~and I really don't know everything~

I've been hitting the books lately in preparation for the start of school here in this part of the world.  It will be my privilege to begin my 39th year as an educator in a small rural school just up the road aways and across the Red River into Oklahoma.  How wonderful it will be to make that short 10 mile drive to and from school each day.  

This year I'll be returning to a self-contained classroom of 3rd graders and as such will teach a variety of subject matter.  Social studies, in particular everything you would wish to know about Oklahoma-the state, is one of them.  

One thing is for certain.  
I have much to learn.

I grew up in Kansas and spent nearly 58 years of my life there.  It was the place that I always called "home".  As a kid growing up, I learned about my state and all of the things that made it what it was.  As a teacher for well over 3 decades there, it was fun to help kids learn about the same things that I did at their age.  I still can sing "Home on the Range" without missing a beat, am able to recall a dozen famous Kansans without even having to stop and think about it, tell you without hesitation that there are 105 counties in all, and will forever be able to tell you that in the year of my birth (1955) the American buffalo was chosen as the state animal.  I may now only go home to visit but I will always hold Kansas near and dear to my heart.

Don't try to get me to change.
It won't work.
It's my forever home.

I've had the privilege of being able to teach in 3 other states now in addition to Kansas and in all of those states, it's been necessary to learn new facts about the geography and the history of each one.  I remember how my partner teachers, Erin and Amanda, back in Olathe, Colorado taught me all about the mountain ranges and mesas as well as important Coloradoans like Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta, Baby Doe Tabor, Kit Carson, and Buffalo Bill Cody.  In Texas, I visited the Alamo and became more acquainted about the last stand of Davy Crockett and the brave bunch of men who adopted the motto, "come and take it".  I learned that the geography of this massively expansive state is as varied as it comes.  From the desert areas to the hill country, to the tree filled eastern section to the gulf shore itself, Texas covers a lot of territory.  

Now for Oklahoma.

I've been coming to Oklahoma for years now with some of my earliest memories being made in the communities of Perry and Guthrie where family members on my mother's side of the house once lived and are now buried.   Oklahoma City was a popular vacation spot for us when my 3 children were little.  It was easy to get to by just hopping on I-35 south of Wichita, setting the cruise control, and before you knew it, you were there.  My sister and brother-in-law have lived for over 30 years now in Altus, a city not all that far from where we live now.  To get there, I used to take the back roads from Hutchinson.  That drive would take me south of Kiowa, Kansas and down through the western part of the state of Oklahoma.  It was a longer drive than going through Oklahoma City, but it afforded me the chance to see so much more of the state's beautiful countryside.  

In early August it will be my turn to teach Oklahoma children and for me it is the chance of a lifetime.  

I am busy pouring over the state social studies standards as well as all of the curriculum that we will use this year.   There is much to learn for me and it will work out just fine because I like to learn.  I smile at the remembrance of a time long ago when I told a class of first graders back in Kansas that I didn't know the answer to a question they asked of me.  I'll never forget the response of a little boy who, with a bewildered look upon his face, said to me,

"Hey you are a teacher!  Teachers are supposed to know everything."
Sadly and with a smile on my own face, I had to let him in on the fact that I didn't really know everything.  He only thought I did.

The good Lord above has been mighty good to me.  He has carried me safely from my home in Kansas to the mountains of Colorado.  After that, He brought me down to the plains of Texas and now, in just a couple of weeks more, across the Red River into the little town of Randlett, Oklahoma. No matter where I have landed, I have never felt alone.  Life has been one big geography/social studies lesson for me.  Now it is my time to teach Oklahoma children and this I know to be a fact.

I could not be happier!

Life has been quite an adventure these past 3 years.  God blessed me.

What a privilege and honor it has been to teach alongside so many exemplary teachers.   These two dear ladies are two of them from back home in Hutchinson, Kansas.