~because she told me that I would be~

The days on the calendar reflect slightly more than one month remaining before back to school time arrives for us here on this part of the plains in northern Texas and southern Oklahoma. With each year that passes by, I have felt the days of summer vanish into thin air more quickly than ever before.

The summer of 2017 shall prove to be no different.

Things got off to a not so good start and the month of June came and went.  Those days will not return so it's imperative to use the remainder of summertime vacation to the best of my ability. I'm already thinking about what I will do this year at my new school, and wondering about the little children who shall be a part of our classroom.

Time will tell.  Soon we will meet one another and begin a year together as one classroom community.  I can't wait to get started.  Really.  I can't wait.

Each year that has passed by since my original retirement from teaching in 2010, I have committed myself to the same philosophy.  I have taught each year as if it was the very last one I would ever be allowed to teach.  I have tried my best to not waste a moment of time and to cherish each minute that I was given to be with children.  The 2017-2018 school term shall be no different.  I will enter this year as if this was the very last one I would ever get to teach.  In the end, perhaps that's the way that all teachers should look at things. 

Just a thought.
For what it is worth~

While I was in the Puget Sound last week, I picked up some special rocks for the community rock jar that our classroom will use.  It's kind of a tradition of sorts, one that was begun back in 2013 in Olathe, Colorado with some of the greatest kids a teacher could ever hope for.  It carried on in Petrolia, Texas two years ago and yet again last year at Big Pasture Elementary in Randlett, Oklahoma.  The students in my classroom at Grandfield will also have a community rock jar and participate in the four-year old ritual of placing a rock into the glass jar and telling their name as well as something they are good at that has nothing at all to do with school.  They will be reminded to be careful as they place the rock inside the jar so that it doesn't break.  We liken the rocks to ourselves and that we wish for no one's feelings to be hurt by breaking the glass.  It's a silly thing perhaps to some but to the kids in our classroom community, it's the way we set ourselves up to treat one another for the entire school year.  It's always been my hope that it lays out a pattern for treating everyone they come across, not just at school and not just for that year.

It works pretty well that way, you know?

In this the summer before my 40th year of being a teacher, I have much on my mind.  My mentor and dear older sister is now gone, yet I still feel Sherry's spirit about me as I plan for the year ahead.  I have tried so hard to emulate her over the years but her shoes were big ones to fill and at best, I can only hope to be half the teacher and human being that she was.

There is much yet to learn and find out about for me as an educator.  I guess you'd think that after this long in the classroom, a teacher would know everything there was to know.  Yet I can tell you for sure that only a foolish teacher would ever subscribe to that way of thinking. There's learning aplenty for me and as an avowed lifelong learner, it suits me just fine. 

Sometimes the future can be a little scary and the unknown that lies ahead can make a person wonder whether or not everything will even work out.  I've felt that way sometimes and perhaps you have as well.  This year shall be no exception, but you know what?  I go forward in faith, following the lead of the One who knows way more about this kind of stuff than I would ever dream to know.  

The end result is better that way.

3 weeks have gone by since Sherry left.  I hope I paid enough attention to what she told me to do in order to have a successful year.  After 40 years, this is my first year solo!  I'm going to be just fine.  She told me that I would be!

I absolutely love these rocks that I picked up along the shoreline of the Puget Sound waters last week.  They are strikingly beautiful!

Sherry taught me a new way to teach the kids in my 4th grade class at Olathe in 2013-14 a new way to do long division.  She always had a good idea!