Tag: teaching
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When you replace people with possessions…
I have spent the weekend denuding a room. I emptied the room of all its contents minus the large furniture and the closeted items, and then painted the trim and walls a beautiful satin, silky white. When I finished the painting, I admired my handiwork and felt sick at the thought of moving a lot…
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When being “all there” takes you away from here…
“Wherever you are be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” Sometimes I take this proclamation by Jim Elliot too far. As I attended the graduation ceremony of these “my” seniors, I felt not unlike a parent who had given her children up for adoption just…
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Dear new golden sick days…
Sick days, sick days Dear new golden sick days Sniffling and sneezing and hacking cough Kept me at home on a rare day off. Were I a teacher I’d go to work Share all my germs, make my illness worse. But the job I have now I can duty shirk Without hurting a classroom of kids. — (my revised, working girl version of…
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When work feels like play…
Today I have the privilege to attend a conference that will help me lead my school through the accreditation process. I will be in a small room for meetings for about eight hours and then battle city and interstate traffic during rush hour to get home, likely late—so I can go to real work the…
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How pride squelches our talents…
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10 NIV). Buried well within this blog post is the heart of the matter: pride. It is a subtle form of pride that squelches the talents I believe God wants me to share. It…
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This Fun’s for you…
I hate going to weddings alone. But now that my youngest son is 16 and more eager to weed the entire front yard than suffer through ceremonies and receptions filled with more ceremony, I have no partner in the sublime. (My husband? Well, he will attend our children’s events–if and when–but he conveniently works all…
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Why I teach…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” This paradox beginning A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens sums up my teaching experience precisely. As we enter another national Teacher Appreciation Week, I found myself explaining the merits and drawbacks of teaching to my seniors, who are about to graduate…
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Speechless…
When a teacher has laryngitis but has to teach anyway, what is she to do? This is a day in my life — with an inkling of what to do and what NOT to do!