Life Goes On

This post’s title used to be a tv show.  And it’s a true statement leading off from when I last wrote.

Life goes on.  And honestly it’s been ok since that crappy day at the end of April.  I don’t have too much new stuff to share and I hope to get writing a little more consistently as the school year wraps up, but probably not until then.  My mind is still in so many different places as this school year comes to a close.

I took the Social Studies PRAXIS test last Saturday.  I should know the results by the end of this month.  Technically my principal says my job either doing multimedia and computers OR a global studies class next year is safe.  I appreciate that but can’t help but think that there is at least one more year of cuts coming before things really start to turn around in education.  Does that mean I’ll be in the same position next year then?  Wondering if it’s another “one year” deal?  I don’t know.  We’ll see what happens if I pass the SS PRAXIS.  I am somewhat actively looking at other nearby schools for potential Spanish positions or social studies (again, depending on whether I passed the test or not).  Also keeping my mind open to things outside education.  Who knows?

As for this summer, I know I at least need something kind of part time.  A consistent babysitting/nannying job maybe.  Tutoring.  With half a paycheck coming in August and the car payment now, it’s pretty necessary.  It should be a good summer though – possibly going up to RI for my cousin’s high school graduation, my cousin coming to visit, going up to the mountains, the Global Leader summit thing…

And in other news, I found the greatest recipe ever on Pinterest.  If you like Thai food, this recipe is so easy and delicious.  Check out the Spicy Thai Noodles recipe here.  Yum.

 

Direction in the Middle of a Funk

I haven’t really written much lately.  There’s been a lot going on in the last couple of months.  I can’t even remember if I wrote about the fact that I’m teaching multimedia and computers now?!

I’ve had to do a lot of thinking and soul searching lately and I still don’t know what’s going to happen over the summer.  Let’s do a short recap, bullet style.

• Took over multimedia/computer classes in mid-January as one teacher left the middle school to go teach drafting.  Also an effort to potentially keep a job for next year since my position is only supposed to last one year.
• Been doing the mentor stuff all year.  Kind of awkward at times since I’ve been in several different positions throughout this year but going ok.
• Pulled of The Amazing Race with the global committee at school one night in February.  Good turn out and pretty fun.
• Still going to World Languages meetings to keep up hours for my teaching license in Spanish.
• Global teacher meetings remained awesome and I’m going to Chapel Hill in June for a Global Leadership conference that’s being paid for by the county.
• Registered to take another PRAXIS II test – Middle School Social Studies – in May.  Spending a lot of time with a SS textbook.  There’s the possibility that I could either A: do the multimedia or global studies class next year OR move into a 7th grade SS class if I pass and get this as an add on to my NC teaching license.
• March 22 or something – my white Taurus dies.  Good riddance.  Sort of.  Had that car and no payment for at least 4 years.  Maybe 5?
• Hunt for a new car.  Yuck.  A car payment.
• Yay.  A new car.  No ridiculous car problems to deal with.  Hooray Effie Beauregard!
• Oh hurray this means I need a part time job.  But what?
• HUNGER GAMESSS.
• Spring Break.  Lots of reading.
• Oh crap.  They’re cutting all teaching assistants in the county.  I understand doing this early to give people a chance to look for jobs and that they’ll probably hire back over the summer as state/federal funding becomes more clear.  Hard to take right now though.
• Dr. Davis is retiring.  He’s been a good man staying in the job of superintendent while some idiots in other districts (cough cough CMS cough cough) decide to leave in the middle of hard times to take a job with a tv station.  HAH.  Very curious to see who gets hired and what effect it will have on different jobs and the next years for UCPS.

This all leads up to yesterday which was a really crappy morning thanks to a student.  I felt like crap.  She felt like crap and it was a morning that really made me miss elementary school.  I had an observation later in the day.  That went alright.  Thankfully, the day ended AWESOME with a very fun scavenger hunt in honor of the birthday of one very awesome Kelly Draddy.  And Team Naked Man won so that was pretty neat.

I feel like I’m in a funk right now though.  So much is up in the air about what next year will bring.  If I pass the SS PRAXIS, do I want to do the 7th grade social studies class?  Do I want to stay in the multimedia?  If I stay in the multimedia, that job may only exist one more year before cuts go even deeper.  And I say that with relative confidence that this whole downturn in education isn’t done yet, sadly.  Do I want to stay in a middle school setting?  Do I want to see what other jobs are out there for Spanish?  Do I want to look for a job in a charter school or private school (there are oh so many ups and downs there as there are with public schools)?  Do I want to stay in education?  I really love planning and curriculum development (which I sorta did the first half of this year with the global thing) and I love the possibility of doing social studies.  I loved it when I was in middle school and I really like the 7th grade SS teachers.

But then yesterday morning was just crap and with everything going on with funding, the changing of the guard with the superintendent and the lack of respect that has been going around with this job (both on a state and federal level too – HELLO LACK OF FUNDING) plus the stupidity of testing, I’m over it in some ways.  Last night I was talking with some friends about it and I’m grateful for their thoughts – what about doing translating or interpreting was the suggestion.  I could easily do that if there were more of those things out there.  Those are really obscure jobs you have to search for.  Hard to find.  At least in my looking.  And I have looked.

What else do I enjoy doing?  Writing.  Obviously working with kids.  Language.  Travel.  I’m a detail oriented person and I love organization.  I love what I do throughout the week and on weekends with my church and helping write some of the lessons.  I have no clue what that job might be that takes all of those into consideration.

What I do know is I’m in a catch-22.  I have a new car payment.  Won’t have a raise yet again this year.  Rent is going up.  My school paycheck (if I’m with the district next school year…based on how certain things turn out) in August will be cut in half.  And I definitely need a part time job right now to add some other income to help build things up over the summer to maybe pay off some more on my car.

There are 2 options with the school for next year as of right now – multimedia or potentially Social Studies.  I can look for another teaching job or something else entirely.  I’m honestly just not sure what my heart wants to do right now.  Education in general is exhausting me mentally just thinking about where it’s headed.  On the other hand, if I could just be with the kids and not have to deal with some things, I know where I’d stay.

I’ve taken action steps – this year I’ve been myself and some of that I think has made me invaluable, I’ve gotten back into a classroom (even though it’s outside my comfort zone, kinda), I’m taking another PRAXIS to add a certification area, I’ve updated my resume, and I’m on job sites pretty regularly right now.  Just a matter of what to do next and I probably won’t know that until the end of the year.

And now I’m probably rambling and repeating things I’ve already said, just in different terms.  Hence this is probably a good reason this post has this title.  I’m in a funk job wise and am seriously praying for some direction.  If anyone has some fabulous insight (or a hint on what my dream job might be or an idea…or offer), I’m all ears.

Music Flashback: Spain 2004

Not quite sure what brought on this flashback I’ve been living in for the last couple of days, but the desire to travel back to Spain has returned (as it does pretty much every year).  It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since I was there.  I don’t know why or how anyone would pass up the opportunity to travel while they are in college – study abroad is such an amazing opportunity.  I have so many hilarious, thoughtful and mind boggling experiences while I was there.  Fun to look back on, sad they have gone by, grateful to have had them at all.  I’m so glad I kept a journal the entire time we were there and that I have so many pictures to remind me of different moments, people and places.

One thing that really brings back the memories is the music.  I remember going to a Sevillana dance with the flamenco music.  Going into a music store off of Calle Tetuan (one of the big shopping streets in Seville) and buying several cds.  Meeting at a cafe one morning before our trip to Portugal and walking to the bus where we listened to our cds all the way to Lagos.  Watching Eurovision/Eurovision Junior on tv (their equivalent of American Idol…but for all of Europe – fascinating in another language).  The laughs and amusement at finding out one of our professors was in a music video for David Bisbal filmed in Seville.  Going to the Gypsy market and finding music.  Finding a song to use for our grammar class and creating a presentation with it.

I have to thank one of my favorite people, Darlene, for the two of us finding David de Maria in the store one day.  The cd we got, Barcos de Papel (Paper Ships/Paper Boats), is kind of a quiet pop sound.  I could easily fall asleep to it.  I found a video of him singing the song live the other day at a concert and he sounds exactly like he does on the cd (few artists do).  Check it out – even if you can’t understand the language it is awesome.

And who could forget Senor Alejandro Sanz?  I used his song “No Es Lo Mismo” for that project in our grammar class.  And then there was this one that’s just plain catchy.   It was my ringtone for a good while when I got back from Spain.

Bebe was another one.  She’s a little firecracker.  This is her song “Ella”.  Essentially a girl power song reminding girls they don’t have to be afraid, they can laugh, they’re beautiful and speaking against abuse.

As we were able to watch tv shows (some from America that were dubbed in Spanish) and shows made in Spain and throughout Europe, it was pretty neat to see how something similar to American Idol was carried out.  Eurovision basically takes videos from all over Europe from people who have an original song they have written.  Each country has their own competition and then the winner’s song/video is shown all over Europe and the one with the most votes wins in the end after several rounds and live performances.  The Eurovision Junior competition was what was on at the time.  It was impressive to see 10-15 year olds and their original material.  In 2004 the girl that won was named Maria Isabel.  She was from Spain.  She wrote a song called “Antes Muerta Que Sencilla”.  Quite literally – “I’d Rather Be Dead Than Plain”.  It’s not as morbid as it sounds.  It talks about a lot of stuff little girls want – to be successful, to grow up, to be pretty, to be respected (perhaps not that eloquent or with those precise words, but…).

Finally, that professor who was in David Bisbal’s music video for “Buleria”… It’s got some sort of Romeo and Juliet theme throughout.  And a good chunk of it was filmed in the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza where I attended a bullfight.  Ernesto, our professor, appears in the fight scene in the bullring.  When they walk in, he’s the one with short black hair on the left (from where you are sitting at your computer).  Not the guy in front, but beside him.  They first show up at about 2:10.

Good times, Espana.

Kisses from Katie

Read about this girl on Pastor Steven’s wife’s blog (The Preacher’s Wife).  Her story of faith is just inspiring.  I can’t say enough about what I have read and seen on her blog.  Wow.  And she’s written a book about it all. 

A mom to 14 girls in Uganda at age 22.  I don’t know that I could have even fathomed that thought at 22 but that’s faith for you.  Audacious, sun stand still faith.

Check out the blog and the book.

Brave New World…Again

I have been pretty terrible about updating lately, but admittedly – life has been crazy.

Let’s rewind to December for a moment.  The last week in school before our Christmas vacation, my principal at the middle school (remember – I was moved from elementary school to a nearby middle school after the elementary Spanish program was cut) came to me with information about a possible change I could be involved in if I wanted to.  Throughout the fall, I was essentially the school’s global teacher.  I’d applied for this at the end of the 2010-2011 school year and was asked to be a part of a group of teachers helping come up with resources, information and doing staff development to help widen the global perspective in classrooms and school subjects.  I had an office off of the media center.  No, I wasn’t teaching Spanish, but it was ok.  There wasn’t necessarily a classroom for me to have taught in anyway.

I REALLY enjoyed the ability to do research, create helpful documents, lesson ideas and work with other teachers to come up with projects, resources, etc.  I’ve done a few staff development sessions with other global teachers and led a couple tech sessions as well.  It’s been interesting to try and figure my way through something that isn’t as concrete as an everyday, in the classroom teaching position.

Back to what was going on at school in December.  A fellow related arts teacher was going to be going to a high school position at the end of the first semester to teach a drafting class.  The current multimedia teacher was going to take over his classes and if I wanted to, I could take the multimedia classes for the rest of this year knowing that if things worked out, I could have THAT class become a global studies class for the 2012-2013 school year.  My principal has been very nice and supportive.  I truly appreciate her as she has worked to find a way to “keep me” at the school because ALL of the elementary Spanish teachers were initially told that if we are put in a middle school position, it would only last 1 year.

I immediately started doing some research, looking at different school global studies/multimedia websites, etc.  I thought through it over break.  We returned the 2nd of January and suddenly things were on the fast track.  I really wasn’t going to hesitate in taking on this new and different role.  The multimedia class is project based which is exactly what I would be doing if I were going to create a global studies class.  It seemed to me an easy transition to make.  I obviously would continue with things as they have been THIS current year for the sake of the students and then in the coming year it would really just be adding more of the global aspect.

This past week I took over the multimedia classes.  The 7th and 8th grade classes are year long which they hadn’t been in the past so I am getting the ability to think about and trying a couple of things that I might include in a global studies class while maintaining some multimedia content.  For example, I’m going to be doing a project where students will create a 12 slide powerpoint about what they believe will be the 10 most important issues/events of 2012 (2012 Olympics, elections, things of this sort – last year someone could have put in the tablet phenomenon!).  They will use news and information websites, include pictures, a summary of the information/event, why THEY think it will be an important event/issue in 2012, and works cited.  Obviously the multimedia part of this is the use of the computer, internet, powerpoint, etc.  But I’m also having them evaluate websites for credibility which is important for them to learn how to do in an information rich world.

This will all be quite the journey to get used to…  I’m looking forward to it though.

I need to do some updates about Christmas, my vision board and the epic event that has been, is and will be Code Orange Revival.  It’s been amazing…  More to come.

The Young and the Restless

Emphasis on Restless.

Why?  Because it’s my college roommate’s new wordpress blog and she’s awesome!  Also, it’s so hard to break a habit.  We’ve always referred to one another as each others’ roommate whether that’s still the case or not.  And it’s not at this point.  Hasn’t been for the last five and a half years.  In fact, she’s got a whole other roommate named Kristoffer now (that would be her husband…).  Old habits die hard.

You will want to read her blog.  The tales she spins are epic in proportion and her take on life is exuberant and full of imagination.  This is the person I made up mad libs with and watched Princess Bride 309457272 times with.  This is also the person whose wedding I got lost on the way to (and on the way to the reception…with the best man) and dressed up like a pirate with (we ARE pirates, by the way).  She is the person I wrote a Negated Declaration and Constitution of Sea Men with (I told you – we’re pirates.  BTW, this document DOES still exist.).  This is the person who I saw Copeland with for the first time and the person I called the second time I saw them and they sang “Coffee”.  This is the person who I conspired with to create an alternate identity whilst in an AIM conversation with a friend of hers thus totally confusing said person.  This is the person who I named inanimate objects with (Petey the hot pot among other things).  She is also the one whose birthday I would plan “secretly” every year.  She is the person I made up a story with very late at night trying to keep a friend with a concussion awake (the story somehow involved the pirate Hot Pink Barbie and The Great Shoe).  This is the person I wrote strange magnetic poetry with on our fridge (and required everyone else to do if they entered our room).  Jackie is the person I instituted the Tuesday night line up with.  She’s the person I worked with in the pharmacy at Eckerd for a year (woo hoo pharm techs!).  She’s the one who told me about the most vivid dreams ever (fire and bongos?).  Soooo many memories.  Sooo many fun times.

Trust me.  Check her blog out here.  You won’t be disappointed.

For The Honor

Today is a good day.  Great day at Elevation, got the new Elevation Worship cd and I’m putting up Christmas decorations.

I can’t say enough about what a blessing is to be at Elevation with such great friends, families and leaders around me.  Six years ago if you’d asked me if I thought I’d be seeing or even experiencing what I have at Elevation…  I just don’t know what I would have said or even thought.  Each week I wonder why anyone would ever show up late to church.  Granted, I know life happens.  Put put your priorities in order, get to church on time and your heart and mind will be more prepared to worship and hear from him.  I can’t imagine missing a moment.  Our worship leaders and our pastor have sent an atmosphere of celebration, excitement, urgency and honor in our worship experiences.  What I (we as a church) have been able to be a part of each Sunday for the last 5 (almost 6) years is astounding.  I love their heart, their talent, their commitment to our city and our church…  This is not about them or where they’re headed.  This is about God’s call on their lives in serving the local church.  Their humility and commitment to creating songs that resonate with our church…the local church is so refreshing.   The individual quirks, talents and gifts they each have that God has brought together have created something special.

Get the cd when it comes out – MIDNIGHT tonight on iTunes and in stores tomorrow.  ALL proceeds tomorrow go toward a partnership with Compassion International that will help those in one of the poorest slums in Kampala, Uganda.

Chris, Wade, Mack, London, Brad, Jane – your church is proud of you and grateful for each of you.  Thank you for everything that each of you do.

Check out these videos – a story behind one of the songs (For the Honor), For the Honor and We Rejoice.  I love their honesty, passion and heart in worship.

 

 

Tags: Elevation Church, Elevation Worship, video, worship