Luck, Divine Intervention, or Serendipity

I had a week of losing things. On Monday, I lost my iPad and looked frantically everywhere in my classroom. I even hurried home during my planning period to see if I had left it at home even though I was sure I had it in my hand when I walked in the building that morning. Finally, I used my "Find My Phone" app on my phone (Which I should have done in the first place.) and embarrassingly found my device under papers on the copy stand right on my desk! Is this a sign that it is time???? After a good laugh, some ribbing from colleagues, and a sigh of relief, I thought losing things for the week was in my past. Oh, how wrong I was. Two days later I misplaced my ID tag and key card to get into the building. Now, this was a bit more unsettling. I keep my ID and Keys on a lanyard to wear around my neck so I can keep track of it better, Ha! I looked everywhere in the building including going through trash cans and dumpsters. For two day I looked and alerted all about what I was missing. Just as I was getting ready to admit defeat and preparing myself to pay for the key card replacement, I decided to look one more time in the teacher's workroom/lounge located at the north end of the middle school. No luck! However, there was a sack full of fortune cookies left over from our teacher's luncheon we had a day earlier. I thought to myself, "What the heck, nothing else has worked so far. I might as well see what a fortune cookie has to say." When I opened the cookie and read my little fortune it read, "Traveling south will bring you unexpected happiness." Hmmm, I didn't think much of it and walked back to my room, at the south end of the building. Later, as I was walking around the room during sixth hour I walked right by the shelves in the back (south end) my room and saw a paper towel partially folded sitting in one of the cubbies. I hadn't noticed it before but reached for it to put it in the trash and yep, you guessed it, I found my keys hiding behind that partially folded paper towel. Well, I  can't help but wonder was it luck?  Was it divine intervention? Was it serendipity? -OR- Was someone playing a trick on me? No matter what I am now happy, happy, happy!

Got to keep track of these things nine more months!

My Journey to Retirement Installment 1

 

Yep, that's right!  I thought this would be a good time to sort of revive this blog and try to post regularly as I complete my very last year of classroom teaching. However,  don't expect a day by day diary entry as that would be extremely boring to read and to write, but I will relate some of the more interesting things that happen throughout the year and maybe pass on some pearls of wisdom  (doubtful, but maybe) I have acquired over the last 37 years in the teaching profession.

Just to make this entry a bit more interesting, here is a picture of the bulletin board in the 7th-grade hall. The 7th-grade teachers are responsible for it and I must say it is an improvement over what we lamely came up with last year thanks to our colleague, Janet Jackman.

7th Grade Bulletin Board

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes

Neat, Inexpensive photography Ripa

These are some handy-dandy tips I would like to try (some of them anyway).

Just Some Observations

“It seems to me the political media preys on the idiocy and ignorance in our society, not the intelligence.”

“Sheldon Cooper has probably done more for the use of proper terms for body parts and functions than any classroom.”

"Some of the wisest people I know are those who know they don't know,  and some of the most annoying people are those who don't know that they don't know."