~upon finding your destiny~

From upon the plains of the "Lone Star" state, good morning dear friends and family out there.

The school year is winding down and now with only 12 days left to go, it's amazing to sit here this morning and realize just how fast it all went.  In the beginning, I was so afraid that I'd never learn all of the names of the kids in my classes.  Every day when I got home from school, Mike would see the look of exasperation on my face as I'd explain to him how much trouble I was having in keeping the names straight for over 120 students.  I was extremely hard on myself those first few weeks and I remembered thinking that I was the only one there having trouble with such a simple task as recalling the correct names for students.  Then one of my friends reminded me that I was the only person with that many students who was new to the group.  All of their other teachers had prior experience with those kids, at least 2 years of prior experience.  Mike told me not to worry, that I would get those names down before long and you know what?

He was right.  I finally did.

And so to "the 120", all of the kids in 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A, and 6B, your teacher says thank you for teaching me so many lessons that were invaluable this year.  It's a great thing when a kid can school a grownup, most of the time without even knowing they were doing so.  The lessons that I gained from this experience in my 38th year of teaching ended up being most valuable.  They are tucked inside of my heart and there they shall always stay.

The Lord has been good to me.  38 years with the sincere and heartfelt hope of a couple of more in the field of education is something that I am thankful for.  As this year winds down, I have absolutely no regrets for ever becoming a teacher.  While I never became rich in money, I gained my reward in so many other more meaningful ways. 

Destiny.
I found my future.

What a privilege to have worked with so many fine educators over the years.  These two women are among them!  We taught summer school together back home in Hutchinson, Kansas.  Marlen and Shelley are my good friends.

Shelley and her husband Clint are both fine teachers.  Here we all are at the starting line for the Bike Across Kansas of 2011.

After teaching for this long, it's always nice to find a "little" girl that used to be a first grader.  Nori was in the very first class of kids that I taught back at Haven Grade School.  She was always a good little girl and I love her so much.