~and I haven't stopped learning~

I made it through the first day of school yesterday with little trouble or worry.   If I didn't know about something or had questions, well I just asked.  I haven't encountered one person yet that wouldn't give me a hand, or an answer to my question, or a smile, or a friendly "hello".  I love that about my new school.  It made my day go so much smoother!

As I type these words to you this morning I'm tired,  but it's a good kind of tired!

I don't have anything really profound to say this morning.  I only feel this sense of gratitude and thankfulness for the chance once more to be a teacher and to be entrusted with the gift of children.  In as much as I find myself approaching the age of really being retired, I can't help but to believe that God actually has a few more things in store for me as a teacher.  I truly feel like I have had the greatest of experiences in whatever school district I have taught in.  This teacher's heart is full to the brim and near to overflowing with lovely memories of kids and teachers in Kansas, Colorado, and Texas.  If it had been over with year #38 and there were no more classrooms that needed someone like me, I could not rightly have complained.

Yet for some reason, I believe that the good Lord has saved the very best of them for the last and a little tiny place called Big Pasture is where I was destined to go.  I meant what I said when I spoke these words.  

Although I hope to teach for at least a few more years, I'm going to teach every day this year as if it was the very last one that I would ever have.  When it is all said and done, if I teach in such a manner then I will have no regrets.

All teachers wish to go out of the profession on the top of it when their time comes.  I pray that I can keep a right spirit, my good health, and the ability to use the very best of strategies in order to help my students learn.  I'm not a spring chicken any longer but I don't feel like I'm ready for the "stew pot" either.  There's a plan for me and if I wait long enough, it will be shown.  

I have no doubt.

Big Pasture is the place where I will do my "swan song" in the classroom.  God had it right all along.  I had to get a whole lot older to figure it all out.

4:54 a.m.
Time to get a move on.  Those little people will be there before I know it.

You know an education has to start somewhere.  Mine began back in the early 1960's at Haven Grade School in Kansas.  I haven't stopped learning!