ground squirrels > mint julips

today my cooperating teacher, ms. joliet, randomly pulled me out of my 1st block world history class & asked me to watch her economics class for a few minutes while they were finishing up a test. this usually wouldn't have been that weird of a request...as far as the kids knew she just had to use the restroom, talk to an administrator, or some other random teacher thing. the cool part about student teaching is that i get to see into the "world" of those mysterious, seemingly professional people we call teachers. turns out ms. joliet needed me to cover her class because a ground squirrel snuck into her house last night and had been pestering her family ever since. ms. joliet was making a call to the local pest control man so he could "take care of business" before she got home from school. ground squirrels beware; my cooperating teacher don't play.

oh yeah, one more thing. in my 3rd block econ class the students were taking the same test as 1st. the difference: 3rd block has lunch in the middle of the period. so as the students reentered the classroom from lunch today, i officially earned my first hour's worth of credit toward my certificate in social studies teacher dork-ness...i made a point to stand at the doorway and greet each student by proclaiming, "welcome back to test land!" oh yes, i said it. maybe that earns me more than one credit??

i'll admit. thus far the blog hasn't really been that earth-shattering. maybe we'll get to that later on though...such is life.

old-ness

in about two hours, i'll take a standardized test that will determine whether or not i receive certification to teach world history &/or united states history in the state of georgia. needless to say, a decent bit of my teaching career hinges on this test (at least if i teach in georgia any time soon). that sounds pretty intense now that i type it out...that's not the point though. the point is that i've studied & i'm chasing after this career that i feel the Lord has led me to because of the huge impact it will have on others. and i'm trusting the Lord with the outcome of all this.

..:: right now
i'm praying for focus, concentration during the test; ability to push through distractions and keep my focus on the end goal; and that even in something as seemingly neutral as taking a test, God will grant me the opportunity to love those around me as He has loved me.

5:30am, gumption, & mint julips

sometimes i'm just gonna write about everyday stuff. because it's fun. and we're always learning something, so why not share it?

i woke up this morning at 5:30...yes, 5:30am willingly. after an unwelcoming shower, some coffee, life cereal, and a few minutes in the Word, i headed out for high school all over again. yes, i said high school...you see, i'm student teaching this semester. i'll let you know later on if student teaching = being fed to the wolves. for now, here's our story...

i walked into the classroom and the first thing i heard was ms. joliet (not her real name btw) gettin' after some poor parent over the phone about their student's eoct exam grade from last semester. i say 'poor' because ms. joliet abides by a very simple, straighforward thought, which she recites fairly liberally: "say what you mean, mean what you say." and she doesn't seem to care how what she says will be received if it's truth. i admire that about ms. joliet already. there is some heavy weight in being able to share truth, whether it's having the gumption to tell a parent that their kid flat out didn't work hard enough to pass a test that determines whether or not he will graduate, or that sometimes living for Christ really does mean that we will suffer for His glory.

now for the reason 5:30am and mint julips are mentioned together & i am not a drunk. we spent the first half of the economics period going over the class syllabus, including the discipline protocol; pretty typical. what's not typical though was the way ms. joliet explained part of the 'no cell phones' rule. after telling the students that she would basically end their lives if she caught them using their phones in any way, she proceeded to explain that she could use her own cell phone whenever she wanted to because she would not be either "talking to her girlfriends about how they want to sit around drinking mint julips on saturday afternoon" or "asking her husband what they're gonna have for dinner." the kids seemed to like the mint julips example; i did too.


next up ..:: retrospective blog wrapping up some things God showed me at passion::2010

lowercase nugs. explained.

before we get to anything else, let's clarify why the title of this blog is lowercase nugs before anyone jumps to any outrageous conclusions about me or my thought process.

::the lowercase part::..
this is the less "heinous" part of the title. in the english language, people use capitalization as a way to express proper nouns (you know - certain names, places, ideas, et cetera). for most of us using capitalization is pretty common sense. we do it at the beginning of sentences so they're a little more comfortable to read, for our given names, to distinguish "Dad" from "a dad" - you get the picture. for the typical american, i would say it's safe to say that our elementary school language arts teachers drilled us with grammar and writing exercises for years so that we would know how to communicate (at least somewhat) effectively and, ultimately, represent ourselves in a professional manner. this blog is about "communicating effectively" or i wouldn't bother spending time on it. it is not so much about the "professional manner" part though. this will be casual.

i chose this part of the title for two major reasons...

1. i want to create awareness that there are much bigger and more important things in our lives that is bigger than us. they're bigger than you. than me. than any one person at all. so you will very rarely see me capitalize anything on this blog.
2. this blog isn't professional. it's just me throwing out thoughts, ideas, stories to stir up some thoughts and entertainment.

::the nugs part::..
notable definitions of 'nugs' on urbandictionary.com...

• "a high quality bud of marijuana." {my least favorite definition and has absolutely nothing to do with my reasons for naming the blog like i have; probably most commonly recognized def. though}
• "a very well taken photograph that includes extreme clarity, interesting subject matter, and great composition." {for the most part i won't use photographs, but the rest of this definition describes what i'm aiming to do with this}
• "military term for a newbie or green troop. it’s actually the pronuncation of the acronymn n.u.g., or new ugly guy." {because i'm the newbie at blogging}

my own interpretation of nugs...short for 'nugget' of truth or wisdom. sounds pretty intense, i know, but i hope some of what i write will reflect some level of truth or wisdom that i am learning and encourage you to do the same.