Our World

When I was a child I remember riding my bike to the local circle K and it was not just down the street. I remember going around the neighborhood trick or treating and knocking on doors of people that I did not know. I remember selling girl scout cookies to the neighbors. I remember knowing my neighbors.
Our World has changed and not for the better.
Yesterday dozens of people were injured or killed because they were at the grocery store in AZ and listening to a congresswoman who was supposed to be listening to them. I am sick. This is a crazy world.
I teach children that go home to houses with no heat, no water, no lights, and crack and other drugs on the tables. I teach children that know where to go to get beer, and lord knows what else, but can't make me a list of restaurants, cause they never eat out.
I teach kids that know who lives in the projects and who needs to go to get locked up and where to go to get money to get people out of jail. I do not even know that.
Poverty is here in our country. Poverty is breeding these awful situations. We are not holding people accountable for their lives.
Let's not give the homeless guy with a great voice the celebrity time. Let us see that he has not been the best of people and make him work for the money. There are some ten of his offspring that are owed some child support. Or should I say the women in his life have taken care of his children.'
Let's make our world one we are proud of. I am always reminded of the story in the bible of the fish. If you give a man the fish he will eat for a day. If your teach him to fish he will eat for a lifetime.
Let's Teach..........
Peace

New Year New Me Yeah, right

So I started my new year with a brisk walk this morning with my dog. We came home from Christmas and the dog seems to have gained a few pounds. I have too but that is not the issue. She is noticably heavier and so I decided that we should explore our new neighborhood. Our walk down the 11th hole behind our house gave me some new insight: there is a sand trap on the left side just down from the house next door. No wonder all the people that tee off try to come to the right and land in my backyard. Oh, found 2 golf balls on the way to the garage from the backyard.
So feeling refreshed "it was chilly". I decided to tackle the on line lesson plans. This is at about 9am. At about 2pm I finally had everything done to a level of competency that I could submit. This is only due to the fact that Jeff came in and helped me like 40 times. His comment was I should take a windows class. My comment was, I spent 4 hours the other day writing all these plans down and not once did I get frustrated with my pencil....... Now I have to retype them all again and it has taken 4 hour to figure out how to put Monday in vertically on the page.
I want to be a new me, I want to move to the computer age, I want to be a size 2 but I really do not think that any of this will happen.
Perspective: I like doing my  work on paper with a pencil and that is that.
I will have to save what we did today so I can copy it for the next 19 weeks.
Perspective: The walk was good. I will continue this and hope to see a reduction in my size and mocha's.
Not a size 2 but a healthier body and one that fits into all the current clothes in my closet.

Off to work tomorrow. Love to all

Perspective

My new word for the year 2011 is perspective. I am vowing to keep everything in it's proper perspective to have a positive and happy 2011. I tend to get caught up in the everyday part of everyday. I get to the end and wonder did I even do anything that was helpful, thankful, or selfish for the day? I often do so much that I forget what I have done. I suppose simplify could be a good word for the new year as well. So many words so, so many ways to better myself. I will try to maintain perspective in every situationn in the coming year. I will try to remember that my perspective is just that mine, and remember that others have their own perspective of the same situations. I will try to keep my work in the proper perspective and make time for all really important things in my life, family, friends, self etc.
I will try to keep perspective in our move to Mississippi, all the paper work that comes with a move, all the times spent at the DMV, moving of banking, insurance, I could go on for hours. I will keep perspective of all the boxes that have been opened and resealed for later, all the items that should have been trashed long ago. Perspective of my life as a whole. I vow to watch my favorite television shows that equal about one per evening with a new perspective, totally engaged in just that show. Not doing four things at once. I vow to do one load of laundry a night to keep the piles down to a reasonable level to let my perspective on housework keep in check. I vow to maintain perspective on fixing dinner every night. Most of my friends that do not work do not fix a complete meal every evening so why beat myself up if we end up having waffles one night a week. Or dare I suggest eating at Chick-fil-a.
I will keep the lawn care in perspective, the previous owners were retired and had a passion for gardening. I have a passion for having a gardener.
I will keep perspective with my blog, in that I do not have to blog only when I am in a good mood. I can let others see that I am not thrilled with something, i.e. the DMV five trips and still pissed at them.
I will keep perspective when no one comments on my blog..... This does not mean that others do not read it....Right......
Happy 2011 to everyone and here's to a new perspective....

Places

I have been very lucky in my lifetime to have traveled and lived in many places. I think I figured out that I have been to all but 7 of the states. The kids in my class were amazed by this as some of them haven't even been to the chick fil a that is up the street. Speaking of Chick fil a do not go to this one on the Saturday before Christmas if you do not want to park in the lot two stores over and have no way to get out of the parking spot.
I digress, Anyhow, having been to all these amazing and sometimes boring places, I have figured out one thing and only one thing. The place does not matter as much as the people that are in that place with you.
I am home in our new home alone with our dog and babysitting another dog today. I had to finish up the week at school and make sure that the tests were finished and the children were off to a good Christmas vacation. Jeff and Robyn drove to Arizona to see Allison graduate. They made the trip safe and sound and I will be headed that direction in two days via an airplane.
I am here and they are there and it is not much fun. A mall, a small town, a big city not any of it matters if you have no one to share it with. Those people that always say to me, Wow you move alot, always ask how I do it. I do it with my best friend and that is all that matters. We do it together and have for what will be 25 years this next week. It does not matter where we live, or what our house looks like what matters is that we are there together.
My grandparents were like two peas in a pod. They were so good at being together that not until we had to seperate them did we realize that they did things for each other and never let anyone else know, like grandpa covered up that he helped dress grandma and vice versa. That is true love and committment. They became like one. My parents are the same way. They almost function as one person. This is not a bad thing, it is a compliment to them both. They have found the strengths and weaknesses of each other and make it work like a well oiled machine.
Jeff and I do this and when one of us is absent the other is not all there. I am not talking half timers disease here I mean our heart is only partially there. We make it work but do not enjoy it as much as when we are together.
The dog and I miss our family. We miss Robyn, Jeff and Ally and Brody, and I can't wait to meet the newest member, Bella who sure does like to bite Jeff's toes I am told. Only two more days ........ Merry Christmas to all and remember the place does not matter it is the ones you love .....

December

How did the twelfth month of the year get here already? Seems like just yesterday we were cleaning up Christmas items and getting out the new planners for the year.
Planners, I have an obsession for planners. I have passed this on to Allison and we both get so excited when we can get a new one. One problem: I seem to have too many, I am super organized and yet I feel as if I have planners here there and everywhere. I have a plan book for school and a calendar at home and a planner that I write lists on and so on and so on. I know only have one and it will be great. Not!!! I can't seem to stream line my school planning to the computer which is required, cause this 45 soon to be 46 year old brain still likes to plan with the pencil and the tiny little squares that have helped me for the last 10 years. I try to color code all my daily work and put it in folders, and then the class wakes up and we have to switch gears in mid day and so on and so on.
I plan to the point that I sometimes think I forget little things. I then give myself a break and not do certain chores, and then the day later, I feel so behind. A vicious cycle if there ever was one.
I am not decorating for Christmas as we are going to Arizona and I really feel no guilt for this. I feel relief and I hope that we can remember this Christmas and hope to repeat it again soon. I want to plan to not stress and not fall into the trap where we have to do Christmas as Walmart wants us all to do Christmas. I am grateful that we are able to travel, have decorations to put up if we wanted and that I have the ability to plan. I hope to not plan over the holidays so, that means lots of planning for January in the next two weeks. I know I have a sickness and I must learn to accept that I am an organization freak and I need a new planner cause the old one only has 31 days left to fill in the blanks.....Peace to each of you.

Colors

Color is a part of my life everyday. I am the keeper of the crayons. I can hand them out at will, I pick them up off the floor about 1000 times a day. I discuss the slight differences in colors when the dispute arises as to if this is green or light green. To most this may seem trivial. It is a big deal in the first grade classroom.
It is amazing to me the number of children that I have had over the years that have never had a coloring book.
A good friend of mine, Janet and I used to talk about how calming coloring can be. We would try to have our class learn the technique of coloring and show the children that we enjoyed this activity as much as they did.
Yesterday I was helping my children with a math page. The page asked the children to color the picture after they had figured out the math facts. They were to use three colors and color the numbers and see what the picture was. This was a good page because the picture was not obvious until they began coloring. As they colored some said,"It is a car", no "it is a car and clouds" etc. As we finished the picture one child asked if he could color in the color book I had given each child at the beginning of our year. I said yes, he came back to the table and said will you color with me. Joy, I love that. I said sure and as I colored the others asked why my picture looked so much better. I said it is not better, I just have practiced a lot and I try to color the same direction and showed them how to outline, use harder pressure and lighter pressure to see the differences. Anyway as I am doing this my little boy that is so hyper and never stays still says to me" Ms. Comer I got it." I said got what? He says You have to "BE THE CRAYON". I smiled and said yes!!!!!!!!!
Oh, the colors in my class...... Some may actually be the brightest crayons in the box........

Teaching

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher. I tried to find a career that made money, ie. political science, but it was not a calling. Teaching is a calling. I am called each day to be in a building with children that are needy, whiney and hungry. I am called to be in a building that has holes in the walls, floods in the bathrooms and hallways,gas leaks, electrical problems ,too many stains to count, a classroom that is now the gym and a lack of insulation on cold days.
I am called to these halls with the voices of children being told to walk, where is your hall pass, and what do you mean you can't remember where to take the attendance slip.
Today I felt as if I would explode if one more of these children did not listen to me when I said, Sit in your chair and do not move your desk off this square. I wanted to explode, when the sixth graders did not listen to me as I asked them to get a hall pass. I thought I would explode, when the child that I had just given directions to on how to do the paper, asked, What do I put here again?. Some days, I am sure that this calling is a wrong number.
Then just as I want to hang up and tell the operator to find the correct party. I am told by the same sixth grader in line to get on the bus, that she wishes she could stay at school all day and night. I forget that even when I am at my wits end and the straw is about to break the camels back, I am the most stable element in these children's lives. I am making a difference each day if it is only to wipe a runny nose, tie another shoe or to make sure that the directions are given yet again.
My babies have so little, they eat all their lunch and breakfast and are still hungry. They do not complain that they wear their clothes two weeks before they get laundered. They are not upset if they have to share. They do not make fun of each other, they do not ask for more, they only ask that I am there everyday. They adapt to every situation as if change is all they know.
I wish I had some of these traits.
I hate to eat some food and would not hesitate to complain if my clothes were not clean. I do the wash but still. I hate to share. I have a teacher aide and find sharing with her hard.
I am spoiled. I am selfish.
This wrong number may not be a wrong number after all. I think I need to realize that I am these kids, 911 and if I can remember that, I am on the right road.