Shining Thru

Inspiration can come from the most unexpected places.  Sometimes you can search for a muse or inspiration for years or even life times and never find it, but than once you relax and just live life, and inspiration can hit you on your head.  What if you never figure out what you want to be when you grow up?  What if you make your way through life, being very successful, but never really happy.  Never really sure if you are doing the right thing.  People can find inspiration in some of the strangest or smallest, seemingly insignificant things.

I think many people follow a path because it was the first one they came to and they worked hard to advance on it….but sometimes we have to give that up and realize that it’s not what we want for ourselves at all.  Starting over can be hard, but it can also make all of the difference in a person’s life.

If inspiration takes you somewhere you should go with it.  Sometimes it seems like a ridiculous idea but it can happen if you want it to.

Fire burning
Tears stinging
Walking on egg shells again
Tip toe tip toe
Don’t let your emotions show
Brave strong and loving
That is all that is allowed
Quick turn away
Don’t let them see
You’ve been crying again
Hurt and torn
You can’t seem forlorn
Rushing in
Smiles quick
And hugs that bring the love
Never showing
Don’t let them know
The pain and grief you feel

Vibrant Changing colors all around us

The right gold, read, and orange hanging above our heads

Looking up to the brightness of the sky and seeing the rainbow of the tree

Reminds me that it’s my favorite time of the year

Fall brings a certain sort of peace and easiness

A breathe of fresh air after the summer heat gets done cooking the earth

Enjoying the crisp air when you walk outside or leave the windows open is one of the most pleasurable things there can be

But seeing the trees change to a different color, and have it be perfectly natural, is something very special

Right now it’s spring and the blue of the clouds followed by the bright sunny day is beautiful…

But then the nights grow cold and the wind is chilly, the rain drops fall

The flowers are blooming and coming into the glory of the sunshine during the day,

but sometimes wither away at night

Spring is a tricky time, but another time of change and colors blooming all around you

Rainbows and thunderstorms, filled with illuminant blasts of lighting across the sky

The changing of colors, fall or spring, fill you with the blessing of change.

Surrounded by the constant noise and chaos

You look out into the blizzard of reality

Holding back you don’t want to step forward

Holding on you don’t want to fall again

Trying to breathe and calm down the panic that’s rising

Trying to beat back the anxieties and fears

We reach for the one closest and dearest

Hoping that they will reach back and hold us

Needing that love and comfort we wait with open arms

Ready to nestle into the soft gratification of loving passion

We know that you’re there and aren’t leaving

We know that you came when asked for

We realize that Love is the strong netting of our lives.

The question was posed, what do you wish other people understood?  My answer….

I wish people understood that teachers have a life outside of the classroom

That although they care about the students, all 140 students are not their children

I wish people understood that it is not a realistic thought

for a teacher to see a student for one class five times a week and undo 15 years of bad habits or misinformation

I wish people understood that teachers are more than a babysitter

For on a daily basis, a teacher has to play the roles of teacher, mother, father, brother, sister, friend, counselor, nurse, and police officer

I wish people understood how involved a teacher is to their child’s future

….to the future of the country.

I wish people understood that although a school is responsible for the child’s well being during the day,

the parents are still ultimately responsible for the child, and an answer like “they’re your problem until 3″ is just pathetic

I wish people understood that a good teacher doesn’t start work at 8 and leave at 3

That the day begins early to prepare and set up and the grading goes late into the night, and summer vacation without work and preparation, is a far and distant memory

I wish people understood that the disrespect you show your child at home,

or the disrespect you accept from your child at home, gets transferred to the teacher during the day

I wish people understood that a teacher often loves their job,

while not in it for the money, they still has to pay their own bills, provide for their own kids

I wish people understood that not every child comes from a rich family with plenty to eat and love to go around

and that teachers are charged with making up the difference

I wish people understood that along with the academic standards for instruction,

a teacher is also expected to develop character, morals and ethics, behavior, work ethic, etc.

I wish people understood that just because something is announced as a good idea on the news

Doesn’t make it one.

Please check out the details of the new teacher pay bill and consider if we did everyone’s job this way:  a five minute survey after a police officer gives a ticket, or how about the police officer gets docked in pay if the same person gets another ticket for the same offense.  What if we gave a public survey out on all politicians and based their pay on the results?  What if doctor’s lost 30% of their pay because someone came to them with something that simply can’t be cured?  What are we teaching with a bill like this?

I believe this will only keep good teachers away from the students who need them the most.  And it’s funny how the only suggestion they have for getting the school districts more money is to give teachers less.  http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14222574 It’s also interesting that they say that the pay incentive plan has not been set, but they are not saying that something has been released and circulated in the education world, here is what teachers have been said will determine their pay:

-All teachers will be paid on what they do (subject and content areas will determine your pay base)

-All Teachers will go through SAFE-T (ADEPT) every year – 4 evaluations (2 teacher and 2 administrator) – 50% of your score for pay

-Pre and post test data for your students (probably MAP 75% class growth) – 30% of your score for pay

-School collective test data – 10 % of your pay

-Professional responsibility – 5% if your pay (parents and students will be part of the evaluation process)

-Professional development measured by instructional practices – 5% of your score for pay

All of these points are outlined in the bill.  You can gain access to the whole bill at http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess119_2011-2012/bills/3363.htm

The rose petals fall one by one leaving only the thorned handle

You grab it and it pricks the blood from you hand

You throw it but it sticks, you stomp it into the dirt

And turn to walk away but….stop, looking back, now nearly destroyed

The memories of the beautiful petals remain, the vibrant colors in your mind

The soft, perfumed beauty that the stem once held

Seeing what’s left in the dirt makes you pick it up

Feeling the blood pricked once again

Not able to put it back down

Not able to throw it away and begin again

Wishing you could watch it bloom into the beautiful flower it once was

You save it…carrying it…holding it….wishing

But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose. - Anne Bronte

I think there is a lot of truth to this statement and a lot of time we forget, as our society turns more and more towards this feeling of entitlement, that most good things come with some bad, and most bad things come with some good.  I don’t know anyone who likes to get pricked by the thorns of a rose as they pick it off of the bush, but some how, we can’t resist picking it anyway and holding it close to smell the sweetness….even if our fingers are bleeding a little bit, at least we can smile and sigh of delight as we breathe in the fresh scent.

How many people today feel that they are entitled to something for nothing?  I see it all of the time in the younger generation especially.  High school students who feel they don’t need to do the daily work because they should be allowed to have extra credit later….or if they are failing by one point, then it’s their teacher’s fault that they failed because the teacher should have given them that one point.  I don’t know how giving anybody anything, especially at that young age teaches responsibility of any kind.

Sometimes we have to be willing to take the bad with the good.  You want a better paying job, but don’t like the long hours it requires….sometimes that’s the thorn….you want a cute and cuddly baby but don’t want to be up with them all night….sometimes that’s the thorn on the rose…..sometimes you are feeling depressed but a friend calls and brightens your entire day…sometimes that’s the rose.

I think that most things we encounter have the good and the bad…it’s a system of equality that God or the Universe or whatever you believe in came up with to maintain order….besides if we didn’t know what bad was, how would we know what good was?  Have you ever stopped to think if something can exist without an opposite?

The invisible girl at the end of the counter

Waiting again, she sighs and stirs the coffee

Waiting in the shadows alone

Waiting to be seen, but not willing to step out

Knowing there is more out there but feeling trapped

Having memorized the fairytale

Waiting for the magic transformation

Sitting with another bruise and sunglasses

Sitting with as much hurt on the inside

Wanting him to walk in and find her

But dreading the discovery at the same time

Invisible….is the thought

Invisible is the best way

What is the purpose of an education?  Teachers today have to teach their content area, act as a mother/father, counselor, nurse, teach manners, etiquette, coach…and basically just fill in the gaps.  Why is it that some parents can be so wonderful and supportive of their children, while others can’t wait for school to start back up because they feel like schools provide free child care and comes with statements like:  “let them deal with them” or “they’re your problem now.”  It amazes me that some people don’t even want to own up to the fact that they have children, have no interest in raising them, simply give birth and leave it at that.

It’s amazing how some kids can be sent to school without having had anything to eat, no money, and haven’t slept at all the night before for whatever reason.  Then teachers are suppose to get that child ready for college when that kid really needs a good home life, not to know his times tables.  Not that they don’t need an education or don’t deserve it, but how can we expect these children to concentrate on academic work when all that they can think about is how hungry they are?

Are teachers suppose to work on the character of the student, the academics of the student, the extracurricular activities and abilities of the student, or supporting the student?  The truth is that they are expected to do all of that and make sure that the child is ready for college and “the real world.”

Today teachers are held accountable, which sounds like a good idea, until you realize that the people coming up with the standards and the evaluation process have never had anything to do with education.  They aren’t putting the students first, they are putting the numbers first, and that is not the way to help our students.

A peek at spring was here today

Warm weather and loving the idle strip tease

The snow is gone, the grass and trees bare to the sun that shines

The sun shining down on us, reminding us of what will be here soon

Trying to remember the sun, heat and green grass

We see some of it today and hope the freeze over will not come again

Is it a tease without touching?  Or is it there to stay for the season?

Can we expect the same tomorrow, or was it a one day offering?

A pleasant reminder or a tease?

Leaving you to wait for the whole pleasure

We wait wondering if we can stand the drastic change and backward motion

Can we bare to see the winter wind come back and the isolation set back in around the tree that appears dead?

Or can we wait to see the green grass spring up and the leaves sprout out to fully enjoy the warmth?