Life of the Party

Reading comprehension starts at the basic level, fluency. You have to be able to read fluently to understand the content. In my classroom I have observed students adding words that weren’t there or simply skipping them. My students were stumbling over words that they should have know as seventh graders, but someone has never taken the time to sound them out for them. Parents please keep your children in mind when reading with them. Ask them questions and observe them actually reading. I know that one day I may have kids, and you can bet that they will be overly prepared for school. My mom made me the person I am today by spending quality time with me. She always encouraged me to pick up a book. Usually, she made me read aloud to her. I know we all have busy days and that we are tired in the afternoons, but there comes a time and place where we need to step up. There are several ways to enhance your child's performance. read with them ask questions paraphrase a passage ...

Silence… It’s so strange to hear (or the lack of) noise after a day of writer’s workshops. My students were either trying to sleep or overly talkative. With all the heavy rain and storms, we as a class had to fight sleep. As I sat alone in my classroom at the end of the day I wondered who was around? It has been a very long struggling day. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to write. Classroom management has to be on point when I have days like this. I finally decided to take a moment to myself this afternoon. All my students had left for the day and I sat at my desk and wrote ten GOOD things that I completed today. Silence is all that I had for company and I was thankful for it too. I often look over the simple pleasures in life, but not today. Silence is like the lingering shadow that creeps behind us during the day only to attack us at our most venerable moment. The rain was seeping down the windows while I sat and watched with amazement at how peaceful the c...

     Mondays are the best day out of the week, and honestly I enjoy working on Mondays. The kids have had the opportunity to rest and prepare for another week.   Today has been quite productive. My classes completed altered book pages and EOG prep.   Well some of my classes got to.   If they cannot follow directions I'm not going to let them loose with paint.      Mondays are the only day through the week that I do not have afterschool commitments at attend. That means I get off early and head home.   The recent storms have caused somewhat of a problem for me. I cannot get adequate sleep, so naturally I'm sluggish. 

      Well just don’t sit there!   Get up off that couch!    Around here there isn’t a lot of options for our youth.   Most of them gather at our McDonalds and sit in the back of their jacked up trucks. Yes, this is a sight to see, and most of our tourist find this sight to be hilarious, and they wonder why people have this illusion of how southern life is?        Find a spot on the creek bank and remember to pack a picnic. The creek is the perfect place to cool off and enjoy a hot day. I guess the red necks would include a cooler of beer to that list, but I wouldn't. As the day wears on you can build a fire and roast marshmallows until your heart's content.      Pack up and go to the lake, even if it's raining the lake is the place to be. Our county built a local fake beach and all the overly tanned bodies can be found there. I've only set foot in that sand one time. I cannot see why everyone wan...

    Yeah.....      Every year our small community gets together and has a festival for ramps.   Ramps can be considered a very strong smelly onion, and if you eat them raw your breath smells very nasty.  They can be ate raw or chopped up in fried potatoes. My do cot said that they run up your blood pressure and to avoid them.     The festival has food and small tables set up to advertise things. Usually the food consists of: chicken, fish, beans, potatoes,and of course ramps. As a family we used to make the trip up on Panther Creek every year to pick bags of ramps. For awhile it was a tradition, but the outsiders who came in ruined that. As you pick this plant you are supposed to leave so much of it behind or it will not come up the following year. Needless to say.... They picked it all out of each patch and the following year it came up less and less. Dad said it was a sing of " change" everything that used to be will never be.  Tha...

    Parents please be advised that reading with your kids is NOT a health hazard. In fact they will benefit from the practice, and it will probably help them have positive memories of you.   It's perfectly fine to spend quality time with your kids.  I honestly encourage every parent to utilize this strategy.     Kids have missed the opportunities to actually learn how to read. Too often have I had kids who could not even sound out words, and this saddens me. What will our future be like? Struggling readers in middle school become struggling readers in high school too. Teaching students to read independently should be universal in every subject.       I remember being in school and forgetting my homework. My mom knew what was going on before I got off the bus that afternoon and the teacher hadn't even called. That is something else that I need to address about living in a small town. Everyone knows your business and when you aren't doing ...

      Sometimes things just get old!  Everyday I drive the same route to work and fight sleep the entire way for over a hour. I really need a change in my life. Today I looked through all the local school system's websites, and I discovered that I want to make a perment change in my life. I really donnot want to teach back home, but sometimes it's for the best.      I'm currently renewing my application for employment with my home town school. This is a bittersweet moment in my career, and honestly, I don't know what the best option is. Option #1: Stay at the school where I’m currently working, and possibly lose my job due to budget cuts. I have been here for an entire year and I love it. Option#2: Go back home and teach where I know everyone and I’ll know a majority of my students. I student taught there and I didn’t really like it. I hate going to the store and being stopped on every isle by someone I know. It w...

        My favorite time of the day is actually my long drive home. While driving, I blast my music and sing along in a “tone deaf” manner.   Sometimes I even manage to multitask. I’ll be singing and trying to stay awake at the same time. I fight sleep the whole way home, and often enough I’ll have to stop and walk around. My early commute to work consists of crazy drivers who obviously got their license from a Sears catalog. This morning was quite the treat. My phone wouldn’t stop reminding me that I had unread emails, and there was this red car that followed me almost to work.        Lesson planning is the joy of teaching. Can you hear my sarcasm? When I make plans and have gone through the effort of writing them down, I would at least like to try them out. Is seems as if everything is working against E.O.G prep. I never get a full day’s instruction. We have assemblies or someone wants to come in and talk. AHH...

      It just isn't happening. I have put in several applications, but no one is hiring around here. Since the plant is closing everyone has been in a mad dash to find a back up job. I don't blame them, but now I'm stressed about finding a job. I hate being a ten month employee. I thought that blogging would eventually lead to some additional income, but no one seems to really read my blog. I guess I will be spending another summer cleaning in the cheap rooms of Nantahala.     Cleaning for a job is very demeaning. I hate when guests make me feel beneath them just because I'm cleaning. I had a woman from New York once say, "OMG it must be a horrible doing your job, how many children do you have." She thought I must have been a toothless hill billy who would do anything for a penny. She ended up tipping me a twenty. She also said, "theres more money where that come from because you need some decent cloths." I was appalled!   She also mentioned that ...

  Being human means that we often make mistakes and have a consequence that follows in its devastating path. As humans we sometimes live life on the edge and are always asking for more. I am human and I too make mistakes. Sometimes I fear that the decisions that I made as a high school student will affect me. I chose to go to college in hopes of becoming a teacher.I loved my college and the life I had there. WCU was a great stepping stone that I used.   I regret that decision sometimes. I loved college and in some ways it was easier for me to go off to school than to stay in the place I was. Nearly all the girls that I graduated with are now either parents, or at least married. I have not went down this path yet and I fear that my window of opportunity has come to a close. I was so career oriented that I have fallen into the pattern of regret. I set a goal and keep it, but what I don't realize is that I forget who is important. That goal may not always be as i...

      We made it a family event Saturday when we trudged through the rain to Cherokee. It's the first time in twenty years that my grandmother had been to the movies. She was ecstatic, and the movie was great. My grandma is at the church any time the doors are open. I called her early Saturday to confirm if she was going. "Yes, and don't you two leave me behind."  What she didn't know was that we were going to that movie because of her.       The story line didn't quite follow the book's story line, but it was close enough. There was a few scenes where I was almost in tears. It will be the talk over the women's prayer circle come Wednesday.  It's the small things in life that matter most, and spending time with my grandma is a privilege and a blessing.                 “Heaven is for Real,” was a phenomenal movie that a whole family can come and see. Small religious communities such...

     Thank goodness school let out early today! I came home and took a three hour nap. Cap cakes was all I could think about this morning as I drove to work because I had purchased them as a reward for my classes.  I think motivation and rewards really go a long way with kids. They want to know that their work is worth something.      I was the teacher who hyped up my students and sent them to their next class. I'm going to go ahead and appolygize for this, but it's what they had asked me to bring. True southern hospitality requires one to stand by their word, and my momma raised me right.   Yes, I just wrote that!  If I promise my kids sweets you better be prepared for me to hand them out.             This weekend should be quite fun. I have plans to travel 45 minutes to the nearest movie theatre tomorrow, and hopefully they will have the correct movie. It seems as if their website never updates, so I'm not...

      Insurance for cancer has really made me think of my future.  I decided that is was applicable for me to possess this insurance. In the event that I contract cancer, I'll need to know that everything is covered. To be so young and think about dieting is so strange.      It's going to happen. Everyone in my family has had a variation of cancer. What makes me different? Today my class did a writing assignment on what their monsters were. There was at least three students who wrote about getting cancer and having a tragic death. The student's writing almost made me tear up, so I was close to crying. She said, "if I got cancer, I would just want to kill myself." She had watched her grandmother suffer for almost a year battling breast cancer, only to die from a broken down body. I had only asked for a one page paper, but she ended up writing a four page paper.  I love teaching, so don't get me wrong, but sometimes these kids get me to thinking....

    It's drumming so loud that I cannot hear myself think. Silence would be nice, but the relaxing pelting has made me drift off to sleep several times. Rain often acts like a cleanser. When Mother Nature has dealt this area a bad had, rains comes to rejuvenate everything in its path.     Here in my classroom I can hear the soft drumming, and this alone has made it a wonderful, peaceful day. Today in honor of the rain, we read a play about flooding. As a class we acted out the scenes. This afternoon will be especially peaceful. I plan to lock myself in my room, and read. There is nothing exciting here in this small town, so I will have to escape inside of a book.     Although I need to grade some papers, I believe some much needed reading would suit me better. Maybe it was the way I was raised, but I believe you have to reward yourself. No one deserves to work, work, work, and have no free time.

     The book was a hit! Not only did it have my students reading, I was thrilled to be reading it as well. The story line reminded me of what it is like around here, but not the super natural things.     I have enjoyed this page turner. I have already started the second book. From now on, when I see my students reading a book, I'm going to read it. I cannot believe how this young adult novel has captured my imagination.   I heard that there is a movie with this book. I hope the movie is half as good as the book. I cannot wait to receive it in the mail.  The characters are genuine and they display true southern hospitality. I would recommend this book to any person who is looking for a good story.  After reading the final page I was sad that it had ended, but I was left wanting to know why happens next.