Savannah

Today was our first official day in Savannah. Let me tell you, we are falling in L.O.V.E with this beautiful city! We went to Tybee Island Lighthouse today instead of tomorrow because it closes on Tuesdays. There were 178 steps to the top of the lighthouse. For those of you who know me, you probably know that I am terrified of heights. I have come to learn that it's important to face my fears, so the Tybee Lighthouse is the 2nd lighthouse where I have climbed all the way to the top. The first was the St. Augustine Lighthouse in St. Augustine, FL. 178 steps may not seem like a lot of steps, but to me it was. As petrifying as the climb up was, it was quite worth it because at the top of this:

 was this gorgeous view: 

Totally worth it, right? 

We had lunch at The North Beach Grill where I had the most delicious crab cake sandwich. We headed into Historic Savannah after lunch. This part of Savannah, like most parts, is just beautiful! We walked down River Street and shopped. We came across the Savannah Candy Kitchen where they make pretty delicious pralines. I think I'll buy some tomorrow to bring back...

A Much Needed Vacation

At this time tomorrow, I will be on my way, along with Stefan, to the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia. I am so very excited about this trip! We were originally going to stop at this place on the way there: 

Yes, my dear readers, and Fried Green Tomato movie lovers, this is the Whistle Stop Cafe located in Juliette, Georgia. Unfortunately, we might have to stop there on the way back because it closes at 4pm. Sad day, but maybe on the way back home.

I have been looking forward to this vacation for a while. I have always heard how beautiful Savannah is, and decided it was time to experience it for myself. A few months ago a friend of mine told me about this book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It is the story of true events that happened in Savannah. I have been reading this book during the free time that I have between student teaching and other schoolwork. I had planned on finishing it before the long-awaited vacation, but that didn't happen, so it looks like I'll be doing a little reading on the way there.

Now, anyone who knows me know that I absolutely LOVE to cook. If I could get paid for it, I would watch the The Food Network all day, every day. So of course it is expected that I go to the famous Lady and Sons restaurant. I have heard wonderful things about it, and why wouldn't I, Paula Deen is a fabulous cook. 

Stefan and I also plan to work a little while we are there. He will be filming a few scenes for various projects and I will have my camera in hand to document anything and everything.

Oh, before I forget, we will also be going here: Tybee Island, Georgia. Tybee Island is a beautiful island where many movies with beach scenes are filmed. The most recent movie filmed there, that I know of, was The Last Song, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel.

We're also going to see the lighthouse there. Stefan and I both love lighthouses. I'm not sure why I like them so much, but they fascinate me to no end.

I am so excited about this mini vacation. I'll keep you updated as the trip progresses.

Peace and Love,

Laura Kate

Pray for Lucy

Children are my passion, and it breaks my heart when I see one of God's children hurting. Following the example my wonderful mentor teacher and friend, Laura Tomlinson, I have felt the need to tell you about a little girl. Lucy is 5 years old. She has a sister, a brother, a mom, and a dad. She loves Buzz Lightyear, but on February 23, 2011 she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Here is her story taken from the blog that her mother writes:

On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, our sweet Lucy Hannah was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. Medulloblastoma. It all came on so quickly that she only presented symptoms for a few days before things started spiraling out of control. Upon an MRI, we learned that Lucy had a total of 3 tumors in her brain, one in her spinal column and a sugar-dusting of tiny tumors up and down her spine. In a whirlwind of events, she was in a 9 hour surgery 2 days later. While the surgery was largely a success, the doctor was unfortunately not able to remove all the tumors and found another one in the front of her brain. Lucy will begin a 6 month treatment plan of high risk chemotherapy and radiation mid-March. She suffered a setback several days after surgery when she contracted bacterial Meningitis. Lucy is a fighter and we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that she will beat this evil disease cancer and that He will heal her body. Thank you for following our story and we covet your daily prayers for our sweet Lucy.

The second grade class I am doing my Teacher Internship in, made cards for this sweet little girl. The cards are so beautiful! I pray that they will bring Lucy happiness and encouragement to continue fighting her fight. I pray that the cards will remind her that she is not alone in her fight, but that there are hundreds of people praying for her at this very moment.

I have added the Pray for Lucy button to my blog. I ask that you put this button on your blog. Simply click the button to get the code. Continue to pray for Lucy and her family.

Education

Education is something that is is very close to my heart. The majority of my family is or has been in education at some point in their lives. Making the decision to become an educator was something that I did not go into lightly. I fought it for so many years because I saw first hand how challenging it could be having a child's future in my hands. The thought of that alone sometimes scares me, but makes me strive to be the best teacher I can be. I fought it and fought it, but God had other plans for me. He has blessed me with the patience to work with children of the much younger ages, and I am so happy that I get to spend the rest of my life doing His will.

I've heard about the documentary Waiting for Superman since this past fall. In my block class we watched a trailer for the documentary and I was hooked. I made a pledge to see it. Unfortunately, documentaries such as this one never make their way into theatres in towns such as Starkville, MS. After much research, I found out that the documentary would only be showing in a select few states. Fortunately, it is now in Redbox. You can check out the offical synopsis of the documentary here, but I will give you a brief summary of Waiting for Superman. It follows 5 students and their families struggle to give them a great education, something that is hard to come by in places such as the Bronx, L.A., the Silicon Valley, Washington D.C. and Harlem. (These are the cities that are in the documentary, but there are numerous more places that lack the means to give our students an adequete education.) These students are all wonderful, hardworking students, who look for education as a way out of their current life situation. They want to work hard to become a doctor, teacher, or scientist. These students face many obstacles in their life, but the lack of "a great American edcuation" because of where they live is one of the biggest obstacles they face. Waiting for Superman shows us that not all children in America are getting the best education they can get, but it does show us ways we as teachers, parents, and communities can provide each student with "a great American education".

Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C. public schools superintendent brings the harsh truth about the American Public School System with her statement "Public schools fail when the children's education becomes about the adults." It's true, all of it, and it makes me sad. It's not fair to any student who works hard in school to make a better life for themself in the future. It's not fair that because a student lives in a specific part of town, they are denied a great education by a school that is not in that same part of town. This is where charter schools come into play. Now, I'm not about to get the explanation of charter schools wrong, so thanks to good ole Wikipedia here is an explanation of what a charter school is, for those of you who may not know much about them: Charter schools in the United States are primary or secondary schools that receive public money (and like other schools, may also receive private donations) but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter.[1] Charter schools are opened and attended by choice.[2] While charter schools provide an alternative to other public schools, they are part of the public education system and are not allowed to charge tuition. Where enrollment in a charter school is oversubscribed, admission is frequently allocated by lottery-based admissions. In a 2008 survey of charter schools, 59% of the schools reported that they had a waiting list, averaging 198 students.[3] Some charter schools provide a curriculum that specializes in a certain field — e.g., arts and mathematics. Others attempt to provide a better and more efficient general education than nearby public schools.

This brings me to my next point: Testing, testing, and more testing of our students takes the fun out of education and what it used to be. The problem is not our students' ability to be able to perform a certain task, it is the lack of motivation by the parents, teachers, and community. It's like we've put education on the backburner, when it should be the most important thing for our children who are the future. Here's something that I've learned: Good teachers make education fun for their students. Their students learn by having fun. That's what makes students succeed in school. Waiting for Superman brought a pretty scary statistic to me: Out of 29 developed countries, the United States ranks 25th in science and math. 25th out of 29 countries. The United States was at the top of the education game 20-30 years ago, so what happened that made us 25th out of 29? I'm not going to lie about it. I believe it's our lack of great teachers. I know that we have millions of GREAT teachers who go into work every day and know that they WANT to educate children. They know it is not something they HAVE to do. But sometimes I feel as if there are some people who just picked a career out of a hat and said "Okay....I'll be a teacher". I'm not just talking about the teachers of today, I remember being in school and having teachers who used the same monotone voice day after day after day. Who learns from that? What child would want to come to school to hear a monotone voice tell them to do their worksheet and recite their multiplication tables?


I'll leave you with these quotes that I got from the documentary, but before I do, I ask that if you care about education, if you care about your child's future, your future children's future, and the future of America, that you watch this documentary. It's in Redbox Rentals, stores, video rental stores. This documentary only reaffirmed what I already knew what I wanted to do with my life, and that is educate the future doctors, teachers, scientists,writers, artists, athletes, and political leaders of America. These children are OUR future, don't you want them to be all they can be? Take action now!


"We've tried money, passing laws, and the lastest reforms, but those of us who work in the trenches know you can't have a great school without great teachers."


"Sometimes I think it's easier to think of millions of children who are in our schools and look at the numbers and all the problems, scratch our heads, throw up our hands, and give up, rather than look at just one and ask ourselves "Did we do the right thing? Did we do enough?"


"If we give up, what are the results?"


"Our [Public School] system is broken, and feels impossible to fix, but we can't wait."


"What happens when a school fails a child? What happens over time?"


"It's possible, we CAN fix education"