Bucket List Item #6-thank you friends...

My original goal of bucket list item #6-"to connect with all of my Facebook friends and buy them something to drink and spend some time talking about life" was to have met all those folks by the end of the year 2011...I  have a feeling I'm going to have to revise that date a little bit kind of like I had to revise my original goal of riding across the entire state of Kansas on the BAK this summer to...riding half-way across the state of Kansas.  But that's what I like about life, it's always changing and if you're not willing to change with it....well, you know how that goes.


I am blessed to be a teacher, now for 34 years~more than half of my life.  I go to work every day knowing that when I'm there, a staff of wonderful people is there with the same goal that I have....to do what is best for our kids each and every day.  


What I really appreciate is the fact that we are all diverse, in one way or another.  There are people there who have way more knowledge of math than I do and if I'm stumped as to which strategy would work best to teach division, well then I hunt those folks out.  I'm still a couple of steps behind on technology (and probably always will be) but if my laptop starts giving me fits, then I know exactly who to go to in my building.  Thankfully they bail me out every time!  :)  And the examples could go on and on....


Perhaps the most important thing I remember as I step into my school, Lincoln Elementary, is that everyone there has a very important job to do each day....and without the help of everyone....all the way from the custodial staff and kitchen crew, the office staff and paras, to the teachers, my day would be so difficult.  I couldn't even dream of doing my job alone...it takes a lot of people to educate and nurture a child.  We're all in this together!


I'm thankful for everyone at Lincoln Elementary who, in one form or another, have helped me this year.  I caught up with a few of them, Facebook friends, back in October to work on Miller Bucket List Item #6.  They are shown below.....

Brenda Chastain-Food Service Secretary-This woman has lent me her keys more times than I care to admit when I've locked myself out of my own classroom.  After doing it so many times, I no longer have to say anything to her. Brenda reads the look on my face and  she just hands me over the keys!  Thank you Brenda for bailing me out so many times this year!

Marcia Pyle-Custodial Staff--Friends, no matter where you work, just TRY to do your job without the assistance of a good custodial person.  It wouldn't be fun!  Marcia comes to our school in the afternoon and evening hours and does an excellent job of keeping our school looking great!  We are blessed to have two good custodians at our building this year.  They take pride in the way our facility looks.  Thanks Marcia!

Cathy Field-PE teacher-Ok, let's face it...if I asked one of my students what they liked best about school...hmm let's just say between math and PE...can you guess what the response would be?  After sitting in the classroom for what must seem like a long time to a kid, it's great to be able to head to the gym and run off a lot of excess energy!  Cathy makes physical activity feel very fun and that's what kids need!  Thanks for promoting physical fitness Cathy~a lifetime skill that we adults need to continue.

Debbie Gideon-Long  Food Service Kitchen Manager-I can barely figure out some days what to fix myself to eat for any given meal...this woman has to figure it out for more than 250 of us each and every day.  From school breakfast to school lunch, Debbie manages to see that all of the kids and staff have nutritional, well-balanced meals to eat.  Talk about a daunting task!  This year Debbie received a grant that allows us to offer fresh fruits and vegetables to the kids each week as a snack during the school day.  It's been wonderful to see kids trying new things and actually liking them.  Thanks Debbie for providing the chance for them to "try it--you'll like it!"

Rick Kraus-Director of Human Resources-As Human Resource Director, Rick's job is to assist the employees of our district in whatever way we might need.  He's had the answer to almost every single question I ever asked him and some of those questions had absolutely NOTHING to do with his job description.  Don't think you could ask for a better HR person than Rick.  I appreciate the fact that he comes to visit our school regularly as well as the other buildings in the district.  Thanks Rick for caring about what goes on outside of the Ad. Center.  And by the way, either Rick is "super tall" or I am "super short"...haven't quite figured that one out yet.  :)

Heather Ramos-3rd Grade Teacher-Long ago, back when I was very stupid, I had a hard time believing that I could ever learn anything from a young teacher.  Boy did I ever miss out on a lot of opportunities to become an even better teacher!  Heather's classroom is constantly learning thanks to the many new strategies she brings "to the table" each day at school.  I often just stand at the doorway of her classroom as well as the classroom of her partner teacher, Elizabeth Cliburn, and watch those two young women as they interact with their students in a positive manner.  Thanks Heather for showing me the new ideas and allowing me to see that "old teachers" like me still can keep learning!

Courtney Bleything-5th Grade Teacher-If Peggy Scott would have had a 5th grade teacher like Courtney Bleything, there would have never been a need to start the "I Hate Math Club" at Haven Grade School!  Courtney makes math look easy to me, well kind of/sort of.  I learned how to do lattice multiplication from her several weeks back.  I appreciate the positive energy that she brings to school each day and how that energy rubs off on her class.  Thanks Courtney for showing me that math CAN be fun after all!

Shana McNish-Library Media Assistant-Holy moly, this woman knows about books!  I have never seen someone able to just quickly walk over to a shelf and pull a book off for my use as Shana does.  Her job has got to be difficult-just imagine being the caretaker of thousands of books every day.  She loves her job as is evidenced by the way she interacts with the staff and students.  We are blessed to have both Shana and our librarian, Carla Honeycutt this year.  Visits to our library "give birth" to a lot of bookworms each year.  Thanks Shana!


I'm going to keep working on #6....at this point in time~only 130 Facebook friends left to go :)  So whether I see you at school each day, or around the neighborhood, or even if you live far, far away...I'll find you somehow to buy you something to drink and talk about this wonderful thing called "life".


Well friends, I'm at the point in time where I'll be taking a little "hiatus" from this blog to re-evaluate where I want my bucket list to go.  I have lots of ideas and some of those ideas are going to have to take place within the next couple of months while I still have the use of both hands.  So unless something "earth shaking" happens to me (and given last night's tremors here in Reno County, maybe I should come up with a different way to phrase that) I'll be back with a revised bucket list next weekend.  Take care all of you dear friends and remember to be thinking about your own bucket list ideas.  We are all trading "daylight for dark"....  :)