Honored

I feel honored that the AIG teachers in Pitt County would choose me as AIG teacher of the year. I have worked hard to keep the STRIDE program going and still a rigorous program for our students. I will be glad when this year is over. The past two years of redesigning curriculum and training teachers has taken its toll. I am ready to get a handle on the rest of my job.

It was an honor to be chosen a finalist for the State AIG Teacher of the Year program. We were in Winston Salem this past week for the conference. I was not chosen as the state teacher. When they read an excerpt from the woman who did win, it was her supervisor that said she was an asset to the program and very helpful to other teachers. Maybe my supervisor should have written a letter stating that if I had not stepped up to the plate to run the program, the county would have been in a mell of a hess. As it is, he did not write a letter on my behalf. It would have been nice to bring the honor back to Pitt County because we have a strong AIG program. Personally I am honored to have been chosen by my peers.

Focus on Where You Are Going

Two years ago Chad dressed up in a tie and everything and formally asked me to be his girlfriend. Or maybe I should say his friendgirl as we were always friends first. I decorated his room for Valentines day that year. A print I made for his wall was a picture of two people riding a motorcycle, you could not see the people (slightly in the rear view mirror) it was their view looking out ahead over the handle bars. I printed on it "Focus on where you are going" because he always said that is what he liked about riding. You had to focus ahead.
As you know, Chad left in December to focus ahead for himself and go to MMI to learn to be a motorcycle mechanic. 2300 miles away. Makes for a long distance relationship which is never easy. We all need to focus on where we a going. Sometimes that means leaving things behind. It has been hard to get in touch with him and he was not really talking to anyone. I ran into his Dad's wife online and said hello. I asked her if she had heard from him, not since January 30th was her remembrance. So she asked for the update. When I told her we had not really talked since January 19th she became concerned. Both she and his dad had banked on that Chad was talking to me as his priority so they did not think about his not contacting them so much. His dad became very concerned and they both started trying to contact him in a variety of ways. They did, talked some and his dad told him to call me. He did. We talked and determined that Chad needs to put his energy into focusing on where he is going and let go of what he left behind. He did not want to be the next guy to disappear on me. I understand often what we want and what we have in us to give are two different things. That I understand, the silence I couldn't. It will be OK.

Good thing we were always friends first and that is what we can be given time. Life rolls one and we will focus on where we are going

One Hundren Hearts for Healing

The 100th day of school is coming up and in primary school they make a big deal out of it. Last year we spent days going around taking pictures of numbers to make a book and McKenna wrote the numbers in words on each page. It was truly a family effort. Alyss even made a pizza with the number 90-something in pepperoni. This year, McKenna was listening to the radio, and we generally listen to HIS radio when driving, and she heard them talking about the Hearts for Kids program. People make valentines and send them to the radio station where they are put into Valentine packages for children in the hospital. Well, McKenna decided to make 100 Valentines to give to the children in the hospital. We got stickers, pink and red card stock, foam hearts,etc. and we are making 100 Valentines due FRIDAY! It will be another family effort. What a big heart that little girls has.