Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Transitions

Sorry it's been forever a month since I last updated. I lot has gone on as you can probably guess. I figured I'd update you a bit, but let me apologize in advance for my lack of pictures and the fact that this post is just a huge block of text. The Kentucky air has done nothing to improve my photography skills.

Lee and I got an apartment and we quickly moved in on June 1. It was an adventure to say the least. A big shout out to our friends who helped us pack and unpack (especially you Joy)! It was enough so that we'd contemplate moving again in, oh, maybe, 10 years. Maybe. Anyway, we got moved in okay and our apartment is set up like we want it now. It's amazing to me, though, that you can move all your stuff that filled one apartment to another and still find several things you need. I guess that's just how it works. 

I started classes on June 4. I have 3 hours of Summer Institute and 3 hours of UofL classes 4 days a week. I've done a lot of reading, some practice teaching and even got to work with some real live kids. I spend half my time being super pumped about starting teaching in August and half my time afraid out of my mind of everything this will entail. I keep coming back to the fact that I know this is the path God has for me so He'll get me through it, one way or the other! I have had a few interviews, but there has been a bit of a backlog on hiring here so I'll update as soon as I get officially hired. 

Lee has a job, and he'll actually be working quite a bit this summer. He was pretty bored for the first few weeks, but it also allowed us to get a lot done to move our residency over to Kentucky. He also signed up for his seminary classes and I think he's getting pretty excited about those. 

We've also been looking for new churches which is interesting for us since we've never looked for a church as a married couple. We've been a few places and are discussing what we're looking for. We're praying for a church that has sound teaching and is a place for us to serve and be served. You can imagine with a great seminary in town that there are a plethora of wonderful churches. I'm confident God has one in mind for us. 

For my book loving friends, I have been doing quite a bit of reading (besides my teaching textbooks) and I went and got my library card pretty quickly after we moved. Living in a city that's big enough to have more than one branch of the public library is bizarre to me, but I've mostly been reading the free ebooks anyway. For those who don't know, if you have a library card, see if you can check out ebooks from your library. I'm a huge fan of this to say the least. 

Now, I need a few things from my teacher friends. First, any helpful advice since I'm a month and a half away from my first teaching experience? Also, and this is especially for the high school teachers, what kind of rewards and consequences do you find effective in your classroom? There is so much more that goes into teaching than I ever realized so I'm doubly appreciative of every teacher I know. I'll be teaching in an urban setting which is completely different from anything I know, but any advice would be appreciated. 

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this transition Lee and I are in and keep those prayers coming!

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on your move, Kacie! Sounds like a lot of great things are happening. Advice for teaching: start off strict, it'll make your year so much easier. Give simple and easy to remember rules. Mine are be ready, be respectful, be responsible. Food is always a good reward. Candy... etc. As for consequence,something I do is if you find kids are interrupting or wasting your time, keep track of that time and keep them that amount after class (up to a minute...). You'll find that when they get used to this, and you look at the clock while they're talking, they'll stop immediately. Also, work to earn their respect... don't expect it immediately because they won't just give it to you. Good luck!!

    Heather

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    1. Thanks for the advice Heather! I love having teacher friends. I hope everything is going well with you.

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