Tired, tired and then ... HUZZAH!

Right now, everyone I know is tired. Tired of school. Tired of winter. Tired of the same ol'-ness of everyday life. Tired, tired, tired.

Getting my students motivated to learn when I am so pooped is a bit of a predicament. I was awfully tempted to propose nap time to my 5th period class today and they probably would have been all over it. (I resisted- I hear they frown on "nap time" in the 9th grade)

Thankfully, Someone upstairs loves me and has sent little golden nuggets of enthusiasm to keep me going.

Here are some of my favorites:

"Duty" and Public Indecency

One of my least favorite aspects of my job is "Duty." Just the name inspires spontaneous combustion via boredom. I was just noting that to my fellow "duty" sufferer when a student ran down the hall wearing a penguin outfit, closely followed by two students wearing nothing but neon blue spandex undies and rollerblades. I spent the next five minutes busting up as I watched them evading the police officers on campus. If something like that happened everyday, duty would cease to be so dull and we would also have to rename it to something with more pizzazz, like "cackle to yourself for 30 minutes" or "public indecency 101."

News stories and "Holy cow, he actually did something!"

I ask my students to write a paragraph every day and sometimes the topics are less than inspiring. Today, however, I was amazed at how engaged they were by the topic. I had them watch a Reuters video online about the tsunami situation in Japan. The students asked question after question about the impact of this event. They pondered together about how to help show the people in Japan their support. And one of my students, who is failing for never having completed an assignment, wrote me an extensive response to this video. This experience warmed the cockles of my heart.

Dumbfounded

In my fifth period class the other day, my students started to have a heated argument about how boring my class is compared to other freshman classes ... in front of me. I pointed out to them that this might not be the smartest idea, considering brownie points and that quarter grades due next week. They seemed dumbfounded, like this had never even occurred to them before. My unexpected happy moment came when one of my students defended my class as his absolute favorite. It was unexpected because I am pretty sure he doesn't care for me (considering that he told me , "I hate you and I wanna key your car" only last week). So, my class isn't the most boring for at least one student .... HUZZAH!!!

One of the joys of teaching English is the occasional opportunity to strut your stuff and show your kids just how amazing a writer you actually are.


For our writing prompt for Valentine's Day, I gave a mini lesson on the arts and subtleties of how to write a love letter.


As I am not currently in a relationship, I modeled with the following:

O' how I love thee,

Let me count the ways.

You liven up my salads,

And you brighten up my days.

I love you when you're Cheddar,

I love you when you're Swiss,

And when too poor to find you,

Your savor I do miss.

Please never leave my side

As long as I do live.

Forever and for always

All my love to you I'll give."

I think they finally appreciate just how cool I am now.

14 months and 8 pencils later....

As the stress in my life has increased exponentially in the last few months, I have retreated to one of my greatest sources of solace: drawing. While I love drawing all sorts of people, there is a special joy that comes in drawing scenes from the Savior's life.
It may sound silly, but I have an affection for my drawings a little bit like unto a parent's love for a child. I created them and watched them grow under my watchful care. As each of the following are gifts for other people, I will see them go with a mixture of emotions. There will be the sorrow of parting, but also that joy in knowing that something you made will, hopefully, bring something special to other people's lives.


*The Shepherd. I love this drawing, because of the joy you see in the shepherd's face as he tends his flock. This drawing is for my New Testament institute teacher, as thanks for re-engaging my mind and heart in the scriptures.

*The classic Savior as the shepherd. This will go to my friend for her wedding, as a reminder that in marriage, as in all else, the Savior will guide us through the trials that beset us.

*This is my absolute favorite drawing I have ever done, in part because it is the one that took me the longest. The drawing is quite large, standing at 3 1/2 by 3 feet, which I thought was fitting to depict such a lovely scene in the scriptures. It took my 14 months to complete.

The picture shows us a father desperate to heal his son. He asks the Savior to heal the boy and is given a profound reply. All things are possible to him that believeth, the Savior tells him. When the man declares that he believes, the Savior admonishes him with a glance. The father then begs, "help thou my unbelief." In the end, the boy's health is restored. Sometimes I feel down on myself for my lack of faith, skill, boldness, etc. Instead of resigning ourselves to failure, we all have the option of asking the Lord to help us find what we lack.

*note: None of these are original drawings. They are all my own artistic representation of another artist's work and I do not hold any of the credit for myself, neither am I advertising them for sale.

College apps ... for someone else

So, my amazing and wonderful little sister Felicity is applying for college scholarships. While she was able to whip out her essays on goals and activities lickety-split, her essay about how wonderful she is was a little more challenging.

So, I decided to give her a few ideas. These are what I came up with. Let me know which you think would have been the most successful, had she allowed me to write her essay for her.

1. When my mother and father met at BYU, they had no idea what a hottie they had in the making ... ME! It took them three tries and fifteen years to create the perfection that I embody. After all that effort, I decided to leave heaven just long enough to grace them with my presence.

Sunday Musings: Love and Covenants

Photo from stumbleupon.com/stumbler/Tina2/tag/canada/

Today we had a special meeting at church called a ward conference. During one of the interactive lessons, the gentleman teaching brought up the topic of covenants, which are two-way promises we make with God. He asked us how keeping covenants affects our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

As I pondered this question, I thought about the things that make a big difference in my relationship with my own parents. One of the factors that made the biggest difference in our relationship was my moving back home for a few months. Coming home, and while here, choosing to be home instead of always going out are the ways I show my parents that I love them, that I choose them over other people's company. I have activites virtually every night of the week and on those rare occasions when I do not go out, they express being overjoyed.

I thought about that in relation to covenants. Our Heavenly Father asks us to make covenants because He knows that they are exactly what we need to make it home to Him, to survive the wear and tear of this life. By choosing to keep these covenants, we are showing Him that we want to go home, that we are striving to make it back to His presence so that we can live as a family once more.

By maintaining this attitude when it comes to covenants, I think it will be easier for us to transcend mere duty and make love our motivating factor for following our Heavenly Father's commandments.

Mwahahahaha, I am finals' week, hear me roar!

It's Finals Week, and can I just say- writing finals for other people to take is so much more fun than taking them yourself. There is this sadistic little joy in it, which I tried really, really hard not to enjoy ... too much.

I had my kids write a paragraph about a topic of their choice and wouldn't you know it, some of the kids that I thought didn't know how to write at all actually gave me fabulous paragraphs. Now I just have to figure out how to convince them to write that well all the time, and they'll be golden.

I was pleasantly surprised and often amused by some of the responses I got. Here are a few of my favorites.

Prompt about your favorite person:

"If you think I'm crazy by myself, well then just wait until you see me and my couzin together. Were wild monkeys going crazy over their bananas."

"When I left I started to cry so much, I made a swimming pool in the room."


Prompt about how to teach someone to play a sport:

"When you throw a football, you flick your arm like you were flicking a booger."


Prompt about a favorite trip:

"After about four rides I threw up. I had a blast!" (I don't think he was meaning to be puny, but I absolutely love how this one turned out)

I love grading my students' paragraphs, because they show a depth and a sincerity that often does not show through their hardened, high school facade. It gives me hope that they are diamonds in the rough, and with a little polishing they will turn out well in the end.

Music Mania

I have read numerous articles in past years expressing concern that kids just aren't learning musical instruments as much anymore. Money, opportunity and interest all play a factor in the decrease in musicality in the modern generation.

I was chatting with some of my students today and I asked them what instruments they played.

"Aw, Ms. Warren, my parents made me learn violin," complained one student.

"I studied cello for years," explained another.

"My parents spent a lot of money to get me Rock Bank," stated a student. "I have been really practicing for the last few years and I think I'm getting really good."

Hey, why bother learning real guitar when you can just bust out your skills in a video game?