Tuesday, March 20, 2012

God, Tony Daniels, & the Spoken Word Through the Pony Tailed Man

            It may come as a surprise to a few that I was once was quite religious and even a little pious. All through my high school years, I followed a strict religious code as set forth by the United Methodist Church and my budding moral self. I even considered going into the clergy as a youth minister until I spent my summers working at a Methodist Youth Camp. It was a one of the most powerful experiences in shaping who I am today but it also greatly affected how I began to perceive organized religion. I am not a big fan of it but certainly respect others viewpoints on this.

            My questioning faith doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in a higher being. I just don’t necessarily fall into everyone’s beliefs. For instance, I don’t really believe that one God, out of nowhere, is going to pick me to have a conversation with.  That doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t believe that God or whoever he/she is will speak through others.

            This afternoon I had one of those moments. I don’t know what’s up with me but lately I have been fighting off a major funk. Things are going great for me on the Kim/kids front, the next big thing is progressing nicely (I’ll share what it is later in the month), I have pretty much made dialysis my bitch finally.

            Work has been frustrating and getting me down. I go through this a few times every year.  I know it will be fine but the school grind is getting on my nerves. Most of this pressure comes from feeling powerless. I feel like I am a decent teacher that is always aware there is always room from improvement. Not all but many of the kids are acting out and being quite the a-holes and there is not much I can do about except take it and then write them up. (Not that I’d actually do anything, I was raised better than that). Still it’s frustrating to politely redirect a kid for being late and they cuss at me or mock the way I walk. I have to model better behavior and be forced to be the bigger man. I don’t work well when I am forced into anything except taking the last slice of pie.

            It was also unveiled that our performances are going to be linked to End of Course Tests rather than the Georgia Graduation test. This is a good thing except the powers-that-be are going to start evaluating me on the progress my sped kid do.  Uh oh.

            Now, I am a huge proponent of mainstreaming my sped kids into the regular classroom. I love co-teaching especially when matched up with the right teacher. Every class gives me roughly 10 or so SPED kids to keep up with. Most of these kids are on the ball and give me no grief at all. On the other hand, there is always about 3 or so kids that come to school for reasons other than education. I am guessing they must really dig the lunchroom’s pepper steak and yeast roll combo. Did I mention our evaluations with merit pay are going to be based on performance too? Say goodbye to the St. Augustine Honeymoon with Kim. Hello, Staycation over at the Day’s Inn in Vidalia and their glamorous Onion Festival.
Welcome to Hinesville's Finest B&B. Want some Chex Mix?

            Those-Powers-that-Be also filter our internet like crazy so I have to wait until I get home to check my Facebook and other sites. Sometimes I can sneak onto my phone and catch a quick read but for some reason my phone kept dropping internet today.

            I think I know why. Growing up on a college campus, I got to be friends with students who were older than me. A few of those people I actually look up to like they were my real big brother. Tony Daniels is one of those two people. Tony sent me a message on Facebook and I had to wait until about an hour ago to finally read it. After the day I’ve had, this video made a much larger impact now then if I have been able to watch it this morning during planning. Thanks, Bubba. You always know just what I need to hear to fight the good fight. And thanks to whoever is in charge up above that prompted my friend to send this my way. I plan on sharing this at work tomorrow.


            Now if someone will share some lottery numbers because I have a wedding to plan.

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