God's gifts from teaching first grade
My blog was fairly quiet for the three months I was teaching (October 1 through January 11). By God's grace, I had enough stamina to teach each day and to care for my children in the evening. After the kids made it to bed in the evenings, I would crawl into bed for a couple of hours, resting my back and my brain and then go to sleep. But from the days, the teaching, the fatigue, the lessons, flowed blessing after blessing. While I'll fail to capture it all here, I will jot down my thoughts before I forget the beauties of His grace.
- Completion of my "first year" of teaching
... Six months teaching Kindergarten while waiting for Adrianna's arrival (2005)
... Three months teaching first grade while waiting for our third child's arrival (2012)
- An instructional assistant who jumped to do every task she could to make teaching easier for me
... And who even took over my class the times I was on the phone with my spine doctor, trying to get appointments
... And who even took over after one phone call with the spine doctor that left me in tears
... And who spoke with compassion every time I mentioned my back, as her mother has suffered with years of back pain
- In God's kindness, forming relationships with the boys who were disruptive, so that they did their best to not be so any longer
- Making a way for two struggling students to get more reading assistance from the special reading instructors
- A church friend who volunteered in my class for two hours, three times a week
... And her focusing on helping any struggling kids
... And her bringing books and musical instruments, and doing whatever she could to make learning enjoyable for the kids
... And for her always having encouraging words
- For the kids making a game of marching through the halls, even without us discussing it
- Learning more about teaching and classroom management, honing dormant skills and learnings from years gone by
- Adrianna's teacher being next door, and patiently answering all my questions about first grade matters
- Having Adrianna and Abel learning in the classes on either side of mine
- Moment after moment of watching understanding ignite in young minds
- God's provision of the TENS unit and then my first cortisone injection to help with the back pain
- Scott's help with the kids and the groceries and the errands, so that I could put my available resources to teaching
- Abel becoming so attached to his babysitter, even after not wanting to go to her house the first few weeks (see Sept 2012)
... And Abel making friends with her little boy (who happens to be the same age as our new son)
... And Abel asking longingly to return to the babysitter's house after the weekends
- The hours spent with Adrianna keeping me company in my classroom after school
- Feeling so relaxed on weekends, being completely "off-duty"... a feeling which a stay-at-home mom rarely encounters
- Finding renewed strength, inspiration for being a stay-at-home mom
- Completion of my "first year" of teaching
... Six months teaching Kindergarten while waiting for Adrianna's arrival (2005)
... Three months teaching first grade while waiting for our third child's arrival (2012)
- An instructional assistant who jumped to do every task she could to make teaching easier for me
... And who even took over my class the times I was on the phone with my spine doctor, trying to get appointments
... And who even took over after one phone call with the spine doctor that left me in tears
... And who spoke with compassion every time I mentioned my back, as her mother has suffered with years of back pain
- In God's kindness, forming relationships with the boys who were disruptive, so that they did their best to not be so any longer
- Making a way for two struggling students to get more reading assistance from the special reading instructors
- A church friend who volunteered in my class for two hours, three times a week
... And her bringing books and musical instruments, and doing whatever she could to make learning enjoyable for the kids
... And for her always having encouraging words
- For the kids making a game of marching through the halls, even without us discussing it
- Learning more about teaching and classroom management, honing dormant skills and learnings from years gone by
- Adrianna's teacher being next door, and patiently answering all my questions about first grade matters
- Having Adrianna and Abel learning in the classes on either side of mine
- Moment after moment of watching understanding ignite in young minds
- God's provision of the TENS unit and then my first cortisone injection to help with the back pain
- Scott's help with the kids and the groceries and the errands, so that I could put my available resources to teaching- Abel becoming so attached to his babysitter, even after not wanting to go to her house the first few weeks (see Sept 2012)
... And Abel making friends with her little boy (who happens to be the same age as our new son)
... And Abel asking longingly to return to the babysitter's house after the weekends
- The hours spent with Adrianna keeping me company in my classroom after school
- Feeling so relaxed on weekends, being completely "off-duty"... a feeling which a stay-at-home mom rarely encounters
- Finding renewed strength, inspiration for being a stay-at-home mom
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