Lesson(s) Learned

Today, in class, I gave my students the following picture prompt for part of their free writing/creative writing time.  When I walked around the room and started reading some of my kiddos writing masterpieces, I stopped on one that read something to the effect of "If I were very small for one whole day, I would climb inside Louis Armstrong's space suit and walk with him on the moon." The thoughts that filled my mind were exactly as follows: "Uhhhh..... where do I even begin to start explaining this one without sounding incredibly old?!" What I said aloud was this: "I love the idea of getting inside his  spacesuit. Very creative! Now, are you sure it was Louis  Armstrong? I think that sounds like the name of a jazz singer or someone...." My student's reply? "Ohh, you're right. It was L.... LANCE! LANCE ARMSTRONG! Thanks Miss Hill." By this point I was just humored. :) I said, "Ehhnk. Try again." S...

10/05/12 Roadtrips change me. The music. The quiet. The length of the trip. The brevity of life. The phone conversations. The prayers to God. All of it combined. It changes me. As I was driving home to Jacksonville from Lynchburg this past weekend, I heard Switchfoot's "This is Your Life" come across the radio. Though I'd heard this song too many times to count, the words actually "sunk" into my heart and mind this time. "This is your life.  Are you who you want to be?" If I were real honest, I'd readily answer "no." I'm a planner. That's just what I do. I. plan. things. And when things don't go according to (how I) planned, then discontentment and a bad attitude And no, I never imagined I'd be living in Lynchburg, teaching fourth grade, and coming to the end of -yet another- college degree, yet seemingly experiencing no "progress" in other areas of my life. I heard my students say, "When I ...

10/ 05/12 I teach little kids, so it's only natural for the phrase, "no one likes a tattle-tale" to roll off my tongue at some given point throughout the school year. Quickly following that phrase will be something to the effect of… "If you're minding your own business, then you won't have time to mind everyone else's." As I've thought about how these scenarios usually play out, I've come to realize that I am slowly but surely becoming my mother. haha. Seriously though, I have also come to realize that adults are often guilty of tattle-telling as well - only we somehow think we're more crafty with it. Adult tattle-telling comes out most in prayer circles, is mentioned only for the sake of "informative purposes," and is usually shared right before an echo-chorus of "bless his/her heart." The sad thing is this: it doesn't matter how old we get or how fancy dancy we try to dress up our tattle-te...