No Events Scheduled Today...Seriously???

I received my Google calendar update this morning telling me that I had no events scheduled today.  I had to laugh out loud.  I suppose I got busy and failed to post today's "events" because I have four!  I am sitting at Zera Coffee Shop in Denton grabbing a quick sandwich and still trying to process my first "event".  I just watched Cody Shipman, grandson of my "sister-like" friend, Cathy Feist, walk across the stage and receive his high school diploma.  As trite as it will sound, "Where did the time go?"  I was actually Cody's first New Year's Eve date 18 years ago.  I held him as a tiny infant while the rest of the Feist Clan (and there are many) went out in the front yard to do their traditional "banging of the pots and pans" at the stroke of 12!  It has been my blessing to watch this baby grow into an amazing young man.  Of course, he really had no choice because he is surrounded by wonderful parents, grandparents, great grandmother, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends. I am one of those in the friends category, but they have always made me feel as if I fit in the family section.  The Feists helped me raise my two sons when I was playing the single parent role.  I love them and there is nothing I would not do for any member of that clan.

Moving on, in a few minutes, I will be stopping by a graduation celebration for the now, Dr. Ella McDonald!  I have known Ella many years and have watched her work hard, serve others, but more than anything, serve God in a powerful way.  She has been a listening ear to me many times.  I am so proud of her and look forward to seeing her soon.

Once I leave Ella's I will be going to the Bloomfield home to celebrate Elaina's graduation from high school today, also.  Elaina's mom, Wendy, is one of my dearest friends.  She, like Brenda, treats me as if "we were the same age" and I love her dearly.  Elaina is beautiful, smart, funny, and has made her parents very proud.  It will be fun to see her and the family as they celebrate this fabulous occasion.

The next stop will be to attend a baby shower to celebrate the upcoming birth of Baby Parcel!  Her parents are Alan and Stephanie, and her aunt is my sweet girl, Shelby! I think her name is going to be Alexandra, but I am not positive!  Sorry!  Anyway, needless to say, there is great joy in anticipating her arrival.

As I left the stadium, Cathy did remind me that they were also going to be celebrating at their house if I had a chance to stop by! ha ha ha.  That would make five!

Wow!  What a day!  I am overcome with gratitude for each day, but this one is way up at the top!

R.

Dr. Ella and I celebrating!

Cody Shipman about to get his diploma!

Love This Teaching Business!

Today I had the privilege of being a guest at a local LISD elementary school.  They are doing a PBL activity on their college future.  Their teachers are having them research everything from where they might want to go, how much it might cost, scholarship opportunities, study choice, etc.  I was invited to talk to the students about how they could begin preparing their lives now for college.  We talked about opportunities for them to learn, experience, and grow every year until that time.  I shared with them stories about my own sons as to how they focused on their talents, made good grades, and graduated from two major universities.  The thing that interested them the most, though, was the fact that three years ago, I taught their teacher, Kelsey Newman, at UNT.  They loved imagining her sitting in a classroom like they were doing right then.  I explained to them that their teacher had good attendance, was always on time, turned in her homework and always showed pride in her work.  I told them how those qualities were what she needed to be able to be successful now in her role as a teacher.  They understood that they could begin right now preparing themselves for their own future and that I hoped that they would never let anyone tell them that they could not go.  I hope they will remember my words.  After all, don't we all have memories of words our teachers said to us....some of the affirming and some of them painful?  Maybe it was 10, 20, 30 years ago, but the point is that we do remember!
I had a great time and hope they did, too.
Afterwards, I drove by another school to surprise my former student, Ashley Runyan.  I had not seen Ashley since we had burned the midnight oil revising and tweaking her essay for the LISD New Teacher Award.  I was not able to be there when she was actually named, so it was great to hear all about it first hand from her.  She is amazingly gifted as a teacher.  I spotted it when I supervised her a year ago.  Another thing that was really cool was that she had decorated her door with a theme related to the book, Calvin Can't Fly, that I introduced to the class during LA Methods.  It was a fabulous display showing all the many connections that were made to the book.  It is a great feeling when you can see applications in the classroom that were a result of your own teaching.  I am so proud of Ashley and know she has a fabulous future ahead of her.
So, now I am at one of my Starbucks offices processing this wonderful day.  I am so very grateful that I can still experience the joy of being an educator.  I am so fortunate to work at UNT where I can cross paths with students teachers and also connect to district classrooms.  It just doesn't get any better!!

Taking a Break from Vacations!

I am sure that my post title may have caught your attention and seem rather strange.  Yet, it is true!  I have had two back to back vacations and I need a break.  Two weeks ago, I was walking up and down the streets of New York City.  I sat in the grass at Central Park, visited the campus of Columbia University, went to a broadway musical, and spent time with my son, John, and his girlfriend, Salome. I did not let any grass, or should I say pavement, grow under my feet.  It was a fabulous trip.

I arrived home on a Thursday, long enough to wash clothes and repack for a road trip with my husband, Ron, and our dog, Alex, to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  This was a completely different setting. We stayed in a condo on beautiful Lake Hamilton.  There were floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake, and a perfect balcony for early morning coffee, devotional time, writing, and even feeding ducks!  And, yes, there was more walking!  The pace was much slower and the beauty of the Hot Springs National Park took my breath away.  I celebrated my birthday during the middle part of the week and it could not have been more special than it was.  It began with a beautiful card from Ron. We then went downtown to see the historic bath houses and walk the promenade behind them.  My celebrating was capped off by the surprise that my good friend, Mary Ann Yantis, was in Hot Springs to teach nursing classes!  We connected on Face Book of all things!  After work, she brought over fresh shrimp and a bottle of Kendall-Jackson chardonay.  We had so much fun and laughed until we cried! Yes, this was another great trip.

Today is my first full day back and I am trying to refocus on things that I want to get done before I begin a Writing Workshop in June.  One of the assignments is to create my own blog, so I called in two of the smartest tech gurus I know, Tom and Whitney Kilgore, for some help.  Not only are they smart, but I absolutely adore both of them.  Tom was my student at UNT and is now setting the field of education on fire.  Whitney travels all over the world doing what she calls "teaching people to teach online", but I know it is much more complicated than that!  She is just being nice because she probably knows I don't have what it takes to really understand what she does.  I will say, though, that she is a great teacher. While helping me with this blog, she would not "give me answers" as to what I needed to do next.  She "made me" figure it out for myself.  So, if this blog actually gets posted, it will be due to the fact that I had a great teacher. Thanks, Whit, as her husband calls her!

In closing, I am going to quit while I am ahead but with an attempt to "add a picture"!  Oh, my gosh, I am so nervous but am going to give it a try!  Here goes..............

Rosie