Believe me, satan wanted nothing more than for me to snap at the kids, get angry, and lose control. However, God has called me to live a different life. To choose God over the attacks of the devil is never easy and I wasn't perfect. Just because I was tired, or sick or in a bad mood did not mean that I was able to slack off. I would even tell the kids. "Remember, I do not have patience naturally and I have to pray for it." That usually helped them and me regain focus. After struggling for a month to adjust I quickly realized that I had not given my classroom fully over to God. I was still trying to maintain some control. Just as a double minded man will fall, I could tell that having a double minded classroom would not work either. I could not handle all of the variables of my job on my own. He is in control of my classroom just as much as He is in control of my life and to hold anything back from Him is like a slap in the face. I wanted Him to use me and get all of the glory. I didn't know that there was a test looming. Shortly after getting a grasp on my classroom and getting used to a schedule, I was called into an emergency meeting about budget cuts. I was informed that I would no longer have my job after this year. God is so good and the first words out of my mouth were "I'm going to enjoy what I have now." Trust me, that is not an easy thing for me to say. My insides were screaming (I JUST FIGURED OUT HOW TO JUGGLE ALL OF THIS WITH GOD AND NOW ITS ONLY TEMPORARY?). But the great thing about God is that He can give us a peace that surpasses all understanding, even that of my own. As time went on it took 3 months to hear whether or not I would have my job. I continued to pray over that time, that no matter where God wanted me I would go. Funny thing is, I think that all God wanted out of this was to recognize my life should always be that way. Just because I am a teacher, doesn't mean God's will for my life will never change. I need to always seek His will and never get complacent. I used a lot of bible verses to help my students and even got the opportunity to pray for one of my students whose mother was sick. I will never know the impact I had on these students but I will never forget the lessons God taught me and the wonderful students He chose to use. Since God has commissioned me for one more year of teaching, I will take everything I learned to impact the next bunch of God's children positively for Christ.

The Adventure Continues...

Last week I was offered a 2nd grade position at a really great school. Ever since then my brain has been on hyper-speed as I am trying to get everything ready. God is so amazing and I am so thankful that He decided to allow me to use my gifts and serve Him in this way! I figured I would start posting again, since that is how I will track myself for professional development (and I just think it will be cool to look back on later). I am feeling a ton of different emotions: excitement, nervousness, excitement, creativity, excitement, stress :) but really I am just plain excited! I cannot wait to start teaching these students and am so blessed that God will allow me to witness to them through my worship of Him. Classroom pictures will come with my next post. Until then it is: 1. first day schedule, 2. first week schedule, 3. classroom layout, 4. parent letter, 5. classroom organization, and the list goes on and on.