Encouragement and a Pet Peeve

Interesting title right? They don't really seem to go hand in hand. However, I have two things on my mind on this lovely Sunday. Pencil sharpening and encouragement. They don't really go together, they are just the two things that I have on my mind (hey, I'm a teacher, I multi-task!).

Let's start with the encouragement one since that is much more exciting and applies to many of you! How often do we go into school, push our grumps away, and put on that smile so that our students can feel loved and encouraged. How do we get that same encouragement when we need it? Well, let me tell you...I have the place!

Incourage.me is a fantastic website (and I'm not just that because my sister is a leader in the community section!) that aims to encourage women in many walks of life. There are community groups for working moms, stay at home moms, women who are single, women who struggle with depression. Basically, you name it, they have a group to life you up in prayer and community support. It's been on my heart for awhile now to be a part of this amazing group of women and in my humble opinion, we teachers need a safe place to, feel safe, ask for prayer, and hey maybe even a little bit of virtual chocolate at the end of a long day.

Starting on Monday September 16th everyone can sign up and join me! It will be a closed Facebook group community and we will get to know each other, pray for each other, share success, offer advice, and more. If this sounds like something you'd like to check out, please visit:  http://www.incourage.me/community for more information. Oh, and I have a fantastic co-leader Miss Amy, who you can get to know by visiting her blog over at http://amykrancewendt.blogspot.com/. She's a 5-Minute Friday blogger as well as an amazing woman. Please post in the comments if you have any questions.

Okay, and on to my side topic floating around in my head. Pet peeves. Ugh, so many...some days everything is a pet peeve (grump monster attacked my house today so everything is bothering me currently). In particular, at the top of my list right now, is pencil sharpening. It has only been two weeks of school so far but the common theme running in the room is either kids don't have a pencil (how I ask you...how!) or it needs sharpened. Oh, but that doesn't happen while we settle in to class. Oh, no. That happens in the middle of directions. Or while someone is asking a question. Or some other extremely inappropriate time...ahhhhhhh. Okay, thanks for the vent. My solution was relatively simple, and still makes sure that I am not sharpening pencils on my plan periods..because seriously....who has time for that? On Monday I'll have a cup of extra pencils sharpened for emergency only. Then, they can have the 2 minutes between classes to sharpen pencils. They are required to have 2 in case one isn't pointy enough for their liking. That's it. Plus I made this cute sign to remind them (it was either a cute sign or hiding the pencil sharpener...I'll start with this). Enjoy!