I don't know if you know this, but I'm kind of a big deal...

Now, I should preface this by saying, I don't tell these stories just so that you will think I am cool.  In fact, most of the time if you were to pay me a compliment, I would probably laugh in your face, or better yet, make you laugh at how I turned down the compliment. I'm not a very good compliment getter... which is totally an adjective by the way.

SOOOOO, there aren't many things in life I am good at.  The super athletic gene skipped my zygote (if you don't know what that is, you obviously know nothing about biology...and if you know me you know why this is funny) and I'm not what you would call the sharpest pencil in the box.

But the one thing that I am good at is teaching.

I don't know how many times I have had the spirit confirm to me that I am in the correct profession for my talents.  It seems like almost every day I have experiences that just give me a spiritual high five or a holy ghost pat on the back (which feels much like nothing at all, but you know it when it happens, trust me)

TWO EXPERIENCES:

Today I walked into a middle school that I sub at quite often and had one of the paraprofessionals assigned to the deaf educations students hollar after me. 'Miss Mac! Who are you subbing for? Bushman?'  'No I'm in Coffland's class.' 'Dang it!' was her reply...I just love that!

On Friday I was at a high school I have started to sub at recently that I love.  I was in a Spanish class and I was really excited about subbing in my major...until I read the lesson plans and saw that they were pretty lame and that the kids would be done ridiculously early with what they were supposed to be doing.  I had been handling it all day, but by seventh period I was alright with the kids finishing the assignment and talking quietly with each other.  As I was monitoring the room, I started talking with a particular student who would not stop cursing.  Not to be rude or anything, he was just talking like he normally would and didn't even realize that he was cursing.

I stopped him and started talking to him about what an awful habit that was.  I asked him if he had planned on speaking like that when he had a full time job and was working in an office.  He replied that he didn't want to work in an office.  I asked him what he DID want to do then. It opened a door to a conversation about planning for the future and college and thinking about how to pay for it and being responsible.  It was one of those conversations that teachers LIVE for!!

It was funny because when we started talking it was just he and I and another student.  By the end of the conversation, over half the class was listening and piping in.  It was so exciting to talk to these kids that are supposedly the 'bad eggs' and the 'hard kids' that nobody wants to teach and hearing them say things that I'm positive easy to teach kids wouldn't have said.  As they were walking out, several students turned back to thank me for talking to them.  The kid I had started talking to turned back as he was walking out and said, 'Keep doin' what you're doin' Miss.  We need good teachers like you.'  Melt my heart.

So...like I said.  Not that I wanna toot my own horn or anything.

But I'm pretty much awesome.