This and That

As I peeked into the physician's office, it looked like a bedroom. I could vividly see everyone on their knees chanting in Hebrew and praying over their loved one that was very ill. If I had a drawing pad, I could have sketched this scene from the dream I had this week. I suppose it was a result of a Show and Tell item a sweet seven-year-old girl endearingly brought to the classroom. She wanted to share with everyone the special prayer shawl that her papa brought her from Isreal. With her dainty little fingers, she pulled it out of the pillowcase embroidered fabric. She laid it on herself with the Hebrew words that were engraved on the hem. Her gracefulness touched me as I watched her display it. The dream brought a vivid memory of when my neighbor down the street had invited me to Passover at the Hilton hotel. Mind you she wasn't Jewish. But she had friends who belong to the Messianic Jews who had offered her tickets and she chose me to join her ...

Celebrate with me! I reached my 1000th class on St. Patrick's Day!

Celebrate with me! I reached my 1000th class on St. Patrick's Day!

I had so much fun creating this video. Check out what I found at the flea market that I'm going to use in the classroom. Please like, subscribe and comment below. Interested in teaching English to children in China? Use my referral link! https://t.vipkid.com.cn/?refereeId=2500516&refersourceid=a01

Today as I was scrolling Facebook and noticed an article about how an infant had suddenly died within twenty-four hours due to a series of vaccines, it quickly reminded me of an incident that happened twenty-five years ago. When I used to take my sons to the local city-clinic, it would be an all-day affair. I'd pack a few toys, snacks, drinks and plenty of diapers. This was back when the internet was yet to be in everyone's home. We did have local television viewing. At the time, I enjoyed watching documentaries or just different medical information in the daily news updates. Every month it seemed like I was going to the clinic because I had four sons. So either we were at the dentist or getting medical exams. On one of those days, I was sitting with a young Spanish speaking mom. She had been told that they were going to give her child six vaccines. These nurses were instructed to give parents who brought their babies into the clinic occasionally, to strongly insist tha...

Lately, I've been receiving emails from Guidelines for Living a daily Christian devotional on suicide. It's strange because I just finished re-watching "The Goblin" on Dramafever. Although, many Christians may judge me for watching this show. I think it had a beautiful way of letting people know how God dealt with this aspect of suicide. One of the characters in the show happened to be a grim reaper. Unlike the scary type we know as holding a sickle in his hand and wearing a dreary black gown, these were handsome men who dressed in nice suits and wore a black hat that made them invisible. They would walk the Earth just waiting for when someone to reach their time to leave. The writer of this drama was rather creative on how God punished people who committed suicide. He had them become grim reapers. Part of their journey was that they couldn't remember their past. They wondered never knowing what their true identity was.  Their job was to guide the dead souls...

Through the years I've learned that you can teach many labs with little of now equipment. I have a mother at a local homeschool co-op who saves lids for me. I actually have bags and bags of them. Lids from bottles of all kids. It's amazing how many lids we through away. Of course now we have recycle bins but frankly, we could reuse them once more before throwing them out. Just the other day I taught a group of elementary school children the food web between plants and animals. We use lids of varying sizes to depict the next food source for that animal. pH

              When I was ten years old, I would stay at my grandma's house after school. I remember those days when I would be in her musty-smelling living room setting up my makeshift classroom. I'd set up a desk and a chair for my students. Who were my students? Why of course, my "primas". My cousins would listen to me lecture or we would make up plays that we could perform. Well, I was also the drama teacher. Now that I think about it maybe I should have entered the Theater as a profession. I don't think so.  I was always teaching something. The thrill has never left.       Even to this day, if I have to prepare for my elementary students, I start looking through Teacher Pay Teachers, YouTube, or Pinterest for ideas. I'll be surfing for hours to see how I can present a lesson or make an experiment happen.       Thirty-five years of teaching have passed and I still get a high when planning a lesson. Th...

What was it like before the  Afghanistan war in 2001?  I remember driving through the military base as though it was part of our neighborhood.  N. New Braunfels street was the quickest way to get to the other side. Now that entrance has been blocked ever since. We have to go about three to five miles out of our way to reach what was just a two-block ride previously due to the high-security alert. I remember we heard so many trains going by constantly because military tanks and other supplies were being sent out quickly. It was a constant deafening sound because I lived by the tracks. The only break I had from that blaring horn was when I went to work. It seems like so long ago that we would drive through the base and visit historical museums. I used to go walking with my boys at the Quadrangle. The place where they kept Geronimo imprisoned. No one would think anything for us to drive in. It was a carefree life that I so do miss. What was it like...

So as I was driving to work this morning, I heard on the news that we were to get out and vote. Ugh, was what I thought. I even battled with the thought, what's one time that I don't vote. Frankly, I can't help but be human here. Regardless, after an hour swimming and shopping at HEB, I went to pick up mom at the center. I said, "Mom, did you know today is voting?" She had the same expression. Ugh. Yet, it was around the corner and so we stopped in to vote. Mom being handicapped was brought the ballot to the van. So at 6:00 p.m., I'm sitting at dinner with my youngest son. He asks, "Mom, what did you do today?" I went down my list and then I said grandma and I voted. Being 6:25 p.m., dad walks in exhausted from a long day's haul. My youngest son says what time do they close? I said 7 p.m. They both went to vote! I was so proud of them. My second son was the smartest one of us all. He did his early voting...

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! I've been creating some Youtube videos for teachers. This is one I did to commemorate, Dr. Seuss Birthday. I've learned how to create them using WeVideo. It has been fun learning how to make videos. I hope you enjoy. Like, Comment and Subscribe. https://youtu.be/NBpiJz_2dag