Coming from a private school to a public setting was initially a culture shock for me to say the least. But, I was still young, new to teaching, full of spunk, and had dreams of changing the world! Then, I was given a classroom of kids who, for the most part, were neglected, abused, or shockingly poor. Their lifestyles and appreciation for education were vastly different from what I had previously witnessed. I had to ask myself, “Do these kids even have a chance in life?” “Yes, yes they do,” I quickly decided. That year, I had the privilege to teach a special young lady. I’ll never forget her angelic…
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America’s Children
They Feel So Alone For as long as I can remember, children have intrigued me, inspired me, and brought my heart unmeasurable joy. I can remember being a child myself and dreaming of having a house full of children one day. Not only that, I wanted grandchildren…lots and lots of them! After my fourth child was born, I knew she would be the last child because of my health problems. It wasn’t long after that I had a strong desire to be a foster parent. Unfortunately, my husband didn’t agree with this decision. My head got it. He was tired because being responsible for the physical, mental, spiritual, and financial…
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Education Is Vital
After Covid-19 hit, every student was quickly given a Chromebook, a password, and a set of written directions. The students had an extremely short period of time to learn how to work their new Chrome books. To their bewilderment, quite a few students lived beyond the point of internet service. This required the students to work out of a packet and hand in work pages weekly. Teachers were directed to take attendance, upload daily lessons, and have daily live classes. Unfortunately, they received a minimal prior explanation on how to create lessons online or how to present live lessons. Students and teachers were doing a whole lot of self-teaching. Needless…
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Our Last Day Together
It’s one of those days that happen, when later people ask you, “What were you doing the day Elvis Presley died?” or “What were you doing on September 11th, 2001?” I don’t think I will ever forget March 13th, 2020. At the time, I had no clue the impact it would have on my life or the lives of my students. It was just another day of hustle and bustle in the classroom. However, looking back on the conversations of that day, I get “chill bumps.” I remember standing in front of the classroom trying to convince my students how important it was for them to get into ”high gear”…
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Faith Under His Wings
If you keep cutting corners, you’ll end up with a circle! My son, Isaac, just gifted me with a delightful dose of his daily wisdom. More times than not, his bits of knowledge are hilarious. However, today this piece of enlightenment seemed to mesh quite well with my blog thoughts. The children of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years. Most able-bodied people could have walked the distance in 11 to 14 days! You might ask, “Heaven’s to Betsy, what took them so long?” I can explain, they were cutting corners and “walking in circles,” so to speak! The Israelites kept groaning and giving God reasons why they couldn’t…
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How Do You Measure Success?
How do you measure your personal success? Perhaps you are only happy with yourself, if you meet the days quota at work. Success to you might mean making the most money possible in one day. For some occupations, success means arriving back home alive. Students would call an A+ on a test a success. How we measure our own success could potentially be causing us unnecessary daily stress and feelings of failure …even hopelessness. Yet, where does it all start? Each evening we go to bed with a mental checklist of things that we think we NEED to accomplish throughout the next day. Let’s imagine yours looks something like this:…
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From The Cradle To The Cross
How prepared is your child for what lies ahead? How well have you trained them for the storms that are sure to come? Recently, I asked kids of varying ages if they could tell me something that their parents had taught them about life. I received the following answers: Be nice, Stay out of trouble, Take up for myself, Don’t do drama, Live life to the fullest because it’s short, Don’t steal, and I really don’t remember. Although the above responses are good ones… except the, “I don’t remember one,” they do very little to give children the survival skills they need to be happy, productive, and successful in life.…
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The Apple of His Eye
I’ll never forget one specific day when I took my sixteen month old daughter to church. I was so proud of her. She was dressed in a frilly, pink eyelet dress that was accompanied by a soft white sweater. She had the biggest shiny brown eyes. Tiny auburn ringlets bounced all around her little head. She had chubby cheeks and a smile that would melt hearts. I just knew everyone wished they had a daughter as beautiful as mine! I, myself, had dreamed of a daughter like her for as long as I could remember. One of my former classmates visited church that day and brought her little girl that…
