Thank you for Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  Why?  No list of toys to buy, no tree to trim, and...well, this is unique to me...but Thanksgiving is when Babe got down on one knee and asked me to marry his sweet self!  So, I love it. 

Plus, Thanksgiving just FEELS different...like, what other holiday so much summons that inner place of gratitude?  Thanks for country, and for all the other blessings of life.  I always wonder who atheists thank.  Or even those who believe in God, but don't necessarily find him to be involved in our day-to-day lives.  That said, I want to give thanks where I believe that thanks is due, in honor of my favorite holiday.

Lord, thank YOU for my people:  Babe (my favorite person E-VER) and the four loud, um, I mean, loved children.  Cate is rocking her 7th grade ADVANCED classes, Rihanna is making friends like crazy in 6th grade, Will is my joke-making, basketball-playing, hands-down-favorite son, and Alana is smiling that sweet smile for all of her third grade people.
Thank YOU for our 2 Chihuahuas who, well,... often attack each other.  Turns out the people who call Chihuahuas "temperamental" were indeed correct.
Thank YOU for our amazing home...not to sound like a bad country song, but...filled with smelly laundry, cookie crumbs, and laughter (or is that just screaming?  Hard to tell).  Thank You for our community; we walk out the door and the nations are a step a way in every direction.  What a great place to bring up a family composed of two races. 
Thank YOU for my besties, the Ya-Ya's who have walked with me for 29 years of life.  (Do NOT stop and do that math in your head.  Just trust me, I am officially getting pretty close to middle-aged.  Or perhaps I have already arrived.  I will never tell.)  One bestie has just moved across the country (sniff, sniff), but thank God for texting.  (Am I right?!) 

Lord, thank YOU for my family of origin.  (Here I borrow the term that my therapist always called them.  Oops, did I just say that out loud?)  My trip a year ago with my dad to my sister's wedding in South Africa was a life highlight.  I came home and wrote down all the stories you told me.  And I swear to keep all the family secrets!!  My sister has a new life in South Africa, but I am happy for her to be loved and taken care of.  (And excited to see her next week...wondering if her Alabama accent has given way to something a bit fancier?)

Thank YOU for my job!  I am Sugar Mama, hear me roar.  Here I am, working 50 hours a week, raising four kids like a champ, and keeping the cleanest house on the street.  (Warning:  the previous sentence contains two blatant lies.)  I adore teaching my sweet 6th graders, and I am THAT obnoxious teacher that actually misses them over the holidays.  I am also THAT teacher that HOPES I run into them at the grocery store,  Bizarre but true.  Never leave home without mascara.

Thank YOU for my church...19 years of building relationships with people who are on the same kind of spiritual journey that I am.

Mostly and truly, thank YOU for YOU, Lord.  You are so good to us.  We fight you, we forget you, we ignore you, but You just keep being awesome. 

Lastly, thank YOU for Thanksgiving, a day that reminds me to say all of this!

Confessions of a Public School Teacher

If anyone has talked to me in the past two years, you KNOW how much I adore being a teacher!  I am shocked at the joy that it brings me to teach a lesson on the Cold War to 28 wiggly, noisy, chatty twelve year olds.  Yes, I know, it is bizarre.  Yes, it may be a mental issue from which I suffer.  But I love it.  And honestly, I think I am pretty decent at it.  But a recent experience has shown me some gaps in my teaching that I did not know that I had.

God bless Fulton County,;they are providing the opportunity for me to earn an "endorsement" for teaching TAG students.  "TAG" is Fulton code for talented and gifted.  The endorsement involves four classes during a 12-month period.  Each class is somewhat like a Masters' Level course in terms of work and internship hours.  So, to say the least, it is kicking my proverbial tail.

When I was growing up, I was one of those TAG-types.  I am not entirely sure that I would have literally tested as gifted, but I definitely had the motivation and hard work pieces of the puzzle.  Yet, strangely, when I teach, my heart has never been inclined to the kids-like-me, but rather to the ones who struggle academically.  (No doubt our adoption experiences also play into this.)  Having TAG kids on my radar is something new, and having them in my heart is even newer.  

TAG kids come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are the classic, type A, a -teacher's-joy-kind-of-kid.  But some are a mess.  They may not "look" right because of poverty, for example.  They may not act right because they are bored out of their minds in on-level classes.  They may be lacking in vocabulary because they are new to the English language.  But there are typically characteristics that will be seen in them, and those are clues to their giftedness.  

Gifted learners have at least some of the following traits:

*"adult" humor

(I love to make a joke in class that is way over a sixth grader's head and then see who laughs.  Those are the gifted ones!)

*high motivation to learn

(These are the kids who get mad at me because I don't give enough homework.)

*high need to do well

(They cry when they get a B.)

*prolific vocabulary

(I pretend to understand the words they use.  I can't have them thinking that they are smarter than me.)

*outside-the-box thinking

(They think of a solution that never entered my mind!)

*strong reasoning skills

(They make connections that take some serious thought.)

*exceptional organization, physically and/or mentally

(This is a perfect binder.  Or it may be a remarkable ability to memorize.)

TAG kids learn differently.  They thrive on higher level questions that really make them think; they get bored with too many bland details.  They love to work with each other and feel challenged (sharpened) by the others' intelligence.  They love to compete, and they love to win.  (In fact, some are afraid to fail and they will even withdraw, as that is better than trying and failing.)  Some of them need visual learning, others must hear it to get it, while others must draw it or sing it.  Really, this is true of all learners.  But because TAG kids love to learn, they may feel a higher need for this.

This class has changed my mind about TAG students.  I used to see them as capable and not in need of my direction or special attention.  I felt that my time was better invested into the ones who struggled.  The TAG kids will be ok, I thought, because they are smart and can take care of themselves.  But good teachers don't think like that.  Good teachers want to give EVERY student what they need, not just the students that they are drawn to.  I see it better now:  TAG kids are often the ones who have the potential to change the world when they grow up!  Many will lead our country; one might cure cancer; others may save the planet.  But first they must be led, cured of their own struggles, and saved!  That is where a good teacher comes in, providing hearty questions, problems, and assignments...meeting those learning needs!  I see them completely differently than I did just a few months ago.  

And can I tell you a secret?  Promise you won't tell?  I thought that TAG teachers had it easy.  I mean, who would not want to instruct a class of 20 brilliant and highly motivated little people?!  They must have put in their years working with the hard classes and now they have arrived to the easy work.  Again, I was wrong.  I mean yes, there are probably some perks to teaching TAG, but I imagine none of them would say their job is "easy".  Kids are kids.  All middle school kids are hormonal, self-obsessed and human,  TAG or not!  I really have respect for these TAG teachers.  They are constantly accelerating a lesson to the next level so that they can meet the needs of their students.  That takes some serious brain power and thinking on your feet.  I have observed a few of them in action and hope to do more of that.  I feel like they have a lot to teach and I KNOW that I have a lot to learn!

P.S.  In case you couldn't tell, this post is dedicated to my Taylor Road co-workers who invest their lives in their TAG kids!

Burwells in the Middle

School is back in session, and the three Burwell Babes are walking the halls of Taylor Road Middle School.  Babe #1: Cate Burwell! She is a seventh grader, making her parents proud with all accelerated classes. She is currently earning her future scholarship to Berry College,  if her mother has her way. Babe #2: Rihanna Burwell! She is a sixth grader, sauntering down the hallway with beauty, confidence, and a red-hair-weave.  (Oh my gosh, how cool is her mom?!)  Babe #3: Mrs. Burwell!  Isn’t she doing a fine job of dressing like a really hip woman in her 30’s?!  (Okay, 40’s.  Whatever.  You don’t look as young as you used to, either!)

This is my second year “back” in middle school, that place I swore I would never go again. I bet you too have made this declaration: “It doesn’t matter how much you pay me, you could never make me go back there!” Apparently I was wrong...you could pay me enough to go back there! But going back as a teacher is a whole different experience from being there as a struggling preteen. And going back to love on struggling preteens is one of the funnest things I’ve ever done.  (Yes, Language Arts teacher friends, I know FUNNEST ain’t a word!)

So, this year I am “Mean Mommy”, dragging my middle school-aged children with me to Taylor Road, rather than letting them attend the school for which we are zoned.  Why, you may ask, would I inflict on them the horror of being at the same school as their mom, the Social Studies teacher?  Because THEY are the most important middle schoolers in the world!  I get to ride to school and pray for them on the way...pass them in the halls throughout the day...drive them home while listening to a play-by-play of their past eight hours.  I adore their teachers, many of whom are already my friends.  I respect-like-crazy the leadership at the school.  So, hey, call me Mean Mommy all you want to, girls, but I am in love with having this time with you!   How many times did my older mommy mentor friends say the days are slow but the years are fast?! I don’t have very many years left with you beautiful girls, so I am doing my best to soak up all the time that I can get with you. You truly are the most important middle schoolers in the world to me.  

In fact, what if  we all go to college together in the fall of 2025?!!  Teasing.  I’m teasing.

We have adopted AGAIN!

My daughter Cate calls it "click bait" when you put a title like that one...baiting your audience to read your post!  Ha!  No, we have not totally lost our minds.  We know our quiver is full at four.  But hey, there is always the dog population to rescue.  And so, in 2018, we adopted two sweet Chihuahuas.

I am a recently converted dog-lover.  How I was allowed to marry into the Burwell family as a dog-tolerator is a mystery.  These people love dogs.  Almost as much as they love the children they have birthed.  Try to beat Aunt Brenda, who currently shares her home with her 8 rescued dogs!  My word.  So, here I am, a dog-tolerator, trying to win the heart of a Burwell. I fooled him for a while.  Yes, sure, Troy I LOVE dogs.  Yes, I know that dogs are important to you.  Me too.  Oh yes.  (What did I have in common with a rug?  We LIE.)  But deep down, when I looked at a dog, all  I saw was a hair-shedding, poop-pooping, smelly, expensive "creature". And who needs that, I said; not this cowgirl!) 

And then, in the good and canine-loving providence of God, I was driving down the street this summer and came upon a three pound Chihuahua on the side of the road.  I swear God told me to stop and get her.  "REALLY, LORD?  Did you dial the wrong number on that one?!"  Nevertheless, I obeyed.  I took that sweet thing home and spent the day trying to comfort and feed her.  And, cue the romantic music, I fell in puppy love.  As I petted that dog and whispered words of courage to her all day long, it did something for ME.  She calmed me.  She practically erased anxiety.  She loved me...dare I say it...unconditionally.  A neighbor ended up adopting her the next day, but by then I was hooked.  I HAD to have one of these "creatures".  That weekend, Rihanna and Alana and  I headed for the Atlanta Humane Society, and after a search we were rewarded with the most beautiful dog that ever walked the earth.  (My dog is prettier than your dog, said the Dog-Mama)  We changed her humane-society-given-name from Muffin (this would just make me constantly hungry) to Tessa (on my "short list" of names that I did not get to use on a child.)  She is Tessa Joy, because she brings me joy.  She follows me everywhere and then plants herself right beside me in bed all night long.  AAHHHH....now I get it, y'all.  Now I get it.  And may I be so bold to say that now, I am a true Burwell...I love Troy Burwell AND I love dogs. 

So, when it came time for deciding on a Christmas present for the kids, and Troy suggested, "Let's get them an Xbox", I about came unglued. 
"Oh my word, are you kidding me?!  That makes kids' brains turn to mush.  We need to give them something that adds value to their lives, something to make them better, more responsible, more compassionate." 
 "Oh Babe, I know you don't think we need to get another dog." 
"Well, yes, I think that since you brought it up, I will say, what a great idea!!  Yes, let's get another one!" 

We headed back to the Humane Society this week and found Maliboo.  She is only 6 pounds and you can see her ribs through her skin.  She is recovering from neglect and malnourishment.  But we are nursing her back to health.  And she, like Tessa, is doing the same for us.

I am so glad that God has converted me once again, this time to Dog-Lover!
And come on, you gotta love a God that thinks up the idea of dogs!  Isn't He, like his creation, amazing?!