Season Opener

First of all, it's good to be back on. Apparently, my computer caught the flu from me...or something like that. My husband, myself, and my computer have all been sick. Once N and I were back on our feet, he was able to take a look at my computer. Sleeping with a computer guy definitely has its advantages.

Anyway, today marks the opening of testing season for me. My first big training of the year was this morning. I'd been working to prepare for this training and our first testing session for weeks as there are a number of new policies. And of course, I had to come up with procedures for how we'd implement the policies along with some handy dandy checklists. I'm a little over the top OCD about my testing day procedures and making sure things go smoothly. I guess signing on the dotted line for an entire campus will do that to you. I'd kind of like to keep my licenses, certifications, and job.

I just have to share two really awesome things that happened though. First, every person who was supposed to be at training, nearly forty people, was present and on time. And by on time, I mean they had their folders in hand, they had their food (I provided breakfast), they had Route 44's of caffeine, they had signed in, and they were looking at me with these faces that said, "teach me." Seriously. I was blown away. That has never happened before in the history of my TAKS trainings. The gentle reminder notes from me and somewhat stronger worded reminders from my principal paid off.

So I was just about to start off by telling everyone to hold their questions until the end when I see a teacher waving at me. At first I thought it was just a friendly, "you'll do great" kind of wave. But when she didn't stop, I acknowledged her. She proceeded to tell me that her science team traditionally starts their collaboration time out with a prayer. And since we were technically training during collaboration, would it be OK if we started with a prayer.

Of course I said, "absolutely". So, she started us with a prayer that was beautifully worded especially asking a blessing for me, our kids, and for our campus to remember that there is more to life than testing. It was really precious. I had to take some deep breaths to keep from starting the training out in tears. I just can't tell you how awesome that was; it set just the right tone for the entire training.

And what a blessing to work in a place where prayer is acceptable and welcome. It was a nice reminder of how good I have it...in spite of it being testing season.

Tattletale

A few weeks ago, my principal made an announcement at school about an incident that had happened that morning on the bus. Apparently, a student opened the window on a bus and dropped a lead pipe out into traffic. The pipe hit a car and did several thousand dollars worth of damage. Our principal was appealing to our students to come forward and report any information that might be useful in tracking down the guilty parties.

I was sitting in the foyer of the counseling center when the announcement was made, and about five seconds after he finished speaking, a whole group of kids came flying around the corner in a race to the front office. I just had to laugh, because only in a school of fifth and sixth graders would a group storm to the principal to be first in line to tattle.

I thought about this incident last night at church while we were studying the 32nd Psalm. In the first five verses, David shows the juxtaposition of confessing sin versus not confessing sin.

1Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

3When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 5Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord"--and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

I got to thinking that maybe I should be more childlike in my confession of sin. Instead of putting it off, ignoring it, or otherwise allowing sin to sap my strength, I should race to the Lord to tattle on myself just as soon as I hear His voice convicting me. He offers thirst-quenching forgiveness. What's not to like about that?

I think I'm going to try and be a better tattletale. I do, after all, have fantastic models of this daily. Perhaps each time one of them tattles to me, I will be prompted to offer up my own tales.

Give Me A Break

Everyday from 11:20 a.m. until 11:55 a.m. I have the pleasure of break duty. This duty requires me to go outside with about 75-100 ten, eleven, and twelve year olds and monitor their break time. Of course it's just another word for recess, but for some reason, my principal thought it would sound more grown up for an intermediate school to have "break" instead of "recess."

Most days, it is an enjoyable break for me too. I get to breathe some fresh air, see the sun, and interact with some pretty sweet kids in a very relaxed atmosphere. Additionally, as a counselor who often deals with their social skills issues, it's pretty insightful to me to see them in their natural habitat interacting with others. Sometimes, it's pure comic relief to see the creative things they will come up with to do, like play football with a tennis shoe or see how many people can fit in one coat.

Occasionally, like today, we have to stay inside for break because it is too cold, rainy, windy, etc. These are the days I dread.

Imagine two adults in one half of a gym (PE is still happening on the other side) with 75-100 kids. Some of the kids are playing knockout at three goals or sitting on the sidelines and visiting with friends...their two official options. Add to that pairs of chasers and chasees pinballing through the knockout lines and over their sideline friends.

And then picture huddles of girls pretending to be in line but actually planning their strategy to attract the huddles of boys across the way who are pushing and shoving each other in order to impress previously mentioned girls. It's like a show on the Discovery channel...Games Girls Play: Prepubescent Mating Rituals and The Exciting World of Flirtation and Budding Love.

And lets not forget the tattlers. They're like gnats that buzz around me in a cloud. As soon as one is swatted away, another is there to take his place.

I am a rule follower by nature. I like order and organization. I like to peruse the school supply and home organization aisles of WalMart to see what's new...

Inside break makes me downright twitchy. If I were sitting, I'd probably be up against the gym wall, rocking and banging my head.

So today, to while away the time (in between yelling in my bull horn to put out fires), I amused myself by coming up with all the things I'd rather do than Inside Break.

1. Do five loads of laundry - all white socks.
2. Reread the TAKS Testing Coordinator Manual.
3. Teach calculus for an entire day.
4. Explain to 10 moms how their child could be making all A's and B's and still fail the TAKS test.
5. Listen to 7 teachers complain about curriculum and the administration.
6. Clean the boys restrooms in the 6th grade hall. Eeeks
7. Attend 5 ARD meetings with chatty parents and teachers back to back.
8. Teach 10 kids how to give "I" messages...I feel_______when____. I would like_____.
9. Listen to 25 kids in resource reading do a timed reading.
10.Counsel 5 ten year old girls in my office at once....Now that is desperate.

Superhero Dreams

If I were a superhero, my name would be Polly Positive. I wouldn't bother with a cape or utility belt, but I'd never be without my Enthusiasm Socks. I'd fly to the rescue of those in the pit of despair. I'd equip them with magic red socks of their own that would give them supernatural hopefulness. And together, we would stomp out the enemy.


Negativity

A soul siphoning succubus,
She infiltrates with stealth.

Camouflaged as humor,
realism, the Devil’s advocate -
She paralyzes the positive
like the proverbial frog in the pot.

She was conceived by fear,
nurtured by doubt,
and brought to life by Choice-

Her legacy is passed
in whispers, rolling eyes,
and martyred sighs.

Only Choice can destroy Her.

Deliverance from the Lord of the Rings

On Sunday I heard a really convicting sermon on God’s Deliverance. The series is taken from Exodus, and the text for this week was Exodus 5-15, God’s deliverance of the Israelites, Moses, the plagues, etc. The application had to do with God’s ability to deliver us from whatever that might be enslaving us…sin, doubt, selfishness, pride, materialism, etc.

The whole sermon has really stuck with me, but the verses I find so powerful are Exodus 14:13-14. “Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’”

So tonight, my husband and I were watching the last installment in our Tolkien-athon, and I slipped into my “former English teacher analyzing the movie” mode. I was thinking about how Sam is the true hero and also more of the Christ figure in some ways than Frodo. And that lead me to thoughts about Frodo representing man and the burden of sin (the ring) that we carry around. The longer we hold onto it, the more it weighs us down and captures our mind, etc.

When Frodo finally reaches the volcano in Mordor where he has journeyed so long to leave the ring, he can’t seem to let go. Again, I thought about sin and how difficult it can be to let go. It’s like we fall in love with it just a little bit, and it becomes our Precious. Even though it is dragging us down, wearing us out, and ultimately leading us to a fiery death, we hold on.

And again, I think about what Moses said to the Israelites, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm…The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” We need only to be still and let it go, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

I’m going to try to do this a little more and see if I can avoid having a finger gnawed off.

WARNING

Over the past couple of years, my husband and I have been watching all of the different Star Trek series season by season. We’ve already watched Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and we are nearly finished with Voyager. Since we have been home for the break, we’ve watched quite a bit more than usual, probably several seasons worth of Voyager in fact. During a recent outburst in which I tried to warn the television characters about the danger of disrupting the space time continuum, my husband pronounced me a genuine Trekkie. I insisted that he was wrong as I’m not one of those Klingon speaking, pointy ear wearing, weirdoes who goes costumed to those crazy conventions. I have to admit though that I might actually be displaying some troubling signs of Trekkie freakishness.

You might have inadvertently become a Trekkie if…

1. The paradox of disrupting the space time continuum no longer seem so complex…they actually make some sense.


2. You think it’s cool to have your picture taken with a Ferengi in Vegas.


3. You have a healthy appreciation of the Prime Directive.


4. You sometimes want to scrap the Prime Directive.


5. You are familiar with the many lives of Dax.


6. You occasionally have to step back from your irrational anger toward the arrogant Captain Janeway.


7. You say things like, “Make it so,” or “Indeed”, or even “You must comply”.


8. You can spot returning actors even if they play an entirely new alien and look nothing like their former role.


9. You can quote the Rules of Acquisition.


10. Someone makes you mad and you call them a “pahtk”.
    

Unfortunately, the fact that a person could even make a list like this might suggest some Trekkish tendencies. And just so you know, if you understand even three or four on the list, you might be in danger yourself.

Red Sock Generosity

I just want to take a minute to brag on my school. When we opened five years ago, we turned the names of a few kids in for Christmas gifts from a local charity. We were glad to do that, but we began to think that maybe we could do something more. A colleague told me about her gift closet that she keeps at her house year round. Basically, as she is out and about doing normal holiday, birthday, or bargain shopping, she picks up extra items that are such great deals it’s silly not to buy them. She gets things that would be appropriate for colleagues, friends, and her kid’s friends. Then when a gift item is needed, she can just pull something from her gift closet. It ends up saving her time and money in the long run. I thought that was ingenious and began a gift closet of my own for students at school. Several people got on that band wagon, and we started adding to the gifts of our needy kids.

We knew that the kids we were helping only represented a portion of the needy kids in our school. So, the other counselor at my school streamlined our information gathering process in an effort to serve even more of our kids and their families. She also pitched the idea for a fund that would augment our gift closets. Because our mascot is the Gladiator, she called it the Gladiangel fund. We held $1 hat days, in order to get it going.

Needless to say, this project has grown a little every year. After the first couple of years, we began adding an outfit and a gift item for all of the kids whose names we continued to turn in to the local Christmas charity; this made a total of three gifts that they would receive. Additionally, the ones that came from us were only labeled with the child’s name. That way, it could be from Santa or the parents.

The number of families asking for help continued to grow, so we began asking teachers or teams of teachers to take on families. Their response was overwhelming. Not only did some of our teachers take families, they started asking for help from their Sunday school classes, small groups, and generous family members. (It is, of course, all kept anonymous - both the givers and receivers.)

This year we served more families than ever, over 35. That translates to approximately 120 kids, and probably 5-10 thousand dollars. During the week that parents picked up gifts, I was met with tears and called Jesus, Santa, an angel, and told “God bless you” countless times. One mother came with a tube connected to her body because she had a hysterectomy that went poorly last month; she was still waiting to be stitched up. Another mother came from the hospital on her way home from having a baby. Another mother came from work, not knowing which relatives were going to let them stay the night that day. Another family continues to heat their home with a home made fireplace in an oil drum with makeshift venting out a window.

Though we served more than ever this year, I know that it still only represents a fraction of the need. I was completely humbled to look into the eyes of that need and realize how extravagantly rich I am in comparison.

May God bless all of those families in need as well as all of those who showed red sock generosity to help them.