I love teaching English, except when I don't.

I never planned to be an English teacher. When I started my degree I was planning on science or phys. ed. Then the Georgia's state DOE changed the structure of things and PE was no longer an option so my advisor looked at my transcript and said I already had enough course work for a social studies concentration.

O.k. Social studies it is! But I still planned on teaching science.

After searching searching searching all summer, I was hired to teach social studies at LMS in 2002. But the thing was that every teacher on each team also split a subject because of numbers. At this time, English and reading were separate subjects.

The summer after my first year when the principal called me to ask if I wanted to teach science I panicked. I was SO looking forward to getting into that second year groove where I had already taught the subject so that I would actually be GOOD at it instead of having to learn it right before I was teaching it. So he also offered me reading. That was the subject my team had been splitting. Since I had taught it, I jumped on that one!

The funny thing was, when I went to take the English/Language Arts Praxis, I scored higher on that test than I did on either of the ones I actually STUDIED in college. I LOVE reading, so all this stuff just came naturally to me.

The third year in, our school put English and reading back together in a course that they called Language Arts. So I was again learning some things before teaching them. (I didn't use to know what a pronoun was. And prepositions? Forget about it!! Don't worry. I'm an expert on that now!)

Move forward a couple of years and our county decides we need to really hit the writing hard in middle school. So I'm learning all this stuff again.

Like reading, I have really enjoyed TEACHING the kids to write. Narrative (telling a story) is especially fun since I really enjoy seeing the creative things my kids can come up with. I was surprised just how much I have enjoyed teaching expository (informational) writing. It is way more straight forward that narrative. Persuasive? Eh. 6th graders don't really know how to come up with convincing arguments, so I can take or leave that one.

But what I could REALLY do without? The part that makes me want to poke my eyes out? Grading. I sit here before 88 expository essays and a stack of grading rubrics and I need to get busy! Which is probably why I am blogging. Grading and passing back papers are my least favorite part of teaching, but I especially loathe grading the writing. . .

Hiding God's Word in His Heart

That's another thing Jude has been up to these days. So far he has:

Psalm 4:8

Genesis 1:1

Matthew 19:14

Psalm 23:1

and we're working on John 3:16. The video cuts off there because Jeff's iPod wouldn't send the whole thing and because he couldn't really say the whole thing, but rather announced that he had to go potty;-)

Necessity is the mother of invention

And Jude felt it necessary to have a cup holder and a footrest while watching Sonic the Hedgehog. That's a friend's PRINCESS lawn chair. Oh, and of course a fire engine for a footrest.

*** UPDATED about 15 minutes later ***

Well, it looks like he felt the need to upgrade to a REAL step-stool!

Turning a corner. (Maybe?)

It seems that I may have turned that proverbial corner where my health is concerned.

As much as I hate taking medication, I am guardedly thinking this new one may have solved the problem. It has been 25 days since my last ruptured cyst. Before that it happened every 6 days for a month, every two weeks for two months prior to that. Before that it had been once a month since June.

On the migraine front, since doubling my magnesium intake, I've only had 4 migraines in the last 50 days. Which is waaaaaaaaaay down from the 6-8 a month I've been getting for the last two years. (And then like the 15 years prior to going on those awful awful meds that screwed up my brain so much I STILL think I haven't gotten all my memory back. Went off those to get pregnant in '07 and only then did I realize what an idiot I was for taking them.)

I also doubled my B12 intake as well because I got strep TWICE in December. (in addition to that upper respiratory thing that I had for 6 weeks in October and November.) I worked two consecutive 5 day weeks for probably the first time all school year. Had a little sniffles this week, but after three days of drinking a shot of cider vinegar every 4 hours interspersed with a chamomile & peppermint blend 2-3 times a day and some fire cider mixed with honey when I woke up and went to bed, I think I kicked that without incident.

I realize that in the scheme of things, the illnesses and discomforts I have been dealing with since June (and the last 20 years with the migraines) are small stuff. There are people who have dealt with far worse than I. Pain is just such an isolating thing for me. My mind always has me convinced that people aren't going to believe me or will just think I am being overly dramatic. And I don't really know how to ask for/accept help when I'm not feeling well.

But all that to say, I really do feel like things are on the up now. Hoping anyway!