Knitting

These are pictures of my handy dandy needles!
And my fun burnt orange yarn...soon to be a full blown scarf!


Thanks to my friend, Whitney, I have picked up the art of knitting! Having picked up a new hobby, of course, I am not great at it but I'm definitely making progress.

The knitting process is lengthy, but rewarding. I see the work I have completed at the end of the day and take note of the progress. I can see from start to present what a change I have made. At first, I dropped stitches and there a several mess-ups, but over time, the knits become tighter and more "professional" looking. Sure, mistakes will be made, but I know that in the end, I'll be so excited about the scarf! =)

Recognizing the time that goes into knitting and precision it takes to do so well makes me think of the love God has for us. Psalm 139 hits the spot! "You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." -Psalm 139: 13 and 14 How incredible it is to know that the Lord God himself knit you in your mother's womb! The precision and caution He used in creating you the very way He intended for you to be, it's so awe-inspiring! I read that and realize that the Lord knit us knowing how He wanted us to be in the end, sure there may be some imperfections, but He made us that way and He is perfect. We are perfect in His sight.

The next time I begin knitting and get frustrated, wanting to give up, I must remember the length at which God knit me in my mother's womb--not once has He given up on me! =)

Running

How sad is it that I went outside to run (even though I DESPISE running) and I couldn't even run ONE mile without stopping!?! What is wrong with me? I was 2/3rds of the way in and I got a stitch...an awful one; I tried to jog and it pretty much impaled me from even doing that. Therefore, I have decided that I will do my best to at least run one mile three times a week. If I can't run a mile now, I'm going to be able to soon! =)

While having coffee with a friend, I realized that I often compare my spiritual journey with that of physical exercise and nutrition. Once you get in the habit of doing something good...like running and reading scripture daily, life is good! But that ONE time you don't do it, the devil takes a hold of it and lets you know how good life is without it; e.g., without running, I have more time to do this or that, I needed to rest anyway, I'll pick it back up next week...next week never comes. And the same with reading God's Word. Eh, I'd rather sleep that extra 15 minutes, I'll do it later. I'll really try next week.

I hate to say it, because I do it too, but I think that's a slap in the face! Reading God's Word is something that makes us stronger, we grow in the Lord, He speaks to us during that time; how can I possibly say, "you know, Lord, I appreciate everything you did for me on the cross and I truly do want to meet with you today, but I'll hit the snooze a few more times." Yikes. I do that. All the time. I'm not willing to let the Lord speak to me through His Word.

In the same way, I'm not willing to run or get in shape. I want to. I see the need to do it. But I choose not to. I know the benefits of it, but I'd rather do what I want to do.

--The Lord uses His daily Word to speak to us. Maybe the Lord will speak to me while I'm running or working out. You never know, and I'm not going to put limits on the way the Lord moves.

I think I'm just tired of pushing away the things that I KNOW are beneficial for my everyday life. I'm saying all this so that other people know what I'm struggling with and know that I'm trying to fix it! =) I will read and I will run. It's gonna be good. I need physical and spiritual exercise: reading His Word and running allow me to get both of the things I need!

How Great is His LOVE!

The precious blood of Jesus Christ redeems
Forgiven I'm alive restored set free
Your majesty resides inside of me
Forever I believe
Forever I believe
Arrested by Your truth and righteousness
Your grace has overwhelmed my brokenness
Convicted by Your spirit led by Your word
Your love will never fail
Your love will never fail

I know You gave
The word Your only Son for us
To know Your name
To live within the Savior's love
He took my place
Knowing He'd be crucified
And You loved
You loved a people undeserving


This song "To Know Your Name," by Hillsong touches the strings of my heart! I cannot express the joy I have in listening to the beautiful lyrics of this song.

I am arrested by His truth and righteousness! What a beautiful thing to be arrested to, rather than my sin and iniquities?! Daily, His grace overwhelms my brokenness and I can only praise Him for loving me the way He does! He knew that He would be crucified before stepping foot on this earth, yet He lived a perfect life and gave it up for an undeserving sinner like myself. What a beautiful conviction. It rips me to shreds to attempt to understand such a love. My love for my husband will forever be trumped by the love of my Heavenly Father! And don't let me steer you wrong, I LOVE my husband! And I know he loves me too! To know that someone could love me in such a way to give up His son for me, that is truly baffling! How could I stand here and realize what He has done and not be in awe of His love? Shame on us for forgetting what the death on the cross really meant for us: LIFE and life to the FULLEST!

My prayer is that this song would continue to move us toward a life of pure, reverential worship of and to the Lord.

Classroom Management

Math Blog #5

Classroom management in Mrs. Sanders first grade class is a little difficult during her math time. The students are antsy after lunch and look forward to recess afterward; therefore, it is difficult for Mrs. Sanders to keep all students truly engaged in the lessons. To call on students during math time, Mrs. Sanders pulls sticks out of a mug and calls on the picked student. She also has students constantly move from their desks to the carpet because the students are in need of some time to be active.

Because her math period is rather lengthy, Mrs. Sanders has her students use the restroom after calendar time. The break up during the math time has benefits: the students are able to be active, Mrs. Sanders is given the opportunity to make sure that all things are lined up for her succeeding math lesson, and students are given time to ask any questions he/she may have from previous day's lessons, etc.

The math lesson itself is generally one in which is given straight from the textbook the students have at their desks. Mrs. Sanders will give them example problems before going to the book, and the students will have time to explore the given problems, and the class will reconvene to discover the different answers the students got. From there, Mrs. Sanders will have the students get out their math books and do the corresponding pages.

The thing I have noticed in her class is that she does utilize one of the talk moves that we have discussed in class: wait time. She allots time during the lesson for students to sit and think after solving the problem. I truly enjoy seeing this in Mrs. Sanders' class, because I can truly see the students' thoughts whirling around in their heads! It's such an exciting time for me because I can see the students processing their thoughts and spitting them out for the class to hear.

Math in Mrs. Sanders' class is a whirlwind of activity; be it through calendar time, Mad Minutes, or the lesson...all of the students are busy doing something. They may not be on task at all times, but Mrs. Sanders does make sure that all students are learning.

Talk Moves and Productive Talk

Math Blog #4

Before your observation:

1. Pick 2 of the 5 talk moves that Chapin introduces in Chapter 5 to observe and practice in your placement. Write a brief paragraph about what moves you have picked and why you have chosen to work on them. (1 paragraph)

--Wait time
--Revoicing

Both of these talk moves are used in my placement classroom and I see that they are effective, but not in all circumstances. The role talk moves play in the classroom is a vital one in which students are really given the opportunity to either agree or disagree with another person's thought process and answer. Wait time is what I call "think time." It is truly a valuable time in which students gather their thought process and put it into words. If students are not given this opportunity, many will feel too embarrassed to put forth a contribution in the classroom. I believe that revoicing allows the teacher the opportunity to truly comprehend what the student is thinking and how they got their answer. This clears up any confusion between the teacher and the student, but also with the class.

If you are teaching or leading a small group :

2. Describe how you plan to implement the talk moves. Then describe how it went. Provide an example or two. Did anything happen that was unexpected? What would you do differently next time? (2 paragraphs)

During my small group lesson, I plan on presenting a word problem and asking the students to solve it. Upon the students answers, I will ask each student what they got as their answer, then I will revoice their answer--so as to check for my own understanding of the student's thought process. I will offer each student time to think about their answer and how they arrived there. Because this is something that they are comfortable with doing, it should be no problem for them to handle in the small group atmosphere.

When I presented the two word problems, my students were quick to ask questions. I was curious as to why there were doing that, simply because I knew that during our daily math warm-up, Mrs. Sanders gives the students a word problem similar to the ones I gave them.

"Jeremy has 6 cookies. He wants to share his cookies with his two friends, but he also wants to keep some for himself. How many cookies does each person get?" partitive division

"Jackie and Rachel love shopping. After going to the mall, they spent $5.50. They had $7.25 left. How much money did they start out with?" separate start unknown

I printed each of these questions out for my students and had them staple it in their notebooks. I instructed the students to highlight or circle the numbers they find in the problem, then they were to underline the question. This allowed them to solely look at the "important" information in the problem. I gave each student roughly five minutes to solve the problem and instructed them to represent the problem in two different formats. Mrs. Sanders asks the students to do this with their warm-up problem as well. After asking one student to show me her answer, she looked rather confused at her explanation on her paper; however, I tried revoicing what she told me. She simply looked at me, looked back at her paper, and then finally said, "I mean, I meant that you don't know how much they brought with them to the mall. That's what I need to figure out." By my revoicing of her "answer," she realized that she didn't set up the problem correctly and therefore couldn't answer the question correctly. After that, I read both questions again and offered the students several minutes to complete the problems. I asked another student how he would solve the first one. I gave him some wait time to gather his thoughts. After almost 10 seconds, he explained to the group that he had to draw out three friends and divided the six cookies between them. I was so excited when this occurred because he usually doesn't want to answer during our math time--I believe that the wait time and the smaller group facilitated his talking to the group.

If I were to do this differently, I would give the students different options for numbers to plug in. Rather than 2 friends, the students can choose from 3 or 4--depending on their level of comfort with manipulating numbers. I would also have given the students fake money--Mrs. Sanders didn't have any with her and I didn't think to bring in any. By bringing more manipulatives, it would have been easier for the students to see monetary value and the like.

I was thrilled that each student had the time to correctly answer each question and felt comfortable enough to express their own opinions regarding both word problems.

The Key to Domesticity

It's all in a day's work.

Some days I feel super wife-ish. Other days, not so much. But today is a super wife-ish day! I am making homemade gravy with biscuits and bacon. Maybe some eggs in there, too. Tyler has this super huge engineering exam and I want him to know that I support him and love him and want him to do well on this thing! I've posted little notes everywhere and cannot wait until I make him breakfast and send him off for a wonderful 9 hour test. (Prayers are truly appreciated!)

In doing this preparation, I have come to the conclusion that as a woman, I am wired this way. I desire to show him how I care and how I feel through baking or crafting or something of that nature. Weird, I know. It's like the Lord gave me some maternal instinct or an "insta-wife" button. Seeing as how before we got married, I didn't really feel prepared to be a wife. Of course, there are still things that I need to work on (and there always will be!). But it's neat to see how the Lord has prepared me to take these responsibilities and enjoyments on! No longer do I see making dinner a "task," rather I find joy in doing it--MOST days!

I praise the Lord for being good and providing me with the energy and desire to serve my husband daily! I have realized that when I wake up in the morning, I not only think about myself anymore. I think about Tyler and the ways that I can make his week easier. It's really quite fun, because I can see him trying to do the same for me! =) Marriage has really shown me how selfish I can be and how grateful I am for my husband and for the everlasting love I receive from the Lord. How crazy is it that I had to learn about my selfish ways by being married?! The Lord has put up with that for how long now?! Regardless, I am glad that he has taught me this, and it's a continual work in progress.

Teacher Worries

Well, I know that I'm not suppose to worry for the Lord tells us not to and we are to cast all of our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

I'm having some issues with that. Not with the verse. But with the fact that I can say that I can cast it all on Him, but then the actual act of doing so is tremendously difficult!

As of late, Cohort K has been receiving our placements for next semester. Most girls already know where they will be and it's somewhat stressful not knowing yet. I have had experience with PK-1st grade, and now I'm looking to be with the older students so that I can test the waters and see what age group the Lord wants me to be with in the future. I requested 3rd grade. I understand that it is a TAKS grade. I just want experience, to stick my feet in the water. I don't know how it will turn out. Heck, this could show me that I am meant to be with the babies...kindergarten. I don't know.

Not many 3rd grade teachers want a student teacher because it IS a TAKS grade. However, I did find one...and she's pregnant. She's due in mid-March. She wants a student teacher and I want to be in her classroom. If we get approval, then I could possibly stay with the class by myself and get paid for it! Which doesn't sound like a bad idea. If that were to happen, I could also be considered being a long-term substitute by the district if she chooses not to come back after she has her baby.

I daily check my emails to see if I have received more information about being approved or not.

Looking this over, I sound like a fool. Maybe this is something that I want so badly that I'm shoving aside what the Lord has for me. Is He trying to tell me something? Am I just that stubborn that I don't want to truly hear from God? I want to cast this on Him, but I also selfishly want to know where I will be next semester and who I'll be with so that I can meet the students and indicate to the teacher that I'm serious about this. I know that He is in control of all things. I know that He is Lord of my life. I know that He has a plan and will for me. Now, if I could only find a peace in that and rely on the truth that He has lavished upon me.

I trust in Him.
I know that He is sovereign.
I don't want to worry or stress about where I'll be next semester, for I know that He is in control.


This just in: I WILL be in a 3rd grade classroom this coming semester! The Lord took care of everything and I'm so grateful for Sheri Crossett! Man...now, I need to get my booty in gear for older kids lessons and centers and the like! =)