I am linking up with Stephanie over at Forever in 5th Grade. Any teacher will tell you May is one of the best months of the school year. You get to see the true fruits of your labor, and this is the time of the year where you really get to enjoy your class. As the teacher, you put forth so much effort for nine months and then you pass them on to the next teacher and hope that you made some impact on their life. My show and tell this month is a hodgepodge of sharing. Enjoy!
A few weekends back my hubs and I went on an adventure to pilot mountain. We moved to North Carolina almost a year ago and we have been exploring various places since we moved. As long as the weather is nice, we enjoy taking our (well my girlie dogs) hiking. It was a short drive from Winston, where we live and was such an enjoyable day. We loaded up with snacks, packed the cooler and set out with the dogs in tow. We drove to the top and hiked around the base of the rocky point. It was a beautiful view overlooking the country side and the breeze was nice and cool.
As I stated earlier we have been in NC for almost a year. We were very fortunate to have found an awesome church, with an even better small group. The small group is made up of engaged and newly married couples. The goal of the group is to read through a variety of marriage text within the first year to get your marriage off to a good start and to establish a biblical foundation. A few of the text we have already read through are the Five Love Languages, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, and The Art of Marriage. I suggest all of those text. No matter what stage of marriage you are in, I think there is insightful information in all of them.
Oh yes and I should share about how my teaching experience has changed, grown, and developed through the move. Let me first begin with differences in states, districts, schools etc. I have felt like this was my first year teaching all over again. There are so many differences (even though both teach Common Core), that I basically started from square one. I went from a school that was laissez faire to one that is more of a micro managed situation, so you can imagine the confusion. I have also learned that teaching in a Title I school in one state is COMPLETELY different in another which is truly unfortunate. I found my way into teaching by wanted to teach children in poverty and to truly have an impact on their life and learning, but when teachers are held to such unreasonable standards it makes you want to teach students who don't have such home struggles that you can't fix, or control. It is truly heart wrenching. I have grown as an educator through these struggles this past year.
Last and not least, we are trying to decide if we would like to take the plunge and purchase a home that is a fixer upper. Yes I am obsessed with Chip and Joanna. I love who they are and how they share their faith so openly. I told Wes I wanted to be them when I grown up. Hahaha. So we've been looking for a home is rough shape to purchase for cheap and invest money into to make it a sweet little home. We just went and viewed a home yesterday that I refer to as the "mamaw" home. An elderly lady lived there for about fifteen years, she has since past and the home has been empty for a while. It has good bones, but needs a complete over haul. We aren't for sure which way we want to proceed, but we will pray about it and see where God leads us.
