Miranda's Dailies: 10/1/11

My favorite 7 year old

My favorite seven year old...
Is funny....
Charming...
Loves the Lord...
Loves his family...
Is An athlete...
Is a lover of the video games...
Never wants me to leave...
Makes me smile...
Is Growing up too fast!!

I love this blonde-headed cutie!

Jeremiah 29:11

My heart just stretched a little bit

7:09 PM | 0 Comments

I want you to meet the newest addition to my heart...

Her name is Morine and she lives in Uganda. She is the little girl that I now sponsor from Compassion International. I have always seen the ads to sponsor a child and have felt God leading me to do it, but it seemed like such a big thing to do. I never felt that I was financially stable enough to actual take the leap and be a sponsor. A few weeks ago, I got an email from Compassion International and decided that I could make the monthly criteria and did it. I am so glad that I did. I have not recieved anything from her yet, but I have been praying for her. I have decided that I am even going to use this as a lesson in letter writing for my kiddos at school. We are going to write a letter to Morine as a class and make sure it is in the correct personal letter structure. I am so excited to start corresponding with this beautiful almost 6 year old. I can't wait to see what God has in store for her and what I will learn from this.

In other news...life has been crazy. Between school and trying to find an apartment, my life has been occupied. I have so many things on my plate that I have had to take a few "time outs", which basically means I left school at 3:40 instead of 6:30 :) I have managed to have a little fun in the past few months since school started.

The amazingly cute, but married, bass player!!

Last month, I went to a concert at The House Of Blues. It was so much fun! We went to see Hot Chelle Rae and The Script. It was a great concert and we got to meet the bands! My friend Katie and I felt like we were 18 again, but we stoood around at the back entrance to the House of Blues for a while to meet The Script. I have never done anything like that before. Definitely something I will do again, though!!

Got all their signatures!!

The Script Lead Singer!!! So funny!

Mikey and Tim dancing the first time as Mr and Mrs Fowkes

I went to a wedding last weekend. I bought a brand new outfit for it and got a great response. The wedding was beautiful and Mikey was a glowing bride! Tim was absolutely handsome in his tux and you could see the love between them. They have been dating for 10 years and I am so glad that they finally got to walk down the aisle! Here are some photos from the first dance...and my outfit (of course)

The "husband catcher dress" :)

So much fun!!!

Nine weeks

11:10 PM | 0 Comments

Nine weeks…

It has been nine weeks since I first heard a 9-10 year old say, “Miss Martin!” I really can’t quite believe that it has been that long. As I sat at my desk this afternoon, entering grades for my students’ report cards, I couldn’t help but become a little nostalgic. How quickly I have become the career women. It nine short weeks I have gone from not knowing there was a 6am to being on the road at 6 am. I go to bed before 10 (usually by 9:30) and have learned to live on a budget. My days are no longer filled with hypothetical students and classrooms but with 19 living and breathing children that depend on me for structure, love, knowledge and acceptance. They love me and then hate me, but like every fairytale, leave loving me every afternoon at 3.

I have gone from doing homework to figuring out the best way to convince my students to do the homework I assigned. I have gone from dreaming about my first classroom to dreaming about my first week long break. I now buy books for my kids, not for me. I don’t have to work on the weekends anymore, but I do…spending hours looking over lesson plans and wondering what the best way to teach the lesson will be. I read on the latest trends of teaching, feeling that I didn’t absorb enough in college.

I feel that I am just surviving, always striving to do something, one thing better the next day. How can I get the child who has no friends to interact with another student? How can I get through to the student who really doesn’t want anything to do with me? How do I work with the student that feels that they are above the rules, and therefore in no need of me? What can I do to work with the student struggling in math?

I don’t want to be the complacent teacher, content with a mediocre class. I want to be the teacher that strives for her students to have every opportunity to achieve success and reach it on their own means, not handed to them. I want to be the teacher that lets her students know how much she cares for them by guiding them towards the things and people that will help them succeed. I want to be the teacher that they want to come see in 3 years when their sister or brother is in the room. I want to be the teacher that doesn’t give up until every possible way of helping a child is exhausted.

Nine weeks… 27 to go