Going Back

I am ready to go back. 
Now, if you're a fellow teacher reading this, be careful of the desire to smack me for saying that.  This summer has been too hot here in Amarillo to have much fun, I am bored, and so I am ready to get back into the classroom.  I know, I know - I stated in my last blog post that I'm tired, and I am.  HOWEVER, the cool thing about being a teacher is that every August we get to start over!  So for now, after watching too many streaming Netflix movies (Lucille Ball, Betty Grable, Bing Crosby - the oldies), reading a little more than six books on my Kindle, working out at Curves, and checking Facebook way too many times a day, I am ready to go back.

I think tomorrow I'll go see how hot my classroom is.  The administration hasn't been running the AC, so I know I'll have to take a fan, but I'm ready to arrange the desks, put posters on the walls, rearrange the book shelves, and in general reestablish my territorial rights on the room. :-)

I actually want to get in there to begin praying.  I like to think that God hand-picks every student who will occupy a desk in my room.  I like to picture the look on kids' faces if it just so happens that Jesus returns in the middle of a school day & I can gladly announce:  "OK, kids!  Forget about yesterday's homework assignment!  It really doesn't matter now anyway!"  Yeah, yeah...I know...some of them already don't think the work matters, but it's my job to make them think that it does (for now).  I know the real TRUTH, though.  God has each one in my room for reasons I may or may not ever understand.  My "real" job is to pray for them, be an example of God's love for them, and to listen to their hearts as I sometimes am called to stand in the gap for them.  It's my "Africa."  Thank God He never called me to minister from some hut in a village in Africa, but He did call me to the public school classroom.

I am ready to go back.  For now I will continue to heed the calling.  Our days are numbered; time is short.  We each have jobs to do for the Lord.  I pray today that you are right where He wants you to be - doing exactly what He's called you to do.  Be blessed today!   Tammi

The End of the 30th Year

     Last week, as Randall High School graduated its 2011 senior class, I ended my 30th year in the teaching profession.  (My "anniversary" date was actually Jan. 20, since I began teaching mid-year in 1981.)  I'm not sure why, but this seemed momentous for me...this 30th year.  It might be because the number 30 seems so big; it's a long time to do anything.  Maybe it's because when I began teaching with my first 5-year teaching certificate, I told God that I would teach for 5 years only, and then I wanted to do something else.  Haha.  So here I am, still at it.  I've taught over 3000 students.  I've taught grades 6 through 12.  I've even taught one class of adults at the Ford Glass Plant in Tulsa one summer.  I've taught grammar, writing, spelling, vocabulary, drama, speech, Shakespeare (an elective), applied communications, and I've sponsored organizations like National Honor Society, competitive academic teams, competitive speech teams, and I've even taken one group of middle schoolers to Epcot during a spring break trip.  I keep telling God I am tired.  I don't think He's listening; He hasn't yet released me from this profession.  Evidently, I'm a difficult child - I want to do what the Father asks of me, for I am a pleaser, yet I think that MY plans are better (ie., quit teaching! I'm 25 years past due, after all!).  Of course, I know that HIS plans are better, for His ways are NOT my ways, and He does have a plan. 
     Last week a young lady (I'll call Kelly) came to see me at school.  Final exams were finished, and I was cleaning out my classroom, getting ready to leave the building until August.  This girl was with a young man, whom she introduced as her fiancee.  She had a big grin on her face, and her eyes had a brilliant sparkle in them that I had never seen before.  You see, Kelly had been in my class five years ago.  She was a troubled teen (to coin a phrase), involved with drugs and living in a less-than-stable home with a mother who would berate her and involve her in her own drug habit.  Kelly would get caught with drugs at school and of course would have to pay the consequences for such violations to school policy and the law.  I had taken this girl to heart that year, and had mentored her, meeting with her during lunch time, working with a counselor to provide lunches for her, and working with her to get her grades up.  During that year, we saw dramatic academic improvement in spite of the continued downward spiral of her  personal life.  I decided that year to award my Academic Achievement award to Kelly.  By the time the awards assembly day arrived, she was in a rehab/behavior management institution.  I wasn't allowed to see her, but nevertheless I took her award to her; handing it to the nurse and explaining what it was, I saw that the nurse was moved to tears.  Five years later, Kelly's clean and sober; she has finished her education, and she's getting married (and having a baby).  I'm thankful she's happy, and only God knows - I am thankful she's alive.
     So when I get tired of teaching, thinking NOW is the time to quit, I think of girls like Kelly.  She isn't the only one that I can remember whom GOD touched because I was a teacher and was in the right place at the right time...just when a student's need was great.  I pray that He will continue to use me in the profession for as long as He wants me there.  BUT I have to admit, though, that I pray, too, for continued strength emotionally and physically, for this profession is very demanding on the heart and body.  May HE be glorified.