invention convention

It's hard to believe that a whole week has gone by since I last blogged. This is hard to believe for two reasons: (1) this week has been dreadfully slow, exhausting, and just draining, and (2) it has been super busy so I haven't had any time to really do anything. You would think that since the week was so busy that it would go by fast. It usually does, but for some odd reason, that wasn't the case this week.

So we're in the fourth and final quarter of the school year. We still have SEVEN whole weeks to go, which in the grand scheme of things is not much. This is the final push to get done everything we haven't done all year, and yet it's the time when we're all so tired and ready to be done. The "we" would include teachers, parents, and students.

I think many of my students were shocked to learn this week that they have tons of work to do, like since it's the last quarter they really shouldn't be doing much. WRONG! That was part of the reason why it was such a long week. They just had terrible attitudes and had great difficulty focusing, accomplishing their work, and obeying. And by the way, the weather stinks, so it will get even worse when the weather is nice!

So with my patience, mental capabilities, and my stamina at an all-time low, this week has been long.

And then I was at school today for a whopping 14 hours. But I was blessed in the end.

I was a preliminary judge for the Invention Convention, and so three of us had to help select our top three student inventions to go to the Columbus convention this spring. This is a pretty big deal as far as school projects go, and it was really neat to talk with a bunch of fourth graders about these inventions they had come up with. It was especially fun to talk to past students of mine and see how far they have come in the last few years. I still have the strongest bond with the students who are now fourth graders because they were my first class at WCS.

Anyway, I was just blessed by their hard work and the effort they put in to these inventions. I was blessed to get to spend a little extra time with a teacher who I enjoy yet rarely see outside of the school or its functions. I was blessed by one particular family who has always been so loving and encouraging to me. I was blessed to see one student in particular using the gifts and talents God has given her, and I can't help but wonder what great things He has in store for her.

I realize that leaving my house at 6:00 this morning and not getting home until after 9:00 tonight was well-worth it! And now I sit down exhausted and ready for a weekend to relax.