Tuesday, April 27, 2010

just saying

all girls should receive surprise flowers

can't help but smile:)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

the fair, be there

a few things i loved at the fair this year...

robots on scooters

my dad finding the silliest things to do

eating a ton and sister actually eating more than me (thats a rarity!)


newborn chicks


p.s. in case you were wondering about the outcome of my last post, crist actually vetoed the bill, thank God!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

nix six

if you don't live in florida or know a teacher then you probably don't know about the madness surrounding teachers and public education. there is a bill that has been passed that will base teacher's pay on how their students do on the fcat, which is a standardized test in florida. this is the craziest thing i've ever heard. one thing that i have learned this year as a teacher is that if the parents don't care about how their kid is doing there is a 99% chance that the kid won't care, no matter how amazing of a teacher you may be. i can't tell you how many letters and phone calls i've made to certain parents and they just don't care and neither does their child, so is it fair for me to be penalized? not only that but teachers in low income schools don't get nearly enough resources like a teacher in a high income school would get. a teacher can seriously only do so much on their own. 

for a kid to have the best chance at being successful they need a good teacher, caring parents, and a good school that is providing the child with the appropriate resources to learn. if one of those components are missing it's going to be rough. sometimes you do get those kids that come from horrible parents and horrible schools and they do amazing things but come one, thats the exception, not the rule.

i think the main factor is parenting, i know i did well in school because my parents demanded it. i remember getting a "c" for the first time and i was terrified to come home.
people don't realize how hard it is and unless you're a teacher you never will. this year has changed my whole view on teaching. i came in with that idealistic view of changing kids' lives and although i still believe that to a certain degree, it's not as easy as i envisioned it.
i think i am a very positive influence in my student's lives but i do see that no matter how hard i try some kids just don't care. and i get it, i work in a very poor neighborhood and some of these kids have it very rough, so school is at the bottom of their list of worries.

 i can't tell you how many days i've come home crying. but even so i still love teaching. i love my students and every now and then you have moments with them that make everything worth it.
but will most of these kids kick ass on the fcat, probably not. not only do i have to deal with uncaring parents but i get no support from my school. anything i need for my classroom or for my students for lessons i have to buy it with my money. i still don't have basic things like dictionaries and math manipualtives so lets not even talk about technology, like a class computer.

and now the state wants to punish teachers like me instead of help us.
another bad thing is that they will not be paying teachers more for higher education degrees. which is so dumb to me. shouldn't you be encouraging educators to be the most educated! 

well i will not be one of those people who complains and does nothing about it so monday i attended a protest which other teachers from dade county. it was nice to see so much support and so many people standing up for what they believe in.
kill the bill!

this is what my master's degree will be worth, garbage!

thank God for good co-workers!

there is still hope though, governor crist has until friday to veto this bill.
pray hard.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

see, told you i was back!

slowly but surely easing my way back into blogging.
i really want to share a little bit about my easter weekend.
easter might be my favorite holiday and not because of chocolate bunnies and easter eggs but because of what it represents. it always reminds me and blows my mind how much God loves us. it is so humbling and words can not express how thankful i am to serve such a wonderful savior. 
my mother got me the best easter gift...
 this beautiful cross necklace. but thats not even the greatest part....

the message on the back is so beautiful and has a double meaning for me. it'll always remind me of my mom's eternal love for me as well as God's:)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

here's to our heroes

wow it has been a while lovies.
i don't really have a good reason for being m.i.a., just that life has been wonderful and i've been keeping it all to myself. but now i am ready to return to the blogging world.

what really motivated me to post is a special surprise i received in the mail. if you don't know micaela from dolce vita well then you are missing out because her blog is just lovely and so is she and she has a super awesome brother.
a while back micaela asked if anyone wanted to send her brother a birthday card because he was in iraq. i jumped at the chance because those men and women are risking their lives for our country, for us, and that is the least i could do.
well today i received a package in the mail and it was from micaela's brother. i was very surprised because i wasn't expecting anything in return but this is the coolest thing ever! it's an american flag that was flown over iraq on a blackhawk! how many people have one of these?



a million thanks to ssg lechuga not only for this awesome piece of history but for what you've done and continue to do for our country.