Well, here I sit on Wednesday night at 11:05 and should be sleeping, but a good friend of mine has inspired me to create my own blog on this here internet. This person is someone who I worked closely with for several years and even though younger than I, someone I respect a great deal and value his friendship. So thank you Chris for inspiring me.....
Life over the past year or so has been crazy....manageable, but crazy. Back in the fall of 2009, I started a new job adventure teaching at Paducah Middle School. I didn't really know what to expect considering that I had just been let go from Lone Oak Middle (the one place where I wanted to retire from my teaching career) and it was going to be completely different from what I had been used to for 3 years. It took me a while to fit in to their "family" for a few reasons: 1)I wasn't used to their way of doing things, 2)I hadn't taught 8th grade in 4 years and 3)the social studies teacher on my team was friends with my ex-wife, from whom I had just recently divorced. So things were hectic, but I made the best of it. The further into the school year it had become, the more I had fallen in love my students (and no you sickos, not in that way). They were all in need of a little attention and someone to show them that they cared about them. I built relationships with these kids, not only as their teacher but as their friend. I was starting to think that maybe this is where I needed to be...this is where I needed to teach. A lot of people in our area have this preconceived notion about Paducah Middle....that all of the "bad kids" of Paducah go to school there, but that is far from the truth. Our kids are just as important as anyone else in this area and they've shown me a lot over the past year and a half not only professionally but personally. These kids need me as much as I need them.
So every day is a challenge........every day is a new uphill battle.....every day one of my children is needing me for a different reason......every day I AM SOMEONE'S HERO!
I realize that this is not much and probably right now isn't that exciting to read, but it's almost midnight and I need some sleep to deal with what Thursday has in store for me.....more later....I promise!!
