The Talens' Tales

I think that when we are younger, almost everyone has a dream of becoming famous. You want to in a band that makes it big, a professional athlete or an actor. But, most of those dreams fade away as we begin to understand how hard it is to do that and how much work it really takes. But some people know what they want and they go after it. A guy that I graduated from high school with knew that he wanted to be a music artist. I sang in our schools version of show choir with him and was even his dance partner for a few numbers. He went down to Nashville right after high school, and now, ten years later, Tyler James' first full length album is coming out. You can check out his website and hear the whole album on-line for the next few weeks. I like his style quite a bit and today at school, I played at least one song for all of my classes. Maybe I can help foster quite a Tyler James following here in Southwest Minnesota.

We got word this week. No seasonal flu shot clinic for the teaching staff. So much effort is going into the H1N1 vaccine that they are not making enough seasonal flu vaccine. So, no flu vaccine of any kind for us yet. Thankfully, our school has stayed rather healthy so far. I hope that it stays that way.

It was nice to see tractors on the road this evening, hauling loads of grain to the elevator. We have now had just about 3 days of dry weather. The sun peeked its head out for a while yesterday afternoon and may an almost full day appearance today. The puddles are mostly dried up and I think the farmer are ready to take advantage of any chance they get. Today was certainly a Monday. Not a bad day at school, but just a couple class periods at the end of the day that just made me a little grumpy. It probably doesn't help that I am really, really looking forward to this weekend. Our church does a "Craft and Chat" weekend about every other month or so and I have always wanted to go. Every time they have had one I have either been unable to go, or I have had nothing to do. But, this time I saved my pictures to scrapbook for the weekend and I also have my supplies for our Christmas cards too. So I am going and I am so excited. It is held Friday from 1pm until really late and th...

I have already mentioned my "Word of the Day" screen saver that I have on my laptop that is hooked up to the projector in my room. I am learning that the words go in cycles a bit, so the same word will pop up in several classes during the day. Today's popular word was "entitlement." A fantastic word to share with teenagers who often think they are entitled to a whole lot of stuff. In fact, we as humans often think we are entitled to a whole lot of stuff when really we are fallen people who deserve nothing but death. We so often miss how wonderful and blessed our life really is and we get caught up on the little things. This video sort of puts that in perspective in a rather humorous way. I am by no means promoting this comedian, but if you take what he says to heart, it is so true. We live in an amazing world, created by an amazing God. We really should be happy with the blessing we have been given.

There is a first time for a lot of things. Today I raked the leaves on my lawn for the first time as a home owner. Yes, we have been living here for four years. You see, in the midwest there is this crazy thing called wind that blows almost all of the time. It blows hard. If you drop a paper, it is in Wisconsin in a matter of minutes. So for the last three years, our leave never stayed put on our lawn. They probably ended up in Lake Michigan. But this fall, the leaves fell off most of our trees in one day and then it snowed. Wet leaves do not travel so well. And since today is going to be about the last nice day until July, we raked our leaves. Dad, you would be proud.

I think that my student forget how young I actually am compared to their other teachers. They must assume that since I have been teaching "forever" that means that I am old since all of their previous teachers have been old too (not really, but I am assuming that is what they think). Case in point. For some reason, one of my students asked the other day what my favorite song was. That is a rather impossible question for me, so he said to pick a favorite. I went with "Twist in My Story" by Secondhand Serenade, one of favorite artists as of late. Some girls over heard this conversation and were in shock that I knew and liked Secondhand Serenade. I asked them if that was weird or bad that that I like Secondhand Seranade. "No," one replied, "I just thought that you only listened to opera or classical music or something." Students really have no clue that teachers have a life outside of school.

So for some reason I have been having a lot of fun at school the last few days. I don't really know what came over me. Maybe I am not feeling very stressed or after six years of teaching I am starting to have this gig figured out. And lately I have been dropping hints like crazy in the majority of my classes about the fact that I like chocolate. It is my dream that some day I will come to school and find my desk showed in chocolate bars. (I told that to one class today and some of them asked when my birthday was. Alas, the curse of having a summer birthday strikes again!) So far, I have gotten one fun size Snickers and that was only because the student got it as a gift and she didn't like Snickers really. Another thing that I have started lately is with a new screen saver I found on my laptop that is hooked up to my board. It give you a "Word of the Day" and tells you the meaning and usage. If that wasn't made specifically for English teachers, then I don't kn...