Time for a lighter post.
Yesterday I pulled a piece of paper off of my overhead cart and all my papers came cascading down. One of my students goes "See Ms. Maxwell! That's why you gotta CLEAN" Then she stayed after school with me and helped me clean up the room.
Last night my roommate and I and our friend watched Muppets in Space, which if you haven't seen it, is absolutely hilarious. Anyway, the little Prawn Pepe made me laugh so hard that today in 3rd period reading class I did his voice...for most of the time. We were laughing so hard, I loved it.
I read a story out loud to my class about this guy that worked at the zoo and there was a funny trick ending. It was really funny to see the reactions of the different classes because my first perioed class has 3 gifted students in it who got the joke right away and were laughing like crazy. However, my next period is my ESL class and no one really got it at all. Finally in third period, there were about 2 seconds of silence after I finished reading and then they all started laughing really loudly. Today was one of those days when no matter how many kids get in trouble or don't bring their homework or how inadequate I feel as a teacher, I love it.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
On sadness, hopelessness, and how useful those are.
this week one of my student's fathers (who just got out of jail) stole his mom's truck.
last week one of my students whose father is an alcoholic and whose two older brothers are both in juvey and only owns his uniform clothes moved off to FL where I hope to God someone will take care of him better than here.
two weeks ago one of my students was crying every 5 minutes in class because she was worried that her family wouldn't be able to pay their mortgage. When I was a kid, I didn't even realize my parents HAD a mortgage.
This job of teaching inner city kids is emotionally draining, at times feels completely pointless, and makes me, more than anything else, doubt that God really loves these kids. However, here is a quote from Brennan Manning that is slowly sinking into my distrusting heart:
"The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials...David, the most beloved figure of Jewish history, was no stranger to terror, loneliness, failure, and even sinister plots to destroy him; yet he ravished the heart of God with his unwavering trust."
It seems then that trust that God is good comes through situations where it really looks like God is actually not good at all.
last week one of my students whose father is an alcoholic and whose two older brothers are both in juvey and only owns his uniform clothes moved off to FL where I hope to God someone will take care of him better than here.
two weeks ago one of my students was crying every 5 minutes in class because she was worried that her family wouldn't be able to pay their mortgage. When I was a kid, I didn't even realize my parents HAD a mortgage.
This job of teaching inner city kids is emotionally draining, at times feels completely pointless, and makes me, more than anything else, doubt that God really loves these kids. However, here is a quote from Brennan Manning that is slowly sinking into my distrusting heart:
"The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials...David, the most beloved figure of Jewish history, was no stranger to terror, loneliness, failure, and even sinister plots to destroy him; yet he ravished the heart of God with his unwavering trust."
It seems then that trust that God is good comes through situations where it really looks like God is actually not good at all.
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