done............well, almost

The last day of school for my students is tomorrow. I will be quite honest in saying I am NOT sad about this! :-)This year has been an emotional roller coaster for me. Two different bosses, staff relation problems, unethical behaviors, students that were beyond my realm of ability to help...these are just a few things that affected my year. I filed my first workman's comp claim this year...after nine years of working with students with emotional disturbances and thirteen years of teaching. Had a SCREAMING fight with my boss in the middle of a hallway (Not quite my style) It was not a good year. Well, until I started thinking about it and realized it depended on my perspective. I needed to change how I was looking at this year. When I changed my perspective, this was by far the best year that I have had with my students. I have seen amazing progress this year. I have had the privilege of watching how God moves and changes eight students. Yep, I said God, and yep, I teach in the public schools. God is awesome, He doesn't care about "keeping religion out of school" rule. I don't preach to my kids, I don't have to, God works in other ways. I had an amazing staff that were true examples of living one's faith. This year I also had the privilege of having my husband work with me in my classroom. This provided a different atmosphere than ever before. Between Rick being there, myself, and the ladies who work in my room, a family atmosphere emerged.

At the end of the year, we spend a significant amount of time cleaning. Since supplies are very limited, we reuse everything we can. While cleaning out notebooks, we ran across a journal entry written in March by the student I affectionately nicknamed "Big Guy" this year. This is what he said...

If my life was perfect, I would be in Africa, not Ohio. I would have nice clothes and shoes. My family would have a cookout without fighting. Mr. Wilson and I would hang out all day, every day.

Yesterday, there was a knock on my door. When I went to open it, there was a student I had two years ago standing there. In a fashion true to his personality, he announced his arrival and visited for ten minutes before announcing he must leave. He is doing well he said. Done with "being a bad kid." He had grown at least a foot since I had seen him last. Yesterday when he left, I knew he would be okay. He had found what he needed to be okay with himself and with his place in the world.

I can't...won't take credit for any kid's behavior changes, I am honored that God chose to use me to touch these kids lives. And I am blessed to be given such huge gifts of seeing how they are transformed...

I don't know what next year holds...but I am okay with that because I know that God already has it planned down to the finest detail. No matter where or what it is, I will do my job to the best of my abilit, and I will remain faithful that it is all for God's glory.