so much to say

I'm trying to think of all that's happened since I last updated... I'll try my best...

Things at school have seemed to slow down a little bit, but it seems like everything else has picked up. Only one more week until Spring Break!!

So last week was quite traumatic. I administered my first official ELA TAKS test. Now, here's the thing you need to know about the TAKS test. Students must pass every TAKS test in order to graduate, which means my job (and the jobs of all teachers) depend on these results. It's a very secure test, and we have to go through all this training and paper work just to stand on our feet all day and monitor the test. The actual test day wasn't so bad, but I sure hope the 11th graders did good. If they get an over all 95% then I get a bonus in November :)

But it wasn't just the TAKS that made my week traumatic. Last Thursday, a fight broke out in my class. Now I don't mean a petty argument, I mean a full-out fist fight. Now it certainly was over something silly and was a fight between friends, but regardless, my heart was racing and I was pretty upset with these boys. I spent a long time talking with the police and AP's afterwards. At least it got me out of class.....

This week we are focusing on teen deaths related to drunk driving. Today was really cool. They brought out two cars on the street in front of the school that had been wrecked, and simulated an accident. The police, EMT, corner, etc. all came. It was very moving and way to realistic. The actors had blood all over them, they even took someone on a CareFlight. The students really seemed to be moved by it. Every 15 mins over the loud speaker we hear 10 seconds of a heart beat to symbolize another life lost to drunk driving, and "The Grim Reaper" has been paying classes a visit and removing someone from the room to also symbolize the deaths. Someone then reads an obituary for the student. Tomorrow, the parents of the students who were "killed" will be on campus for a mock memorial service, but there will also be a family here who really did lose a child to drunk driving. What a powerful statement.

I have a few workshops to attend this week, one is on the choking game which has become quite popular on campuses. My school had a student die just before January from this game. Her parents will be present at the workshop.

Spring Break is almost here! Daniel and I will be meeting up in Austin with my parents, Leah, Sarah, Isaiah, and Melody. I am VERY excited. It's been way too long since I have seen family. WAY TOO LONG!

I'm attempting to finish The Host, but I'm having a hard time getting into it... maybe over Spring Break...

I feel like God is trying to prepare my heart for something. Just the things I've been learning in my quiet times, at church, and in small groups kind of all point towards that. It never ceases to amaze me how those different settings can all be "unintentionally" teaching me the same thing. I love being apart of HIStory.