Two Weeks and Two Days...

[Stage Notes:: Friday Night, Sitting on the couch with a half graded stack of 6th grade homework, not paying attention to the movie]
[TV:: The Fellowship of the Ring]

Ladies and Gentlemen, two things are official at this moment. The first is that I am back after a short hiatus. We did not have internet at the house until last week so any form of an update was made rather difficult. Unfortunately, that means I became so backlogged in terms of what I needed/wanted to share, that I did not know where to start and so wrote nothing. I have come to the decision that the best place to start is in fact at the end because if I start at the beginning, we will never get to the present which means another eventual hiatus.

The second thing that is quite official is that I am, in fact, a teacher. Yup, if for some reason you have been out of the loop, I am a teacher. In the interest of confidentiality, I will never use the names of the students or even the name of the school. If you want to know that stuff, contact me directly and I can tell you. However, so you know when I am referring to it I shall either call it SPC or simply 'The Clave' (This one is not my own, it was passed on from a former ACEer that taught at 'the clave'.

All in all, I cannot believe how quickly the time is moving! It is hard to believe that by the end of next week, I will have been in the ACE program for nearly 3 months!! Think about that! The time in the classroom disappears so quickly. I am still working on getting everything covered that I want to and making sure that I can see where the students are at. I really do not remember teachers doing assessments anywhere near as often as I find myself needing to do. It really is quite intriguing to see what they are understanding and what they are not. As I am grading things, I am often astounded at how much trouble they are having with 'review' material. Unfortunately, this school as a whole does quite poorly in math on the standardized tests and they have made it quite clear that their goal is to get scores up. Every staff meeting it is talked about how poorly they are doing and that everyone needs to be teaching math stuff (vocab, logical reasoning, problem solving, etc.) None the less, I felt like a huge weight was being dropped directly on me to 'save the math program'. Perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but in my defense, when you have a week until the first time you will ever have your own students, the last thing that you want to hear is that the students score in the 20th percentile on math.

Oh well, it is what it is and I find it is creating some interesting scenarios in class. However, I will save those for the times when they come up. I really just wanted to say that I am still alive and have been in the class room for two weeks and two days. That is all for now, but at least the draught is more or less over with :)

Oh and just so you know, on Wednesday, we broke the all time record for heat in Atlanta at 104 degrees Fahrenheit......knock off that snickering, I can see you from here :-P

All ABOARD!!!!

[Stage Notes:: Tired, Sitting in my room burning one last disk of pictures]
[Noise:: Fans blowing]

Well, I am going to bed now. The car is packed and I am just about ready to go. One last night of sleep in the comforts of home and then the adventure begins. In a few hours, I will wake up and get in the car and drive. Then I will drive some more. A lot more. I will stop and get some food, and then I will continue with the driving.

It is funny to think that when I was little, I could not stand being in the car for more than about a half hour. I would get car sick if I read anything, so on the occasion I got to sit near the cigarette lighter I would play the one and only game system that I ever owned, Sega Game Gear, and then I was ok for a little longer. It was so bad, that the longest driving vacation my family ever took was to Virginia Beach. Florida was out of the question and meant flying.

In the last few years, my desire to travel and experience anything I can has had me in cars for multiple days. I have made 3 round trips to Florida since 2004 and been to countless places in between. Now for the first time I will make the drive alone to Georgia. It has with it all the makings of the first chapter of an adventure novel. Large amounts of unknown, something planned that can just barely be defined, plenty of literal and figurative road blocks, and of course venturing out to do something alone...well not entirely alone, just the driving part, and of course being the only teacher in the classroom. Well, I guess this is the part where the prologue ends and the story begins....

Screaching Halt

[Stage Notes:: Sitting on the couch at home; drained]
[TV:: 10 Deadliest Sharks]

Well, it looks like I have once again fallen into the habit of not blogging when things get busy. For the record, when I say busy, I mean teacing in the morning, classes in the afternoon, and homework until the single digit numbers make their return to the digital clocks. Fortunately, the first semester has come to an end and I am very much still alive. For the moment, I find myself at home trying to get everything in order for the start of the next adventure which starts Tuesday.

Yes, that is right, Tuesday. That is when I start the long drive down 75 to ATL. Wednesday I meet with the principal of the school and find out everyting else about the school and my responsibilites there. For the moment, I am both nervous and excited, but I have so much to do that I do not have a great deal of time to dwell on what is coming ahead. Well, that is about all for now. I will try to write more frequently because I am sure as classes start I will have a ton of stories. However, I am not going to promise to write more because I don't want to disappoint you :)

How Precious is the Flow...

[Stage Notes:: There is no word in the english language for how I feel]

Come now, let us reason togethor, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow,
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
--Isaiah 1:18

Rather than say much, just reflect with me on how incredible a promise that really is. Goodnight.

Alive for the Moment

[Stage Notes:: Cool breeze drifting through the open window]
[iTunes:: Beneath the Surface | Souljahz]

When I was coming back from class half an hour ago, my neighbor noticed me and asked how I was doing. My response was that I am alive, for the moment. He followed up by asking what I meant by that so I explained the massive amount of work I have to do by tomorrow and hinted at the possibility of it killing me before the night is through.

We all have times like this in life when we feel like it is just One of those days. One of those days that you just might, completely hypothetically speaking, knock over both of your beverages in the cafeteria in a two minute time period...One of those Days. The days where we wish the mountain in front of us really was a mole hill, but we know the truth. The most frustrating part about these days is of course that everyone around you is inevitably having a fantastic day (or at least appear to be)

As I thought about all of this, I realized something that while it may not be particularly profound, definately hit me like a proverbial Ton of Bricks. I discovered that there is a huge difference between:

Alive, for the moment.
-and-
Alive for the moment.

Yes, I know there is a grammatical difference in that one has a comma and one does not. The realization is how dramatically the comma changes the meaning. Sound it out with me. The first one is Alive PAUSE for the moment. Very good. Now lets try the second one. Alive for the moment. Remember no comma = no pause.

Anyone else catching the difference yet? (Oh dear this is sounding to sound like I am teaching a lesson....)

Alive, for the moment, implies that soon I will not be. Alive for the moment, implies being alive for each and every moment, and that is exactly what I want to be. To feel alive in every moment and fully experience every moment. I loathe how often I miss out on moments because I am tired or just plain zoned out. From this moment on I am challenging myself to be Alive for the moment.

Are you willing to challenge yourself to do the same?

Alive, or something like that

[Stage Notes:: Head throbbing, too many thoughts running through my head]
[TV:: Commercials]

First and foremost, I would like all of you to take a second to pray for my friend Alex and his family. Alex underwent a very risky back surgery today. The surgery appears to have been successful, but it is still early. He now has a very long road to recovery and this will no doubt be very challenging emotionally on the family. Thank you!

As for me? Well, as the Germans say, Mann lebt. Roughly translated it means, I'm alive. I have survived the first two days of tutoring and for the first time, have some ideas about what to do tomorrow. It is hard though when the two students are so different academically. It basically means I have to write two lesson plans for each day. Other than that, I am just dealing with the general confusion that comes with life and trying to understand the mysteries that lie ahead.

Classes are going pretty well, though they are about to ramp up again. Up until this point, I did not have any math content class because the professor was still teaching at Colorado State. From what I have seen, I am pretty sure I am going to love this class.

It really seems like I should have more to say, but I just can't think right now. I am going to try to get back into the swing of blogging regularly, but I am making no promises. If you have any specific questions, ask them in the comments and I will do my best to answer. That might help me focus on a topic :)

Buried Alive

[Stage Notes:: Camp Hangover]
[Noise:: Fans until I can figure out what to listen to/watch]

Not going to say a whole lot other than I did go to camp which was definately the right thing to do and now I am buried under a mountain of work. I am hoping to be able to look back at the end of the night and see that it was only a mole hill, but it does not appear to be that from where I am now. Rather than babble on, I will leave. Here's hoping that I survive.