Carol's Teaching Garden: Currently at Carol’s Teaching Garden

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Currently at Carol’s Teaching Garden

I’m listening to the sounds of the thunderstorm outside. It sounds like we’re inside a washing machine when the wind blows curtains of rain against the roof. I love the feeling of being safe and warm at home with my family while the storm passes. We also need this storm desperately, as our rainfall has been several inches below normal for the past couple of months.

July ALREADY?!!!

Loving: our puppy dog’s new haircut! Every year at this time we get our golden retriever shaved, until she looks like a puppy again. She’s much cooler and happier, too! I have to admit that it gives me a fit of the giggles to see her nakedness, though! Just look at her smile!

I’m thinking about my new school. I have been offered a new job in a new district, but it’s not completely “official” yet. The principal has recommended me to the H.R. department, but they have the final approval. I’ve submitted my transcripts, and now we wait. (Read: STRESSFUL!!!!)

Wanting: to get started in my new classroom, in my new school. I have so many ideas spinning around in my head, plus lists on my phone and on my computer. I can’t justify doing anything until the new job is official, though. In the meantime, I am trying to keep myself busy with other stuff, like standing in line at government offices for things like car registration and my kids’ health certificates (required in Tennessee).

Needing: to start weeding out everything that would NOT need to get packed to move, and nobody can do that except me. Ugh! I keep procrastinating (avoiding?), even though I know it will be so much easier if I just GET STARTED!

The last part of this month’s Currently is to tell what makes an “All-Star” teacher. I would have to say that my greatest teaching area strength is teaching students how to write. That’s what my teammates tell me, anyway. My students will tell you it’s teaching reading. Or math. Or science. Or social studies. Sometimes they think I should have been an art teacher, or perhaps a music teacher. Really I think it’s that my kids feel my enthusiasm for whatever we’re doing in class, and that’s infectious.