When spring break LITERALLY is "Singing in the Rain.

When we booked tickets to see the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra play along to one of our all-time favorite classical movies, "Singing in the Rain," we didn't realize it would actually be the theme of the entire weekend...and week of spring break.

Still, as the song says, Come on with the rain, I've a smile on my face.

And that, my friends, is a true story. All smiles, even in the rain.

And what, you may ask, did we do to bring about those smiles? 

I'm so glad you asked...

*Took a short drive over to the Domes (Milwaukee Conservatory) and saw the seasonal train exhibit (and the plants, of course):

*Made sure our hotel was literally right next door to the symphony center where the concert was happening:

*Enjoyed an indoor market (and caught the end of the UNC-Baylor game, which I actually picked the correct upset for in my bracket):

*Dined at a wonderful Italian restaurant recommended (and frequently visited) by friends who are Milwaukee locals:

*And, when the sun came peeking out, strolled down the Riverwalk:

*We were also sure to check out the local church...next time we just need to be sure it's not the church of the same name in the same city whose website you visited for the morning Mass times (oops):

And, apparently, you can't visit Milwaukee without going to Kopp's...so we did just that on our way out of town - delicious! It did not disappoint with food (burgers and custard) or company (grad school friend from PLC 1):

While it was a soggy start to spring break, it certainly was a memorable one. And this week, the overcast, rainy weather has stayed put over Chicago. So, naturally it's been a good excuse to curl up with some books (Rhapsody, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, & The Assignment) and TV shows. (Why aren't they streaming the whole season of Sanditon to PBS Passport subscribers?!?) I also managed to do some spring cleaning and organizing of my closet, laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking. Plus, I even worked ahead on some PD classwork.

Only a few more days left till we return to school - can you believe it's already the end of March??? What a year it's been and my, oh my, how it's flown by.

End of summer, beginning of year 12

Nothing says "end of summer" like Labor Day weekend.

Indeed.

School is now in full force for students, even though teachers have been back since mid-August (and the rest of us since before that). 

Don't worry - Marisa and I totally did our back to school ice cream tradition the weekend before (my) school started.

And you can rest assured I spent my time in church leading up to school's beginning on my knees offering prayers for my teacher & admin friends as well as for my own school. Not only did it make sense to do so, I don't think I would have made it through the week without prayer & Mass...

And fresh flowers, of course...

While it took nearly the whole morning for me to get my act together, I did manage to snap a first day of school picture. (And our business manager also took a real one the week before for our website.)

Only one week in now, but school is certainly keeping me busy. And that is probably more so than last year, as I have a class to plan for and teach: 7th grade Religion. Exciting though it is, I imagine it will take its toll on me when the admin side of things starts piling up, but for now things are good. And, technically, I'm on the Jr High team...

Aside from school, there have been plenty of other goings-on to keep me busy, including but not limited to Shakespeare in the Park, early morning marathon training runs along the lakefront, a Cubs baseball game, reading, a play (or perhaps a few), and other random things, including visits with friends (and even a few dates(!) - but, sadly, there turned out to be nothing promising). Busy, busy...

I've also (clearly) been working on maintaining my girlish figure... 😂

Kidding.

Food is totally worth the splurge.


I hope you are doing well and that wherever you're at in life or in work/school that you're right where you're meant to be. (I also hope you were able to follow the crazy jumping around of this blogpost. My brain is fried...)

Have a wonderful week!

iRead 2018

1. Bored Again Catholic: How the Mass Could Save Your Life (Timothy P O’Malley) - 1/4/18
2. Of Beetles and Angels (Mawi Asgedom) - 3/30/18
3. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Wes Moore) - 6/12/18
4. Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World (Admiral William H. McRaven) - 6/13/18
5. The Baker’s Secret (Stephen P Kiernan) - 6/22/18
6. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom) - 7/16/18
7. The Secret Of Magic (Deborah Johnson) - 7/25/18
8. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) - 7/31/18
9. Beartown (Frederik Backman) - 8/2/18
10. One Day (Dan Nicholls) - 8/9/18
11. The Boys in the Boat (Daniel James Brown) - 10/3/18
12. A Spark of Light (Jodi Picoult) - 10/7/18
13. Every Note Played (audiobook) (Lisa Genova) - 10/12/18
14. The Next Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom) - 10/12/18 *This one was my favorite, hands down! Can't compete with Mitch Albom in my book (no pun intended).*
15. Nowhere Boy (Katherine Marsh) - 10/27/18
16. Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions (Valeria Luiselli) - 10/28/18
17. The Dream Daughter (Diane Chamberlain) - 11/4/18
18. The Rain Watcher (Tatiana de Rosnay) - 11/18/18
19. The Energy Bus (Jon Gordon) - 11/18/18
20. The No Complaining Rule (Jon Gordon) - 11/24/18
21. Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed In our All-About-Me World (Michele Borba, Ed.D.) - 12/23/18
22. Before We Were Yours (Lisa Wingate) - 12/24/18
23. The Magician’s Nephew (CS Lewis) - 12/25/18
24. One Day in December (Josie Silver) - 12/27/18

25. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (CS Lewis) - 12/29/18

As you can see, the first half of 2018 was a little light in the book department (and that's understandably so as during that time I was finishing up grad school), but I made up for my lack of recreational reading during the latter half of the year, especially the last three months of it. While I wouldn't come right out and recommend every book on this list, most were well worth the time and effort. Some were recommendations from friends (or, increasingly, Instagram posts) while others were re-reads, favorite authors, or random finds. (Sometimes book covers just appeal to me; I can't explain it.)

I know you may be thinking I was premature in posting this list, as I still have a few days to go in 2018, but I'm quite content with this list as is. Though, a few more books (especially those in the Narnia series) might grace this list before the ball drops on NYE. We shall see...

Another year in the books, would you look at that... (I'm now accepting reading recs for 2019, in case you were wondering.)

We are all connected

A forwarded email from my mom: "Mitch Albom is coming to Chicago."

Exciting news, yes, but I left it alone for awhile. There were already too many things on my plate this week...

And then Facebook invited me to an event with Mitch Albom in Chicago.

I decided I couldn't ignore it anymore. My heart told me I should sign up.

I didn't know who of my friends was a Mitch Albom fan, so I did something slightly uncharacteristic - I bought a single ticket to the event, and I took myself. (Maybe I'm getting a tad more adventurous in my old age.)

I'm glad I bought that ticket. What a night...

Not only is Mitch Album an incredibly gifted storyteller on paper; he is a very engaging speaker. The audience was laughing, crying, and everything in between. This event was part of his book tour for his latest release, The Next Person You Meet in Heaven (sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven), yet he only spent a fraction of his time (about an hour and a half) actually talking about the book. He spent most of his time just telling us his story, sharing the people and the interactions (however seemingly small) that brought him to how he was standing in front of us that evening.

And we are all where we are right now due to the people and interactions we experienced in our own lives. For myself, a few easily come to mind (as I am sure some easily come to mind for you)...

*My high school was run by the Salesian priests and brothers. During my time there, they helped me develop my spirituality and relationship with God. In college, I ended up working at a Salesian summer camp, and during ACE I worked at a Salesian school. Their charism helped shape the teacher and leader I have become.

*At my parish growing up, an ACE teacher joined our choir because we sang the same "Our Father" as the Notre Dame Folk Choir. Through her (and ACE teachers at my high school), my sister and I learned about the ACE program, and we ended up applying and completing the program after college. The friends I met through the program are some of the greatest people I know, and they have taught me many things over the past 10 years. I don't know where I would be right now if I didn't do the ACE teaching program.

*In college, my sister and I took a class with a girl who was part of a morning running group. When she learned that we ran occasionally with our family, she invited us to join. The runners in that group were the ones who encouraged us to keep at the distance running and to run our first marathon, Disney. Since then I have run 6 other marathons (and my sister has run 7 other ones). How fortunate to have crossed paths with that college classmate during freshman year.

There are plenty of other examples - it's truly incredible, and I don't believe there is one string of cause and effect in one's life. (It's way too complicated for that!) But Mitch Albom's lesson to us was that we are all connected. Sometimes we affect another person's life, and we may not even realize it (or it happens way down the road/we never meet the person). It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I love Mitch Albom for a number of reasons, but I think my number one reason is because he teaches such profound (yet, at the same time, simple) lessons through his books and articles about human relationships, loving others, and living a meaningful life.

Do yourself a favor and pick up one of his books if you haven't read one before. And, if you have read some/all of them, go back and re-read. I guarantee there's another layer of lessons to be uncovered. His books are those which you simultaneously want to devour and read slowly so as to absorb every word.

Happy reading!

Bonus: a few photos --> 

Reading My Way Through 2017

Though this list is not as diverse or long as I hoped it would be, it's always good to look back. Some books were recommended by friends; others were required for school or grad school. Still others just happened to be ones I had around my house or that I happened to pick off the shelf due to their names, covers, or authors... 

Books of 2017:

1. Mercy in the City (Kerry Weber) - 1/12/17
2. The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) - 1/15/17
3. One Ordinary Sunday (Paula Houston) - 2/4/17
4. Raising Cain (school book club) - 2/26/17
5. Walk in Her Sandals (Wahlquist - women's Christian book club) - 4/16/17
6. The Charm Bracelet (Viola Shipman) - 6/6/17
7. The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg) - 6/21/17
8. A Sense of Urgency (John P Kotter) - 6/22/17
9. My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante) - 6/27/17
10. Moo (Sharon Creech) - 7/2/17
11. 7 Riddles to Nowhere (AJ Cattapan) - 7/22/17
12. Understanding Independent School Parents: The Teacher's Guide to Successful Family-School Relationships (Thompson & Mazzola) - 7/30/17
13. The Alchemist - 7/31/17 - audio
14. Something Beautiful for God - 8/5/17 - audio
15. The Chosen (Chaim Potok) - 8/8/17
16. Saints for All Occasions (J Courtney Sullivan) - 8/10/17
17. When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi) - 8/13/17
18. Wishtree (Katherine Applegate) - 10/1/17
19. The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic (Matthew Kelly) - 10/7/17
20. Tattoos on the Heart (Fr Greg Boyle) - 10/22/17
21. Same Kind of Different As Me (Ron Hall & Denver Moore) - 11/18/17
22. Barking at the Choir (Fr Greg Boyle) - 11/21/17
23. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (Jan-Philipp Sendker) - 12/11/17
24. Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese) - 12/26/17
25. Tuck Everlasting (Natalie Babbitt) - 12/28/17


I feel that readers can find so much joy and wisdom from the pages of books. It looks like I'll be reading into 2018 with St. Augustine's Confessions, but after that my recreational reading will depend on grad school, so we shall see...

What makes a meaningful life?

I've NEVER (I repeat, NEVER) been excited about teaching Family Life. Why we still use the textbook series we use is beyond my comprehension - the themes are there (if you look REALLY hard), but the substance is completely surface level. How are we supposed to get the kids serious and interested about the topics if we don't give them anything worth being serious about in the first place?

It has taken five years of teaching middle school religion to finally take this into my own hands and do something different. (It's not that I haven't changed things up before in Family Life - I must say, "Tuesdays with Morrie" has been the catalyst of some of the most meaningful discussions I've ever had with students - but they need something even more.) In sixth grade, the topics span all stages of life, from natural conception to natural death, and focus on the decisions we face in each stage. 

So, if you think about it, the question I should be posing to my sixth graders is this: What makes a meaningful life?

This question has been posed throughout history and, notably, across many great works of fiction (and nonfiction)/entertainment. Take A Christmas Carol, where Scrooge learns that a life of building up one's own riches and not spreading love and joy to others is no life worth living at all. Or, consider my personal favorite, "It's a Wonderful Life," where George Bailey gets a chance to see what the world would be like without him, and through that experience he understands how much one life has the power to positively affect so many others.

Think about Mitch who took a lesson from his old professor in Tuesdays with Morrie:
“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

I'm still fleshing out the exact activities and discussions of this unit... What makes this unit/theme difficult is that many students have lost grandparents and one of my sixth graders recently lost his father to a rare disease, so I do need to tread carefully, allowing students opportunities to speak with the guidance counselor or do whatever they need should a particular discussion or activity bring certain emotions or memories to the surface. (While it has been a long time since my grandparents died, I admit I still cry at the end of the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie" every year when we watch it in class. And that's okay...and I want the students to know that and be able to safely experience that too.)

Some people may think middle school students should not have to grapple with this question or may not understand it or cannot handle it...but I respectfully disagree with anyone who feels this way. Our children can and should think about these things. If not now, then when? If not under guidance and in the safe space of a classroom, then where?

So, right now the plan is to keep "Tuesdays with Morrie," but I'm going to open our unit with a look at a work of fiction, Tuck Everlasting, to set the scene and to act as a comparative piece of literature. (If you have not yet experienced this beautiful book, then I suggest you make your way to the closest public library or to Amazon because, in my humble opinion, you are missing out.) It's the story of Winnie Foster and how her path crosses that of the Tuck family on one fateful summer day. To not give away too much while still providing the context of using this in class, the Tucks drank from a spring that allows them to live forever. At first this seems like a marvelous idea, but as Mr. Tuck explains later on, it's more complicated than the glamour and thrill such a life suggests. It's not natural. "You can't have living without dying," Tuck states to Winnie at one point. (Morrie says it another way: "Once you learn how to die you learn how to live.") But when faced with the decision to drink from the same stream or to let her life keep its natural course, what will Winnie do? And, as the reader, you ask yourself, what would you do? What if you could live forever?

I'm hoping the students can use this opportunity to engage seriously in considering all aspects of life, from conception to death, as the gift God has given each of us. And I hope this book (as well as "Tuesdays with Morrie") will help provide the structure the class needs to do just that and to consider how their decisions and actions will shape their lives into meaningful ones.

As the years come and go - can we believe it's 2018 so soon?! - it's a thought worth pondering for all of us: "What makes a meaningful life?" And, perhaps more importantly, we should be asking ourselves, "What am I doing to make my life meaningful - something beautiful for others and for God?"

On that note, Happy New Year! I wish you all the best in 2018!

How do you "capture" a novel?

7 Riddles to Nowhere... I've posted about this book before, as it was a new addition to our 6th grade classroom this year. There's definitely some changes I will make when using it next year, but, for the most part, it was a worthwhile read and focus for my students.

When I first introduced the novel to the students, I had no idea what the end project would be (bad teacher move, I know), but as I thought about it, an idea came to me that I thought just might work - take the social media with which many of my kiddos are familiar and use it as a medium for the kids to show what they know. Thus, the "Day in the Life...Instagram Style" project was born.

Nothing fancy, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was blown away by some of the creativity in the posts, user handles (or whatever you call them on Instagram), comments, etc. Some kids got creative doing it digitally with an app called "Juxtaposer," where they would put the characters onto a photo (from the internet) of one of the churches in the book.

Later this week we will take a field trip to the cathedral to see some of the objects and structures described in the book, and our book study will officially be at its conclusion. I hope that the students take away at least a few important lessons about the Church from the book - how the people are its treasure, how we are called to give back to the church as stewards, and more. Time will tell...

The Ho Hum of Summer

Not much happened around here today... I went for a run - well, truth be told, it was more like a jog...with breaks - for the first time in over a week, which was due to my road trip; sat sipping an iced Jasmine tea in Argo Tea while reading The Power of Habit (for grad school); read some more at home; started putting things in piles for grad school; started reading another book for grad school (which is far less interesting and not nearly as well-written as the previously mentioned text); and met up with a friend for dessert at a local establishment.

It's that in-between time for me - just got back from my road trip and not quite leaving for ND. I like not having a lot to do, but I seriously get restless. (Maybe it would help if I was reading a book for fun...)

Tomorrow I am going to try to go to morning Mass, check out the new coffee shop (conveniently located by the church), and get my hair cut. I will also try to finish that second (boring) book.

Man, it's hard being a teacher - many of my teacher friends are out of town (or working a summer job) and the rest of my friends work during regular hours...

Well, happy official start to summer!

2016: In the Books / By the Books

We are officially one week in to 2017. Happy New Year!

But before I look ahead, I decided it was good to reflect ever so briefly on the books I read in 2016. In reviewing my list, I'll admit I was more than a little disappointed I only read 18 books...and then I realized that all of the articles and books I read for grad school are not included...so then I felt a little better (because all of that was QUITE A LOT).

So, here they are - Kelly's books of 2016 (The ones in bold are the ones that especially resonated with me, and a short description of these is provided below the list):

1. Pax (1/18/16)
2. 7 Women and What Makes Them Great (3/18/16)
3. Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky (4/9/16)
4. When You Reach Me (4/16/16)
5. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - audiobook (5/7/16)
6. Room 24 (5/7/16)
7. Land of the Blue Flower (short story) (5/25/16)
8. The Way of Serenity: Finding Peace and Happiness in the Serenity Prayer (6/5/16)
9. All the Light We Cannot See (6/21/16)
10. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (7/28/16)
11. Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (8/1/16)
12. Eight Hundred Grapes (8/2/16)
13. Brooklyn (8/6/16)
14. Our Lady, Undoer of Knots: A Living Novena (8/9/16)
15. Mother Teresa: No Greater Love (10/9/16)
16. God, Help Me: How to Grow in Prayer (11/20/16)
17. A Man Called Ove (12/19/16)
18. Small Great Things (12/26/16)

Room 24 - Already reflected on this one - you can read my original blog post here.

The Way of Serenity... - And this one too - check my post out here.

All the Light We Cannot See - I picked this one up upon the recommendation of my mom and sister, and I finished it on my Dakotas road trip. It's a beautiful story of two young people growing up during (and before) WWII. (To say much more would probably be an injustice to the books and its potential readers, so I'll stop here.) It's got a lot of pages and seems daunting, but it's quite a fast read because it's hard to put down.

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - What struck me most about this books was the beautiful language (word choice, sentence fluency, etc) of the author. It tells the story of two young children, one who is Japanese (a girl) and one who is Chinese (a boy). It takes place during WWII in America, and, at that time, many Japanese Americans were being transported to work camps (out of fear of the Japanese due to Pearl Harbor). There is love, there is loss; there is sweet, and there is bittersweet. Do yourself a favor and read it. It's probably one of my all-time favorites...and I definitely cried while reading it more than once.

A Man Called Ove - This was one of my recent list additions; finished it on the plane home for the Christmas break. The author's writing style was phenomenal, and I feel that it allowed me to get a better look into the full range of human development from young teen to older adult - what life events shape someone's life? How do we really know someone if we don't know his/her story? Good old Ove...what a guy...

Small Great Things - This is Jodi Piccoult's latest novel, and, like all of her others that I've read, it was a real page-turner (and, as per usual, had a huge twist of plot near the end). At the heart of the story is a struggle of coming to terms with the role of race in America (especially in the judicial system) - what's taboo and what should be focused on instead. But, as Jodi Piccoult comes to show the reader, race does matter, and it needs to be talked about. 

So, there we have it. Books, books, books! I just can't get enough, especially of the really good ones - the ones that tug at your heartstrings, the ones that make you laugh and cry (sometimes at the same time), and the ones that make you think.

By the books, 2016 was pretty darn good. Onward and upward with 2017!

Serenity

By breaking down the Serenity Prayer, Fr. Jonathan Morris (author of The Way of Serenity) shows us practical and meaningful ways to follow the three parts of the prayer. He reminds us that we should ask God to "replace stress with a 'heart at rest.'"

This book is full of so many gems, and I'll probably go back to it from time to time to read, at minimum, the parts I underlined and annotated.


Here are a few of my big (and little) takeaways:

*If we see life as everything depending on us, that is a heavy burden to bear. Give your worries, stress, and hardships to God (Mt 11:29-30).

*Ignatius of Loyola has an awesome quote (which I actually have hung in my classroom the past few years): "Work as if everything depended on you, and pray as if everything depended on God." In other words, we need to try our best, but, at the end of the day, we need to realize that God is the one who will do the rest and bring our work to fruition.

*"If we choose to let things bother us, we will never be at peace" (p. 29).

*In the words of the "Our Father," we ask God for our daily bread, as in, what we need one day at a time. In the olden days, bread only could last one day and then it would be thrown out. Therefore, in that same mindset, we are fed by God one day at a time - we receive "grace from God for the present moment" (p. 37).

*God wants us to be uncluttered and insecure so that we learn to rely more on Him and His goodness.

*We are pilgrims just passing through; our final destination is heaven.

*"Life is like photography: we use the negatives to develop the picture."

*We have a CHOICE to be thankful, in good times and in not so good times. (I've recently taken this to heart with the "5 Minute Journal App," which I got for free through a Starbucks code redemption. In the morning I note three things for which I am grateful and three ways I will make it a great day. Then, at the end of the day, I add a photo, three amazing things that happened that day, and one way I could have made the day better.) There is something to be said for gratitude - it opens us up to beauty and love!

*Little things CAN make a big difference. Many prayers and poems remind us that we cannot do everything, which is a very freeing thought, when you think about it. In the book, Fr. Morris mentions a children's book "The Land of the Blue Flower" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (which I proceeded to download and read immediately - it's relatively short but not as short as a picture book) - the prince who becomes king is told that he cannot help all of them, but he knows he must do something. In the end, his little action makes a huge difference in the kingdom.

*Our faith lives and relationships with God are journeys that take continuous effort and attention. Nothing can be "fixed" or "solved" in one moment, day, or even year. Perspective is key.

*In the Gospels, God calls us to be light, salt, and yeast - all of these things do not exist for their own sake but to change things (or, the world) around them. Therefore, we are not here for ourselves but for others, to get them to heaven and to make our world a better place.

*God whispers - we need to LISTEN.

*"Things are to be used. People are to be loved" (p. 236).


Again, these are just a few takeaways from the book. It's definitely worth the read. I am so grateful to my friend who literally put it into my hands as a birthday gift a few short months ago. I believe it has helped me slowly start my own heart's conversion, which, as mentioned above, is not a one-and-done process.

I'm on a lifelong journey...and so are you. Join me in starting with one small step today.

Calling all Catholic school teachers and youth ministers...

Finished a good, timely read on Saturday - Room 24 by Katie Prejean. What stuck out to me most about this book were the quotes and anecdotes by her students as well as her own thoughts about ministering (in a school setting) to teens and young adults. For almost the entirety of the book my head and heart were screaming "me too!" 

Trust me, if you work with teenagers in a Catholic school or youth ministry setting, you should get your hands on this - it's poignant and hysterical at the same time. And it's a quick read so you can read a few pages here and there between grading and lesson planning...

Here are some of my favorite parts:

"To teach Jesus is to conform ourselves, and help to form others, into 'little Christs' who go out and share the Good News. People are not easily transformed by ideas and concepts alone. They are far more often transformed by other people." (p. 23)

"When we constrict ourselves to scheduled teaching on its own rather than actively living what we believe, we can become blathering drones losing sight of the greater mission." (p. 78)

"As humble evangelizers, we should be pointing not to ourselves but to Christ. This is humility in its most concentrated form. We seek not to advance ourselves but to advance the work of the Lord." (p. 108) <-- There are lots of opportunity for humility as a middle school teacher. This was a good reminder. Kids have a way of making sure you don't stay too proud of anything... (Check out the Litany of Humility, which the author explains kept popping up when she needed it the most. It's a good one.)

"Student: I'm only fourteen, Miss P. As of right now, my life plan is just to get to heaven." (p. 127)

"My mom used to say that being a teacher was the hardest job in the world, not because the pay was low or the kids were bad but because at the end of the school year you'd have to say goodbye and you never knew how they would turn out." (P. 128) <-- This quote probably hit home the most, especially as many of us teachers are preparing for graduations.

Katie Prejean also talks a lot about how her students always notice far more than she ever realizes. Similar realizations have occurred in my classroom this year too, most recently on Friday, when, upon going outside to return a student's fruit snacks that I had confiscated during class (Could he have picked a quieter packaging choice to try to sneak in?), a group of 8th grade girls stopped me and said, "I really like your outfit today. I noticed it in class and meant to tell you." Well, if that don't beat all - I tell people that you really know you've "made it" in terms of fashion when you get complimented by an 8th grade girl. (They're usually so hard to please in that department!)

All kidding aside, the book reminded me that the whole teaching about God thing is more than one person's job. I may not see the effects of anything take hold while the students remain in my care, but I have to hope and believe that somewhere down the line at least one thing we studied or learned or prayed about will sink in.

For all those who teach (especially at the middle and high school level), keep doing an amazing job! You're planting seeds - scatter them abundantly for you never know where or when they'll blossom...


P.S. Happy Mother's Day weekend to all moms, moms-to-be, and women who seem/act like moms! It was a beautiful weekend (weather-wise) for all those who were out and about brunching and celebrating. Spring has sprung in Chicago!