Now that I have a minute to catch up on the blog I can tell you about some fun things that are beginning to unfold!
I start student teaching next Tuesday! I can't believe it's finally here. Well, actually I can. I chose to postpone it twice because of my current job and then because of the education field taking a hit in their budget in Mansfield. After much prayer and thought, I am moving forward with the decision to start on Tuesday and will move to working part-time at Texas Power. God made it very clear for me this time around so I'm taking a leap of faith and doing it! I call it a leap of faith because Slone and I are in a good spot in our lives right now where we are making good money. Leaving to student teach will cut my salary waaaay down but again, God has confirmed this move too many times for me to have any fear in this. If I want to teach, this has to be done. I'm excited, nervous, joyful, and anxious all in one! My first cooperating teacher is awesome and I really feel like she will be able to help me get my foot in the door in Mansfield schools. I haven't met my second teacher yet but will contact her soon. I will be at Coble Middle School for 6 weeks teaching AP 8th grade LA and 7th grade LA, then I will move to Mary Lillard Intermediate school and teach 6th grade LA and SS. A girl in the 6th grade class that I teach at church goes to Mary Lillard and will be in the classroom that I'm assigned to! I thought that was pretty cool.
I'm also taking an online course through UTA towards my Master's degree. It's a multicultural literature course that introduces teachers to elementary and mid level books popular for students today. I have to read 17 through the course of the semester. Some of them are picture books, some poetry books, and the rest novels. I tried to select a combination of all 3. The first one I chose to read is The 10 p.m. Question by Kate De Goldi. The main character is literally my twin! He worries about everything from a rash being cancer to the germs from public swimming pools. Those of you that know me well know that I worry about waaay too many things. His best friend on the other hand (introduce Slone) is carefree and lives life joyfully. It really cracks me up how spot on I am with this little character names Frankie. I love taking courses like this because I can share awesome books with my students and hopefully help them to enjoy reading and relate to characters like themselves.
Our sweet Tana is still the coolest dog ever. But she may have to go to the vet this weekend because she might be developing allergies. Who knew!? We did have one incident where she tried to remodel some of our flooring (aka tore some of the carpet) but we have had plans to replace the carpet anyway for hardwood. No harm done and after all, it
is just carpet!
Long legs
Bible study began last weekend and we are studying The Purpose Driven Life. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. We aren't reading the book (although I do have a copy), Slone is just leading our group through the DVD sessions and we talk about it afterwards. We had great discussion last Saturday morning! We talked about focusing in on the thing God wants us to be doing so that we can live joyfully and fulfilled.
Also, we are slowly but surely looking for me another car! It seems like every time we turn around mine needs a $300 job done on it and for her age, I'm sorry but it's just not worth pumping money into. My parents bought me the Honda when I turned 16 and it has been the only car I've ever had. I still go through spells of wanting to just clean her up really well and keep putting around town in her - LOL! But I know the time is coming soon where I need something more reliable. We will just ask the Lord and He will provide in His perfect timing.
That's pretty much it for now. I'm sure I'll have many more stories in the upcoming weeks. I tried to start a brand new blog for my teaching experience but I can't get it to quite work right. I also don't know if I have the time to maintain separate blogs at this point but I definitely want to document my student teaching experience and see how I grow as a teacher over these next 12 weeks. Stay tuned!
~M
