forgot i had a blog.

well I sure forgot about updating this bad boy. ohhhh it has been quite a past couple of months. i will break this up into a couple of pieces as i normally do… part 1 – teaching and the children, part 2 – other parts of life, part 3 – next year? part 4 - how things are going in general/ funny things the children do. I will try to keep each section short.

part 1 – ok, so what I really want to do most days is go back in time to my stupid idealistic self and kick myself in the face when I was thinking things like “oh yeah, it’ll be great to teach a class with no standards, learning goals, resources, scope, sequence, etc.” hahaha…. I have done my best to make this class work this semester, and I think my kids have gotten some good things out of it, but overall it has been too disjointed and at times a hot mess. the good news…. I spoke with my principal the other day, and I am back to teaching math again next semester. good news for me, hopefully good news for the children’s test scores…. for some reason the kids keep deciding to add the phrase "stanky tail" to anything they say lately. as in, "shoot, i aint doin this.... stanky tail" i don't understand what the stanky tail is supposed to accomplish but it makes me chuckle.

part 2 – i preached a good ole barn burner of a sermon a couple of sundays ago at delta fellowship church. since then my kids have been continually asking me, “mr. rah, you a preacher? i heard you be preaching. why you didn’t tell us you be preachin?” haha, I took it as a high complement. well, except for the kids that said things like "man, i gotta listen to you talk enough durin class, you think imma try to listen to you on a sunday?" ha! i don't know that i would want to listen to me either after a week of my classroom rants. i have been doing a lot with delta fellowship lately, and i love the people there. we have wednesday night meetings in which we drink adult beverages and talk theology. "theology on tap" we call it, just up my ally. i love it. i feel inclined to comment on cam newton, but i am going to refrain at this point. all i know is we are 11-0 and headed to the sec championship. war eagle and its great to be an auburn tiger. oh yeah, and there is nothing better than hearing my kids say, "dang, i am tired of hearing about auburn, when they gon loose?" hahahaha, glorious.

part 3 - so we are giving standardized tests to the children all this week. we, of course, just found out about this last week. i was, of course, not happy about this. however, today during part of the test, as i was walking around watching the kids fill in bubbles i took a moment to think about and write out my possibilities for next year. currently, (for those of you who know me, you will know that this is life plan number 431) i am considering either enrolling in seminary in memphis next year and living in helena or staying in helena to teach another year. in my writings the pros of seminary lasted about three pages, so that sort of helped push me a little further in that direction. i am definitely leaning that way at this point, but i am sure prone to change my mind.

part 4 - so as you can likely surmise from the post above, my plan is to stay in helena next year. i really love this messed up place, and i see so much potential for this community. the downtown area that was once thriving back when there was industry and the town had over 40,000 residents is currently pretty much deserted, but there are several groups working to build it back up. i have several kids who i really want to see graduate, and i am going to find it difficult to leave this place until that has happened. this job is difficult, and if i am doing it right, it always will be. regardless, i am glad to be where i am, and i hope to remain here for awhile. i will leave you all with a couple of children stories that are pretty much straight ripped from my roommates blog. first is the evolution of phrase "bro" the children started off calling me "bro". it has evolved as follows.....
Bro > Brah > Breh > Bruh > Bruh bruh. Example.... mr rah says....."how are you LJ?" response.... "sup bruh bruh" mr rah says.... LJ, my name is not "bruh bruh" response.... "my bad bruh bruh" ughhh.... this one i am straight going to rip from my roommates blog because he tells it well. this is called the "Kay" and our children pull it off well.....

"Here's what you do: A teacher is giving you a lecture. Wait for them to almost finish their sentence. Then say, loudly enough to jolt them off balance, "Kayyy!"

"Kaayy" as in "OK," as in, "Yeah, whatever you say," as in, "No."

Example:
Mr. J-L: "Crystal, you need to respect my classroom's rul–
Crystal: "Kayyyy!"
Mr. J-L: "I'm sorry, that's not acceptable; you can't be using that w–"
Crystal: "Kaaayyy!"

HA!! gotta love these danged kids. have a nice day. peace.