EducatingMe

We all want students to learn what we teach. We really want it to stick. As educators during this "new normal" pandemic world of teaching and maintaining professional goals, the "hours of operation" have decimated work-life balance. I see so many people on my social media feeds posting about their day with kids hovering around and the hours being so much longer, and their work space being spread all over the place. I get it. I have been working from home for almost 9 years now. My husband too. There are so many mistakes to work-life balance that I thought I would write a few down to keep others from the same time wasting traps I fell into. Working into the evening goes both ways. It can be a blessing and a curse. I will often wake up at 5 AM during the work week to answer emails and I will also sneak in more at 9 or 10 PM as well, But I also get to walk to the mailbox holding hands with my husband...everyday. About 2 years ago we made a pact to do this simple 1 min...

Are you home? You should be... Are you bored? Really, bored is a state of mine.  I have seen so many things. All the "things" people have been doing to pass the time. You should have click on that link to see them too. If you do #5 send it to me and I will pass it through the webiverse. In this time I have binge-watched the television show Alone. After watching I felt the need to walk into the wood in my backyard and build a teepee. I have refined a few skills in videography...I am no master of this skill, but I am trying to get better. I have written. I have finished a book and began another. I have finished a plan on the Bible app. I have downloaded an app to learn a new language. I found a way for our church to come together in worship during the first Sunday morning in isolation. Oh, and I still have a full-time job. Here is a pic of that teepee. I am been super impressed at my own kids. They have spent most of this time outside. We run a one-r...

I heard the announcement in the church over the last several Sundays, the talk about a new type of small group, but maybe a small group on steroids. Elliot Freeman had mentioned it and Ricky Bowlin told me as someone heading up the social media, that I just had to go. Now, I am a busy gal. I have a full-time job and I have about 4-5 side hustles. This one thing was going to be ANOTHER thing. I say all of this now, knowing full well that I told a group the other night...and now I tell you...that if I have the capacity, I will offer more of myself. All I would really be missing out on are some of the guilty pleasures, like endless-without-a-point internet nothingness or television watching. So I went. What is OneHub? The subheading tells the story. It's about reaching the lost. When I accepted the role I have in the church with social media it was about one thing only...reaching the lost. I wanted to have a bigger reach than myself to find those that were completely lost or ...

Day 10 Today, our last day in Israel and the feelings are mixed. On the one hand, I am ready to get home to see my husband and youngest kiddo. I know the rest of my fellow travelers feel the same. On the other hand...I have learned so much here and I could probably stay another 10 days and still not know enough. I look forward to the familiar, but I love the broken box I have escaped. We have tried new things and seen sights that our small town, small state, or large country just cannot provide. We started our day at Garden of the Tomb. This is the second candidate for where crucifixion of Jesus could be. It’s disputed because we are 2000 years later and many people have ruled this city between then and now. The Romans, Byzantine, Muslims and Crusaders all had a say in the destruction and rebuilding this land. We had an on special guide to walk us through the different markings around the site Showing why this was the actual crucifixion place and tomb. One thing he said that I love...

Day 9 Today started it with a little bit of a world history lesson for Tatum. She had heard of the Holocaust but only by name alone. Debbie and Gene Presley helped me teach her about all the things she was about to see at the Holocaust museum/memorial. It wasn’t like life was floating around and all of a sudden concentration camps… There was a lot of buildup beforehand entire anti-semantic movement began. A brainwashing of a nation to decide to abolish a group of people. Walking to the museum I tried to explain the best I could to Tate why people were the way they were and what they did and how the Nazi ideology invaded country by country. The countries who excepted it were scared so they conformed to become just as brutal. There were many images I couldn’t look at and I told her not to look at them either. Not to turn a blind eye, but because it was enough. It was too much. I interviewed a couple of our church family members after and Mark had said, “...evil can sneak up on yo...

Day 8- Roni took us to the Israel Museum today. When we walked in, there was an enormous 50:1 scale stone village replica of the city of Jerusalem. A person would be the size on a matchstick. I mentioned to a friend of mine, that this trip not only is an amazing experience to walk through a living textbook, but it solidified for me learning styles when it comes to a child’s education. I can read the scriptures and know that Jesus had to walk a ways with people spitting on him and hitting him. I have read that he had to carry the cross for a while and grew tired and someone helped him... I have read the research and it goes back and forth. I have taught on it even using music as an anchor. I know that I am a tactile and auditory learner...turns out living the education is a game changer. Y’all, a ways is a ways...and the hills are fierce. The streets are narrow and filled with people. This was a heart wrenching ordeal to see to scale what it was for him. In the pictures I tri...

We had a 2 Hour Dr. through the countryside of Israel today. When you leave the city limits where the homes cost millions of dollars for a 2000 square-foot flat to find tarp covered 250sq ft slums. You realize what a blessing space is. I am a teacher. I have working in several types of schools and I must say that with the exception of abuse, even our poorest kids are living a good life in comparison to what I witnessed today. We passed by the City of Jericho also known as the City of Palms, on our way to Masada and the Dead Sea. Jericho is the oldest known developed city in the world. Much of today was spent at En Geti and Masada. This is a a time in the Bible when King Saul was chasing David and there was quite an exchange between the two. We read all of chapter 24, but this 1samual 24:22  And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up  to the stronghold. After reading we walked in the spot where it is believed that David wrote or coul...