I am a teacher

I know I’ve casually mentioned it a time or two, so you may already know this, but I am a teacher. 



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Technically I’m supposed to be doing International Public Relations because that’s what I studied in college.  During my senior year at Texas A&M (WHOOP!!!), and with graduation fast approaching, my friend Rosie and I went to an International Job Fair at Texas State University.  While walking around, we were immediately pounced upon by a lady who overheard us speaking to each other in Spanish.  I say “pounced” because literally that’s how it happened! LOL!! 

The “pouncer” turned out to be the (at that time) Director of Bilingual Education for my district.  Ooops!  She had a principal interview me on the spot and then literally called me every other day for a week until I finally agreed to come to Houston to tour/interview at a school that she had in mind for me.  She insisted I had the perfect personality to be a teacher at the intermediate level (5^th/6^th grades) and that she had the perfect principal/school for me.  I finally caved and came; I figured if all else failed, I could teach for a year and make some decent money while I looked for my “real job” at an International PR firm.

I still laugh EVERY TIME I remember having said this!  A “real job?”  How pompous of me!!  There is no job that is more REAL than teaching!!



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I ended up ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT that first year and went back and did an Alternative Certification Program to get certified.  I started teaching, right out of college at age 22…and here I am, about to start my 12^th year and I enjoy it more and more every year.  I have no desire to be a counselor, no desire to be an administrator.  No offense to those that have climbed that ladder; I rejoice in their ambition and success!  It’s just that I finally, really, really know my place.  My place is in the classroom.  Teaching and scaring and molding the children that will one day be the adults that control our future.   

My mother insists that she always knew I would teach.  I don’t know how; I guess it’s a case of “mother-knows-best” because pretty much my entire life I said I was going to be one of three things:

1)   a Respiratory Therapist – I decided this came when I was diagnosed with Asthma as a child

2)   an author - I’ve always been a book nerd and used to want to write one too!

3)   a lawyer – this one lasted the longest, even through college, where I majored in Communications and International Studies because I thought I might eventually do International Law.  Matter of fact, I occasionally still entertain thoughts of going back to law school…shhh…don’t tell anyone! #itsaBIGsecret

I guess the BIG man upstairs, my momma, and the "pouncer" Ed knew what they were talking about after all!

I am a 5^th grade Reading/Language Arts/ Social Studies teacher, and have had the privilege of teaching in the same school district, under the same principal for eleven years.  Yep, that’s right, that would the fabulous lady that I talked about here.  And while I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed my summer break, I must admit I am kind of ready to go back!

This week was the first time we could get into our classrooms so I took advantage of it and went up on Wednesday and Thursday to get some work done.  This year I’ll have a new classroom, a new partner (well kind of, we taught together as part of a three way seven years ago), and will be going fully Bilingual after five years as being part of a Monolingual/Bilingual split.  Plus…and this is the saddest part of the whole thing…I will no longer be partners with Linda, my wonderful partner of four years!!!!  *moment of silence as I mourn* #veklempt

The good thing is that Linda’s classroom will still be diagonal from mine and that we are all still in the same “pod” and on the same team so I’ll still get to work closely with her.  Here’s what our pod will look like:

 

my new partner	Linda
MY NEW ROOM!!	her new partner (and my old room)

Luckily, I was only moving next door, so it wasn’t too bad!  It was waaaaay better than last year, when I had to move across the entire school and out of the classroom that I had been in for seven years.

I was able to get my library, small group and desk area set up and did a whole lot of organizing, arranging, and cleaning.  What I am most proud of, though, is the fact that I purged.  “Purged” as in I went through and cleaned out every single file in my file cabinet, threw away stuff that I hadn’t touched in years away, and REALLY, for the first time in a long time EVER, made myself get rid of stuff that I knew I was not going to use and no longer needed.  It felt so good doing that; actually “good” does not even begin to describe it!  I’m glad I went up early and did this because I was able to take my time without any distractions (I love to stop and talk to my friends), which is exactly what I needed to be able to do the job properly.

Here are a few pics of what my new classroom looks like now.

Small Group area.

Library area.

Back cabinets, and some of the student's desks, already in groups.



My desk/computer/projector area, up in the front of the room by the board.

 

The hardest part is done, thankfully, and I’ll focus on the actual decorating when we officially go back on the 20^th.   I’ll have it all nice and purty by the time the children come back on the 27^th. 

I’ve been perusing several teacher boards and blogs that I found through Pinterest, and pinning lots of stuff to my “Getting’ My TEACH On” board in preparation for going back to school. 



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There are some seriously talented teachers out there with some BEAUTIFUL classroom themes!!  I’ve never been one to have an actual theme; well, except for two years ago when everything was – are you ready for this??? – food related.  I made posters that said things like:

“Reading – it’s food for thought” (for my reading anchor chart wall)

“Digital Bytes” (for my computer area), and

“Dig in to a good book” (for my library area)

How funny (but not at all surprising) that my food obsession spills over into my classroom too! 

Anyway, this year I’ll still use those posters but I won’t have an actual theme, I don’t think.  I usually just try to make my classroom warm and inviting, colorful, and pretty.  Pretty, of course, because I refuse to live/teach/be mean (mean? me??? never!!) in a classroom that is not PRETTY! ;-)  Sometimes you just #gottadowhatyougottado! LOL

I promise the AFTER pictures will be more exciting than the before pictures are.  J

PS – I think I’ve pretty much decided that when school starts again, Tuesday’s will be dedicated to “Teacher Tuesday’s.”  I’ll talk about teacher stuff and/or random tangents where I’ll tell you funny stuff going on at school.  For my fellow teachers that already know and can attest to this, and for those of you who don’t quite know it yet, you’ll see that:

1)     there is NEVER a dull moment in the classroom, which makes for really great dinner-table conversations, and

2)     kids say the darndest things, especially 5^th and 6^th graders because they are at that age!

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Hope you’ll stay tuned! J

The family that plays together

They say the family that plays together stays together. 

 

This saying is definitely true when it comes to my father’s side of the family, the Murphy’s.  This weekend was the annual Murphy Family Reunion in College Station/Bryan; it’s held every third weekend in July.  This was the hubs, bambina, and my second year attending.  Here is a picture of my brothers and sisters from my father’s side of the family.

James Jr. (T), Eric, Bernard, Me, Dorena, Jarlene

Although I wasn’t raised around this side of my family, we have come together and bonded like we have always been in each other’s lives.  It was just me growing up; I was an only child on my mother’s side and while it had it’s advantages, I was kinda lonely!  The good thing is that I now have all the brothers, sister, cousins, nieces and nephews that I always wanted! 

Since there were so many years when we weren’t together, we’ve decided to not waste any more time and fully embrace being one big (and I do mean big) happy family!

Just a small fraction of the family.

This was definitely another successful family reunion and I look forward to maaaaaany more years of these annual summer get-togethers in one of my favorite places of the world!

View from one side of campus.

 

We arrived in College Station On Friday afternoon and went straight to lunch with one of my favorite family’s ever: Rachel, one of my girlfriends from this group, her husband Luis, and their precious son!

Rachel, Luis, and their handsome boy!

Friends for twelve years!

Primos (cousins)!

After lunch we got checked into the hotel and rested up because the Fish Fry started at 6:00pm at a park in Bryan.  After the fish fry we came back to the hotel, I went for a night run on campus and then we went and hung out by the pool with the family.

Saturday morning I got up and went for an early morning run around campus again.  This time, I went all the way down University Drive to the Northgate area, which is right across the street from the dorm I lived in the first two years in school.  I ran 3.5 miles but took it way easy because I was stopping along the way to take pictures.

View from University Drive.

 

Saw this view everyday because I lived in the first dorm on the right (Hobby Hall).

Administration and Meteorology buildings.

Kyle Field (on the left) from afar!

I came back, got cleaned up and met my brother for breakfast.  Is there anything better than hotel waffles?!?!  There’s just something about that turn over waffle iron!  My home-made waffles never quite come out like that!

After breakfast, I took a nap with the hubs and our little one and then we got ready to go the Lincoln Recreation Center for the bar-b-que.  It was the perfect place, since we had picnic tables set up for everyone to eat at and the gym area where the kids played for the entire day.  Well, not just the kids because at one point there were dodge ball games where my brother and husband joined in on the fun!

We enjoyed lots of delicious food and family time where we all sat around and got caught up on the past year’s activities and happenings.  It was nice to see everyone, including some new faces that we hadn’t gotten to meet last summer. 

Later, we headed back to the hotel, rested up a little more, and then went out to the pool again where we all spend the rest of the night.  The adults sat around chatting, cooking, drinking…and the kids were in the pool.  It was a lot of fun!

Eboni (neice), myself, Shar (cousin).

There was no early-morning run for me the next morning, however!  I was too tired because all of the weekend’s excitement and movement finally caught up with me.  We all met at our annual meet-before-heading-out place, my cousins’ Blynthia and Chuck’s house.  We had summer sausage, cheese and crackers and got our last chats in before we all headed our separate ways.

From the lunch with one of our favorite families on Friday, to the reunion and family time on Saturday and Sunday, overall it was a beautiful weekend!  If the saying is true, and the family that plays together stays together, then this family is one that will definitely continue to prosper for many years to come. J  

Thankful Thursday, 7.19

Here is a list of some of the things I am thankful for today:

1 The health and fitness blogging community

…for all of the positive feedback to the post I wrote yesterday about the “Survive on 35” challenge.  Thank you for all the emails, tweets, retweets, and positive comments!

2 Alief ISD

…the district that I work for, for its dedication to furthering our education as teachers, and providing awesome professional developments that we actually look forward to going to…and don’t fall asleep through.  Matter of fact, today’s session was riveting and I learned a lot of valuable information that will reinforce and improve my teaching!

3  Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, for:

-         writing an extremely useful book, which helped to make my 11^th year of teaching that much more fun and rewarding, by enabling my ability to share my LOVE for reading and books with my students

-         helping me, to feel like for the 1^st time ever I genuinely instilled that same love for reading into my children (I mean, they were even asking their parents for Nooks and Kindles for Christmas this year!)

-         being a captivating speaker

She had our full attention!

          -         having a marvelously witty sense of humor

-         for making the seven hours pass like it was 30 minutes

-         for conducting the professional development session like it was all of us teachers just sitting around talking shop, and for…well…

-         sitting around talking shop with me and my two friends and co-workers, Kim and Alicia, after everyone else had already left  

-         saying – and I think it’s testament to just how down-to-Earth she is – (when I asked her to pose for a picture with me) – “I’m a regular teacher just like you!”

-         oh, yeah, and for posing for said picture with me:

Me with Donalyn Miller.  Lucky me!

4 Having great co-workers that I truly enjoy working with!

I was looking forward to seeing them today, and even got to enjoy a tasty sushi lunch with three of them – Kim, Alicia, and Michelle.  These ladies are not just co-workers, they are friends too, and I feel fortunate because I know that not everyone is blessed enough to be able to say that!  Kim and Michelle are fellow teachers – and believe me when I say they are pros and I have learned so much from hem and hope to be as least half as good as teacher as they are one day!  Alicia is our librarian and she has done a phenomenal job of stocking our library with the latest and greatest in children’s and young adult literature!  When I want a good book to read, or an honest opinion of one, she is my go-to gal.  Today’s session – and Donalynn Miller’s belief in giving kids time to actually read and enjoy books – was exactly what we all expected and more!

5 Naps

…because after staying up waaaaay too late last night, and tossing and turning all through the night for fear I would oversleep, and actually getting dressed and having to be somewhere all day – a routine I have fallen out of now that I am enjoying my summer off – I was able to come home and take a nice l o o o o n g  nap!!!  Which was a good thing, too, because on the way home I knew I would have to wait to run because the sky looked like this:

Hello, Mother Nature!

I love naps, though sometimes it seems my naps are so long and deep, they’re actually more like hibernation!  I woke up rested and refreshed and ready for my night run with Bella.

Bright eyed and bushy-tailed and ready for my run!

My Bella-bo-Bella!

Yes, I did it again!  I slept so long that I had to go for another night run.  Unlike the last time, though, this one wasn’t as late.  Here are Bella and I’s stats from our run:

She’s getting better and better at actually letting me run!

 

6 Murphy Family Reunion

Tomorrow we will be meeting my father’s side of the family in College Station (WHOOP!!!) for the annual Murphy Family Reunion.  I am looking forward to a weekend filled with family, fellowship and good food…and I can’t wait!!!  The bonus is that the reunion is in my old stomping grounds since I AM AN AGGIE (Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 2001 – WHOOP!!) and going to College Station always feels like going home!  I am so ecstatic and I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep (again) tonight because of the excitement!!!!!

I am definitely blessed to be blessed, and am thankful for all the wonderful things in my life!

Five Questions for you:

1. What things are you thankful for today? 
2. Have you ever read Donalyn Miller’s “The Book Whisperer”?
3. How long do you usually sleep when you take a nap?
4. Any AGGIES out there? What was your major and what year did you graduate?
5. Any other teachers out there?  What do you teach and what age group?

Ode to friendship

My reunion this past weekend was just as incredible as I expected it to be!

The fam dropped me off at my friend Cristina’s house and after visiting with the husbands and children for a while she and I hit the road for Austin.  We arrived right on time for our lunch date, and chose a table out on the empty patio because we knew with six women all talking at the same time we would probably get loud. J We ordered Mimosas and chatted while we waited for the others to join us.  Dianne, our mommy-to-be, was the first to get there and Jenny, our starlet arrived next.  Rachel and Ashley (who rode together) came soon after and our group was complete.  Well, not entirely complete, actually.  Sadly, there was one special lady missing from our group.  Our girl Rosie lives in Hawaii and between having a newborn (and her other four girls and stepchildren), work obligations, and trying to finish up her dissertation, she was unable to make the trip.  Yes, we think she is Superwoman too!  We missed her dearly and talked about how much we loved her so we wouldn’t miss her so much!

 

Over lunch we started catching up on each other’s lives.  The last time we had all gotten together was for Dianne’s wedding in January of 2011 so as you can imagine, we had a lot of catching up to do! 

Dianne, Ashley, Cristina, Rachel, Jenny

I ordered a grilled portobella sandwich on whole wheat toast.  The food was yummy but the drinks and the company were even better! 

After lunch we decided to head over to Dianne’s house, but first made a grocery store run for snacks and vino.  We wanted to be well stocked! 

When we got there, we got to re-meet her hubs, Brian.  I say re-meet because although we met Brian at the wedding, the bride and groom were busy entertaining all of their guests that night so we hadn’t gotten to chat with him that much.  Di and Bri’s house was soooo cute!  Almost as cute as being able to call them “Di and Bri”!  It was the perfect size house, with a nice layout and color scheme with lots of grays, and blues.  My favorite part was how they managed to blend their modern color palette and décor with homey touches that really made their home feel so cozy and comforting!  I expected nothing less, though, coming from my precious Diane!

We sat around and chatted for the next NINE hours.  Yes, that’s right, I said nine hours.  We started out snacking on some wine, grapes, strawberries, cheese and crackers, sliced salami, hummus and some dill dip and ended the night with pizza and chocolate chip cookies.  We also, between the five of us, finished off quite a few bottles of wine!  Our house-Sommelier, Rachel, had brought three bottles of red with her and there were also some great Chardonnays around the table.  Since Dianne couldn’t drink, the rest of us definitely made up for it and drank enough for her and us! J 

It was a magnificent night of camaraderie, sitting around the table eating, drinking, and spilling our guts.  It was like a good therapy session, only better because it was free and a lot more fun!  What I love most about this group of women is that although we are all so different, at the heart of it all we are alike in many ways, and that’s what bonds us together.  I feel like our friendship is like a metaphor for life.  We are all from different places, different backgrounds, different races, we hardly ever see or talk to each other, we are technically not a part of each other’s daily lives…and yet IT WORKS because we focus on our similarities and not our differences. 

Our main commonality is the love that we have for each other and the desire to maintain that love, and our friendship, in spite of those differences.  We all look forward to our get-togethers (although they don’t happen that often), and when we come together we pick up from where we left off, as if no time or space had ever come between us.  When we come together, we are, for that time, transformed.  We become the same young girls we were when we all met, before jobs, husbands, and babies.  We act silly and laugh, and sometimes even cry, like schoolgirls.  And yet, above all else, what makes our friendship thrive is that we have been able to evolve together, and cultivate our friendship through it all: young loves and heartbreaks, courtships and marriages, new jobs and crazy career changes and, of course, the joys of babies and motherhood. 

We support each other and empower each other, but are always honest with each other and tell each other like it is.  The history we share allows us to impart honest wisdom and advice that we may not feel comfortable enough to share in our other friendships.  I can really be myself with these girls.  They know all of my quirks and perks and love me anyway!  I know that no matter where I go or what I do, I will always have these ladies by my side, even if it is (mostly) in spirit!  I foresee many more yearly reunions and can see myself celebrating our children’s Quinceañeras, Sweet Sixteen’s, High School graduations, college graduations, marriages and grandbabies together! 

More than friends, we are family, we are sisters, and I treasure these girls!  I am truly blessed to have them and thank God for the day I decided (on a whim) to go study abroad in Mexico City!  Along with the opportunity to improve my Spanish, celebrate my heritage, and sightsee, in Mexico I gained lifetime friendships.

After we were all talked out and tuckered out, and our bellies were full, we came back to the hotel, talked for a bit longer and went to sleep.  We all slept late the next morning (none of our babies around to wake us up early), and met for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.  We figured it was fitting, and enjoyed some food that transported us back to our time in el DF.  We enjoyed our lunch, said our goodbyes and each went our separate ways, down different roads.

Cris and I came home and after my family arrived, we spent some time at her house with her family, and her parents.  We ate a delicious dinner, and ended the night Samba-ing in her kitchen.  My favorite things in life, all in one weekend: family, friends, food, and dancing…it really doesn’t get much better than that!

This is my ode to friendship and the superb ladies that love me, support me, encourage me, enrich my life and make it even more delightful.

May our roads lead us back together again soon.

Five Favs Friday

I want to take a moment to gush about the five things that I am loving right now. 

1. Summer fruit

…because it is so readily available, so fresh, and it’s all of my favorites, in season at the same time!  Strawberries, cantaloupe, mangos, pineapple, honeydew, watermelon.  I am obsessed with these right now and keep a constant supply of them in my kitchen.  I also incorporate them into every meal and snack.  My favorite breakfast right now:

Fruity Summer Breakfast

1 cup cottage cheese (or greek yogurt)
½ c diced strawberries
½ c diced pineapple
handful of blueberries
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
drizzle of honey

**to kick the nutrition aspect up a notch (and make it even more heart-healthy), sometimes I sprinkle Chia seeds or ground up flax seed on it**

Talk about DELISH!!  And what makes it even better is that it’s healthy and filling!

2. Blogs

…because I love to read them and even have a list of them that I blog-stalk (read) every day.  Starting a blog was something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while and finally got up the courage to start one!  There were so many reasons why I wanted to start a blog…as well as reasons why I just hadn’t gotten around to doing it yet.  There was the issue of time, I couldn’t find the right name for it, and didn’t know where or how to get started.  I finally took the plunge and am happy that my blog will turn two weeks old tomorrow!  I enjoy writing my posts, and have found that my favorite part is that I get to keep a written (and visual) account of my crazy, eclectic life.  As a bonus: it’s therapeutic.  Instead of retail therapy, this is my blog therapy. J

3. My RUNstreak

…because it is forcing me to find at least 25-30 minutes a day to work out.  The truth is, that we are never too busy to work out, although we often come up with a ton of excuses.  My philosophy is that in life there is always time for what we MAKE time for.  There are 1,440 minutes in a day; it’s not impossible to find 30 of them to exercise.  Do something…anything!  Run, bike ride, walk around the neighborhood.  The more active we get, the better!  In my family, we make it a family affair so we can get our daughter involved too because I think it’s important to teach her healthy habits and making exercise a daily activity is one of them!  It’s good for the body and good for the mind! Endorphins rock! J

With my run last night I completed Day 27, and June’s almost over which means one month down, two to go.  And so Leti’s Summer RUNstreak continues…

4. Free time – and sleep (sometimes)

…because I actually have time to DO SOME STUFF!!!  Being a teacher, I look forward to this time of the year because it’s my time to rest, relax, and (most importantly) rejuvenate.  In the summer everything is better simply because I have more time to DISFRUTAR (Spanish for ENJOY…although I don’t think the English word captures it quite like the Spanish word does).  During the summer I’m not in such a rush to get home and grade papers or work on lesson plans so I have more time to enjoy the places we go, the food we eat (and the restaurants we eat at), and the family activities we love to do.   I get to stay up late, which is great for me because I’m a night owl, and I even have time to go have coffee and go on dinner dates with the hubs occasionally! 

Everyone always talks about how “lucky” us teachers are to have so much time off and how good we have it to get three months off for the summer.  Let me be frank for a moment, if I may, and I think most teachers I know would agree with me when I say this: Trust me, by the time May rolls around, IT IS TIME.  The children are tired, we are tired, and we have all had enough together time to last us a good while.  We NEED that time off!  If it weren’t for the summer, I’m not sure we would be as effective…or sane!  Trust me, it’s better for everyone involved for us to have that time off.  Otherwise, as one of my crazy teacher friends so hillariously put it, “someone somewhere would probably get hurt.”

As of yesterday at 3:15pm, I am officially off for the summer.  With that being said, I’m the kind of person that has to stay busy.  Therefore, being the good nerd with OCD (or CDO - have you seen that pin on Pinterest?) tendencies that I am, I have created a “Summer Projects” list.  Lucky for me, as soon as I scratch one thing off I usually add one or two new ones.  I can’t wait to get started!  But first I think I’ll take the weekend off (and start my projects on Monday) because I have my big Mexico City Girls reunion this weekend in Austin!

5. June 30 – July 1

…because I get to see MY GIRLS!!!!  This weekend I get to spend time with Rachel, Cristina, Ashley, Dianne, and Jenny (we'll miss you Rosie)!  You know those movies/shows/books where the main character has a group of friends that she meets, bonds, and fall in love with…and then reunites with once a year for the rest of their lives?  Well that’s us!!!  I met this beautiful group of girls when we all did an International Public Relations Study Abroad in Mexico City, México in the summer of 2000.  We hung out, worked in International PR internships, and traveled all over México that summer.  We came back to the states, graduated (from Texas A&M University – WHOOP!!!) and have remained friends with each other, and the friends we met there, ever since.

In about 24 hours from now we are going to meet in Austin to hang out, eat some good food, drink a little vino, relax, and catch up…and I CANNOT WAIT!!!

I’m off to do some laundry, a little shopping, and to pack.  Get ready, Austin, because here we come!!! J

5 ?’s for you:

1. What things are you loving right now?
2. What are some of your favorite blogs that I absolutely have to check out?
3.  What are your favorite fruits and how do you incorporate them into your meals?
4.  How often do you work out?
5. Do you have a “girlfriends” group? How often do you get together and what kinds of activities do you do when you see each other?