Legacy

I am in my third year as a Middle School Gifted Education teacher and fifteenth year overall as an educator.   I recently learned that the program I am the teacher of has been cut.  I will still have a teaching position, but I will no longer be teaching gifted kids and I will no longer be teaching in middle school.  I have gained many things from teaching gifted kids, most of all, is that many gifted kids need to be less hard on themselves and not take life as seriously as they do.  I hope that somehow my students have learned this lesson along with me during the past three years. As a teacher, I often wonder is anything I am doing with my students going to stick with them when they leave school and move on with their lives.  I wonder if most of them are just biding their time until they no longer have to be forced into coming to my class or any other class for that matter.  I wonder if they will use what they have learned from me beyond my classroom, when they start a profession, go to college, begin a family, and start living their own lives.  After all, the biggest reason I became a teacher is that I wanted to have some kind of impact beyond my classroom, in my students’ lives.  Did any of them learn anything from me that they will use to make themselves a better person somehow? Or was my class just a way they could pass the day a little faster?

Please reply below in a comment, if you can answer this question.

Must Do’s on the Big Island of Hawaii (for the Stukey)

This post is for my friend Katie.  She told me she was going on a vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii and I told her I would let her know what the must do’s are when she gets there.  She is already gone now though, so really this post is for me to share the best vacation I think I have ever been on.  Here is what we did and what everybody should do when they go to the Big Island of Hawaii.

volcano is SMOKIN!

Go see the volcano.  It’s probably not the coolest thing we did when we were there but…IT’S A VOLCANO! It is where our earth is born and if you get a chance you might actually get to see some glowing lava.

Don’t forget to go golfing with your Uncle.  Golfing in Hawaii is very cool.  No waiting and man, is the grass ever plush there.

golfin with uncle leonard

The next must do is hang out at beaches.  My favorites were Waipio valley and hapuna.  It was the first time I had ever been to Waipio valley and we had a terrific day body surfing and just hanging out.  You might get a cool picture like the one below of you and your kids.

ME and Da Boyz hangin at the beach

Another cool thing we did was go fishing.  I think we were very lucky as I have talked with many people and no one has ever had a day like you can see we had from the picture below.  It was the best day of fishing I have ever experienced.  And, man, is ono and mahi mahi ever tasty.

look at these beauties:)

Rent a bike and go for as many bike rides as you can.  It might be windy but on the big island…You never know who you might run into.  I met this guy who showed me how to ride down beaches that only the locals know about.  You never know you could even get a famous guy to tweet you.

I kicked his arse up the hill

cyclocrossin down the beach

After you ride bikes with Lance, see if you can find some dolphins to swim with.  That is what we did on New Year’s Day, and it was a very cool experience.

swim in with doll fins

And last but not least, watch the people you love have fun.  There is no greater joy in the world than that.

fam

Have fun on your trip Katie and sorry I posted this after your trip…and thank you very much for working with and helping my students as I am certain that at least one of them is going to change the world by becoming one of the most incredible Multi-Media Journalists of all time:)