Whirlwind

Hi friends, it's been a while! Life has just been a whirlwind right now! I was at home for a couple weeks for summer and then I celebrated my birthday (the big 22, not that exciting), came back to gainesville the day after my birthday, and started internship the day after that! I haven't stopped since! My first week was super exhausting, fun, stressful, exciting, made me want to not be a teacher, and made me want to be a teacher. Just about any emotion you can think of I probably felt this week. I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff teachers have to do these days! I was kind of praying that I won't have to teach for too long because I just want to be a stay at home mom! haha Honestly it made me want to turn around and never look back. But, like most all teachers, you don't teach because of the money, the politics, the parents, and the rules. It's all because of the kids. And these kids need solid good teachers in their life, so I truck on for the kids! lol I started out in 2nd grade at Glen Springs Elementary School. I really enjoyed my teacher and the 2nd grade team, but I had to end up switching schools only after 3 days there. My teacher's mom is very sick and so she decided it would be best if she didn't have an intern this semester since she didn't know when she would or wouldn't be at school, and she really wasn't in the right mindset to be teaching me along with a class of kids. I completely understand and I told her she needed to do what was best for her mom and that her mom was way more important than me! She kept reassuring me that I was wonderful and she was very sad to see me go and that maybe this will actually work out better and I will have an even more amazing opportunity to work in another classroom. At the time I was kind of not that excited to start at another school, but I was trying to go into it with a positive attitude.

So now I am in a 1 st grade class at Chiles elementary and I LOVE it! I for sure know it is where I am supposed to be! My teacher is great and we get along so well! We had meet the teacher on Friday and our kids are just the sweetest! I love them already! I can't wait for this semester! It's exciting to wake up and want to go to work every morning. I know it is going to be a stressful semester and very trying, but I know I will learn a lot and gain experience for my own classroom! One of the best parts of this is my teacher is probably going to be leaving next year to go teach overseas, so I told her I would just take her job next year! :) She actually interned at the school, and a lot of other teachers at the school also interned there. So I think I am at a good place that will hopefully help me get a job when I graduate! :) I'm excited for this semester, and there may be weeks that I want to run away from teaching again, but no worries, I'll always run back :) My kids need me and I need them!

Project 31, I haven't forgotten about you! Today's goal is to encourage a friend and inspire her beauty. So today I had this ALLLL day leadership training at church and the wonderful Miss Kyla led one of our breakout sessions. So as I was sitting there listening to her talk, I was just thinking about how great she is! Her talk was about loving people, especially the kids, and she does a wonderful job of that. I mean during out 5 minute break today where was she found? In the nursery visiting the kids. You can just see the genuine care in her eyes and smile when she talks to the kids and loves on them. You know she's just one of "the good ones." I was actually asked to also speak at the training, but I politely refused because I just am NOT good at public speaking, but Kyla, she did a great job! And she nailed like everything I would have even said, and said it probably 100 times better than I would have. Not only does she love those children, she is a fabulous cook, she is artistic and can paint, sew, and make basically anything, she is a great friend, and she is absolutely beautiful. Kyla, like Miss Bonnie told us today, is a peculiar treasure, and this is a GREAT thing to be! She shines Jesus' love. She asked herself and us what our mission was today and hers is definitely loving children and showing them how special and valued they are to God. And like she said today, we don't need to be doing more of everything, we need to be doing more of this, more of what your mission is. I think you are doing that Kyla. You are not only loving the kids at church, but your mission is so much more now, with your class at school. From one child lover to another, I thank you, for sharing in my joy of pouring love onto kids. Thanks for just being you! :)