again

I had another fabulous Sunday long funrun. I went a longer distance and a shorter time. Am I stud or was the temperature lower? And, I'm not as tired, but my right knee went a little wonky minutes 20-35 then straightened out by the end of the run. I should ice.

I attended a service of a church plant that a sincere chap started. I find him endearing. However, I did not find a new church home. But, as I waded through the service and read through the bulletin, I discovered that I wanting a church with a strong teaching component. The church's mother church (or whatever it's called) is having a spiritual formation mini-retreat and September Wednesday night classes. And not on flakey abstraction, which proves you're hip. The classes I'm interested in are one on the history and uses of creeds and catechisms in a healthy faith. And, one of my favorite Christian thinkers and doers is teaching a class on Romans. As you can tell, these opportunities perked me up and alerted me to something I've been missing. I love learning meaty stuff. I hope it's meaty.

I spent 6.5 hours in my classroom yesterday. With all my mom's backing and my sister's work and planning, the room is starting to look like a classroom. I'm going to really like it and maybe the students will too. I have a lot of plants. And, my sister found cool non-teachery objects to hang on the wall. For instance, she got this huge poster of elephants and a mask to symbolize sub-saharan Africa, and a poster of a painting of a pagoda and oriental fans for Asia. My sister's decoration is such an excellent entrance for imagination and connection. But, my mom urged me not to make it busy; she said kids don't need access to information (they have tons of information); they need ways to process, interpret, analyze and synthesize data.

And, the shape of my classes' schedules is beginning to form. The pacing guide for Social Studies is actually useful; the one for Language Arts is noteably less so. The LA dissects the part of a story as if you can teach plot separate from character, etc; I find that problematic on so many levels. Of course, I'm a veteran teacher with valuable and valued opinions.

I'm also figuring my out of teaching schedule; I'm guessing I'll work at least 55 hours a week this year. Training for my marathon will be a priority. So will spiritual direction. Questions: small group and writing group. Do I cull these because neither benefits me? I enjoy both, but I can't detect any growth because of them. Inertia is not good logic. Along the same lines, I so wish I had a church I felt at home in. Do I make do with the familiar and the okay while I transition into a time, energy and emotion-sucking job?

I need to invest in a magic-eight ball.

Mandy, you should move to Charlotte. Please. I need kindred spirits who run. Jerry? Tim? Jenny? Andrea? Greg? Pretty please.