Skip to main content

My Social Life Begins


YIKES! I am living life and not taking the time to write. It has been over a week and so much has happened. I have been working with one of my colleagues, a first year teacher. Mr. Wilson. A man who shares the same teaching philosophy that I do. We discuss the students and what is happening in our classrooms. We plan together. And, most importantly, we have fun together. It is hard to believe he is Sean’s age and has begun his professional career. Sean continues his journey through college.

I think we make other teachers nervous. Take that back, I am pretty sure we do. We are teaching literary concepts through music, poetry, videos, hands-on activities, cooperative learning, and a variety of other ways that are not typically seen in a North Carolina school preparing students for the EOG. We are showing them concepts in ways students can relate to them in their world. Mostly through music. Slowly, we will move on to short stories and novels. However, until we do, I think there are going to be some teachers a bit freaked out.

In the classes that we are referring to, it is apparent that what has been done in the past has not been working. Many of these students have not passed the test and have had to go to waiver. I would like to avoid the waiver system if at all possible. Not only are we teaching out of the box, we are also preparing portfolios with the students to keep them a bit more accountable of what they are doing.  All in all, a positive step I believe.

And the fun Mr. Wilson and I have?  Getting together on the weekends to plan is only a small part of it. Somehow last week, I found myself part of a DJ crew for an upcoming dance. Mr. Wilson (Craig), the life skills teacher (Tracie), and myself will be DJ’ing an upcoming dance. Because we do not believe it would be any fun just being ourselves for this dance, we are all taking on different musical personas. I will be the rock star complete with leather pants, platform boots, and a painted face. Craig is gracing us a C-Dub the rapper, while Tracie will be bringing it as a punk rocker. The best part of planning the event was our evening out – costumes and dinner.

The fun continues at the adult spelling bee this Thursday night. Craig and I will be joined by two other teachers. The music theme continues. Tracie is not able to join us. Instead, we will enjoy the company of beach music and a little bit of country.  The rounding out of my time here continues beyond the social scene. I have joined a gym.

Life continues to be good….

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 2, 2010 at 11:44 AM

    Mandie GO girl Go. You are doing what you know best. Hopefully the rest of the staff will sit up and take notice. Glad you have found another who teaches the same as you. Love you and miss you. Love Marguerite

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WABDR: Section 1

Section 1  We end at the beginning  Does it feel like this trip will never end? Epic adventures tend to last a bit longer than just an average one. So….on with our tale.  We got our bikes all packed up and continued over White Pass. The first time we went over it, it was a cloudy day. Thus, the visibility of the mountains was not much. I was expecting the same on our return trip to Packwood. Therefore, it took my breath away when I saw the mountain off in the distance for the first time. The beauty was so overwhelming, I teared up.    I continued to watch the mountain until I could see it no more. Soon we were in Packwood. Back where we started. After a quick breakfast at the local coffee shop, we were on our way. I may have taken a few minutes to ride the big bike first… Not too long though, because someone was ready to get moving.  Jennifer had some friends that were camping at Walupt Lake, which is right on the trail for Sectio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aging sucks.....or does it?

Upon first thought, watching a parent age sucks. Unnoticeable at first. A bit of a stoop, some creaking in the knees, whitening of the hair. The doctor’s visits begin, as do the pills One for high blood pressure, another to thin the blood, and a handful of vitamins to top it off. The signs are there, but it is easier to see him as he has always been. My father, a pillar of strength. Until my pillar was knocked off-kilter. A simple surgery and the mortality of my father looked me square in the eye when the drugs took hold of his brain. Amidst his fidgeting and confusion, I realized…AGING SUCKS! And then….enlightenment dawned upon me….AGING IS BEAUTIFUL Wrinkles tell of smiles while silver hair speaks a life of memories. Knees creaky after years of kneeling in prayer, offering up a lap, and climbing up the stairs for one more kiss goodnight. Almost forty-eight years of memories nestled in my heart. Memories of my father. Taking us to church each Sunday Building and fixing ...
2 comments
Read more

WABDR, Section 2: Part 1

WE GET ON THE TRAIL, finally WABDR Section 2 It has taken forever to get to this part of the story, but we are finally here! The day we go off-road. But first, we go into Packwood in hopes of getting a first-aid kit that we realized we forgot the previous evening. No first-aid kit was to be found. Mostly because the one store that we figured would have one was closed. If you read the second installment of this story, you already know our response. (For those who didn’t read it, we dubbed this the F-it Trip.) We would figure it out as we went along. The way we handled it was to have a good breakfast and charge up our intercom system. As we rode down the road to get to the trail with our music playing, I felt as if we were straight out of Easy Rider... except much more badass. After all, we were going off-road. Pretty sure the big, wide, bug-catching grin on my face didn’t look so tough though.  White Pass went on for awhile. The clouds looked a bit ominous. I paid i...
1 comment
Read more