Update

My lack of blogging probably says a little bit about how crazy and busy life has been lately!

Mitchell and I have been very busy with work. Last week, we had the opporunity to go to Sky Ranch with our students. It was exhausting, but a great time to bond with the kiddos outside of the classroom. We had a good time with them and are both very glad that we went. The retreat consisted of leadership and team building activities. Although they missed a few days of class to go to camp, I am sure they learned many more life lessons than they learned in my English class:)

This past weekend was the OU-TX football game. It felt good to knock Texas out of the top 25 for the first time in 10 years. We had a bunch of friends from OU staying with us, which was a lot of fun. We miss our community and the people in Norman so much! I miss going to a coffee shop several times a day to have hour long conversations with friends. That was the life! We often laugh when we think about what we considered to be a "busy day" in college. HA! Friends who are still in college, enjoy every moment. Your busy day is not THAT busy.

Boomer has a friend staying with us for the week. Her name is Ella, and she is my friend from work's dog. My friend (Sara) is at Sky Ranch with the 11th and 12th graders, so we offered to watch her dog. It is pretty crazy to have two big dogs in the apartment, but we are dog lovers so it's all good!

Some of you may be wondering what I am teaching in my classes. Well, that is a great question. Teaching English is hard. It is very subjective and there are so many different ways that you could run your classroom. All of my classes just finished their first major unit exam. Because of this, I have spent countless hours grading the past week or so! In 8th grade, we are reading Animal Farm. We are currently talking about the characters in the book and analyzing their motivations. I am excited to introduce their project soon. They will create a talk show video and each person will analyze a character in the book. We are writing in journals, learning SAT words and practicing "active reading." In 7th grade, we are beginning the writing process. The past couple of days we have been talking about point of view. I had fun reading some children's books today to show examples. I think it took them back to 1st grade for a moment:) They are also working on a major writing project that will be due in a few weeks. Also, they are working on vocabulary/spelling lists and are reading a book by Gary Paulsen. I know that we need to be very focused on their performance on TAKS in the spring, but really my goal is for my students to somehow become passionate about reading and writing outside of class. I wish I could tell more funny stories or talk about students, but I don't think I am allowed to do that online. Sometimes Mitchell and I leave work frustrated by crazy things that kids did or said, but usually we are laughing about it by the time we go to bed.

Mitchell really likes his job. I laughed because today he got observed by our superintendent and he just happened to be teaching about male and female reproductive systems in his health class...HAHA!!! He was required to teach that today because he was just following the book, but I still thought it was funny. What an awkward day to get observed! Mitchell went on two Sky Ranch trips since he teaches so many grade levels for his engineering classes. He had a great time and the kids LOVE him. I have even gotten "Mrs. Greer, Mr. Greer is way cooler than you are." Wow, thanks kid. Or this one- "Mrs. Greer, Mr. Greer is sooo funny and fun." *Two minutes later* "You know, you guys are very opposite." I guess I should start bursting out in song during class like Mitchell, haha!

Monday is fair day, AKA the best teacher holiday ever. Even though the day is mostly filled with doctor/dentist appointments that we scheduled in advance, it will be nice to have the day off.

We are still deciding between two churches but are almost positive that we are going to go to Providence, which is a church in Dallas. The church is a plant of PCPC. The pastor is great and we like just about everything about the church. We really want to get involved in bible studies or small groups, but unfortunatley we have time conflicts with just about every option.

Sorry about my typos. 10:30 is way past my bedtime. I thought I should probably not completely abandon this blog though.

We love you, dear friends and family! Sorry for being MIA lately.