Why I Love Working With Middle Schoolers

I survived homeless week! Word of important advice: public libraries are your best friend: books and movies for endless hours of entertainment, ridiculously nice air conditioning, and always clean public restrooms. It made for a great week. 


These past few months I've been student teaching at a middle school, which means that my life has increased in hilarity and unfunny "that's what she said" jokes. I really love working with this age group and have done so for the past few years which brings me to this snapshot of my life:

They remembered the donut theory. I've taught them so well. 

Always On An Adventure...

Yesterday I graduated from college with a degree in Middle Grades Education.


(Pictures would be inserted but I have absolutely no idea where my camera cord is at the moment)


However, I'm staying here another week for a last week at work before going to my mother's home where I'll be until The World Race.


A few nights at a friend's apartment until they have to move out, then at another friend's until Friday.


Today, in the very early morning I had to move out of my apartment.


I can't move into my friend's place until later in the afternoon


Which means, that at the moment, I'm completely homeless.


All my belongings in the back of the car. 


One grocery bag full of food.


Aslan in the passenger seat.


Two goldfish swimming in a Ziploc bag until we can establish their new home.


Me stealing wifi in a parking lot until I become too suspicious.


This is going to be quite an interesting week.

Jehovah Jireh

Last week I was lying in bed while visitng my sister in Texas, getting ready for one of my favorite pastimes: sleeping. Curled up under the warm comforter doing the cozy stick-one-foot-out-of-the-comforter-to-stay-semi-cool, I was just about to doze off when a sick dread came over me. Quickly, I bolted upright and checked the important reminders section of my lovely outdated flip phone and my uneasy feeling was confirmed:

World Race Fundraising Deadline: $3,500 by May 5th

Instantly, I knew I was in trouble and worry started creeping into my entire being. At the moment, I had only $1,700 in my account. Funding was coming in slower than the world's oldest sloth and I hadn't been recieving any support in the past 2 months. Somehow I was going to have to raise $1,800 more in a matter of weeks.

At this point, my mind began racing. How many more support letters could I write? Who else could I tell about The World Race? How in the world was I going to get $1,800? Fundraising ideas, letters of plea, and desperate thoughts bounced around in my head as I thought about how to quickly raise this amount of money (who needs two kidneys anyway?).

At this point, I was starting to get really anxious. What if I couldn't get the money in time and wouldn't be able to go on The World Race? Everyone had told me that if I was supposed to go, then God would raise the money for me. But what if it meant that I wasn't going to be able to go? What would I do then? Tears started welling up as I thought about a possibly of not being able to go.

At this time, I started having a really honest talk with God. More like a desperate pleading, begging Him to provide the money so I could go. My mind kept revolving around Matthew 7:7 "Ask and you shall recieve" and I simply kept hoping that God was feeling rather generous. 

And finally I gave up. Mainly because it was 3 a.m. by this point and I was at the point of exhaustion. I couldn't do anything anyway. So I sleepily told God, "It's all up to you now." and hoped for the best. Maybe in the morning I'd try to figure something out.

The next day, I checked my World Race account. I cannot describe the joy that I felt in that moment as I saw $150 more dollars placed in my account by family friends. $150 is a small amount compared to $16,000 but to me it spoke volumes.

God was giving me his blessing to go on The World Race.

God will provide for me. Every single dollar until I am fully funded.

And to make things better, He didn't just stop there.

I came back to my apartment at Lee late on Sunday, two days after I had recieved my gift of $150, to find a card laying on my desk. Another friend was donating $100 to my trip and wished me all the best. The next day, I come back from class to find another card lying on my desk. After some coaxing, I recieved the story of how it ended up there:

As I was gone during the week to visit my sister in Texas, some girls from my hall organized a pizza-making party. Each girl that came brought whatever ingredients they had and together, they created pizzas. Then they went around to other apartments and friends that they knew and sold the pizzas for $1 a slice. In total, they ended up raising over $140.

As I listened to the story, I stood there in awe. Sometimes, God simply provides and that's all we ask of Him. But sometimes, God not only provides, but also creates beautiful stories to go along with His gifts to remind us how great He truly is. He has, after all, been creating stories since the beginning of time. 

But no, God didn't stop there. 

The very next day, I check my World Race account again. My mouth drops open and I refresh the page to make sure I'm not hallucinating. Another family had been led to donate $1,000.

In a matter of 5 days, God had raised $1,390 for me. I didn't do any of it. Right now, I know God's just chuckling at me, nodding His head as He murmurs, "I told you I'd take care of it."

And He truly is Jehova Jireh. The God who Provides.

So at the moment, I only need $500 more to meet my final deadline. But then, I still have $12,000 more to go before it's all due in December.

I still need your help.

First of all, I'm selling shirts! The profits will go towards my trip and they're really cool! $15 a shirt for either crewcut or V-neck shirts. Check out the link if you're interested: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NPWV8X6

Design by: Zeke Tucker

Please help me raise this money. God's the provider, but He always uses his people to do his work in order to teach them lessons. Every dollar means a lot to me! Ask God to show you how you can help. Check out the Support Me! link on the left.

And to all those who've already donated: 

THANK YOU!!

Let's Get Down To The Nitty Gritty!

So some of my fellow squadmates on The World Race challenged me to list 100 facts about myself, so here it is! 

1. Named Pookie after the dog from Anastasia. I got the nickname from my older sister when I was 8 and the name has stuck ever since. Rarely does anyone actually call me Stephanie.
2. I will literally eat anything except lasagna. That is the nastiest junk in the world.
3. I once ate a cricket and a worm. They didn't taste as bad as lasagna does.
4. My favorite animal is a lion.
5. I own a lion. He's a 5'9 stuffed animal named Aslan Judah Mufasa and likes to go on car rides                                                                 
6. I have pet both a lion and a tiger and that is my greatest accomplishment in life so far. In case you were wondering how they felt, they have different fur types. Tigers are much softer.
7. I have three goals in life: 1. Pet a lion (check). 2. Become a youtube sensation. 3. Have someone name their child Pookie after me. (Middle name is acceptable).
8. I've had about 5 near-death experiences. They've mainly occurred the on the week of my birthday and that's why I swear my birthdays are cursed.
9. One of my dreams is to own a big kitchen and just feed tons of people
10. Until the age of 17, i wanted to be a zookeeper
11. When I was younger, I also wanted to be in the CIA
12. I own every season of Alias. #11 is probably correlated with this.
13. I love learning random pieces of trivia
14. I'm seriously contemplating going on Jeopardy to raise money for The World Race
15. I'm studying to be a middle school social studies teacher
16. I have a fear that people will find me boring.
17. If I could do anything in the world as a job, I would mentor teenagers through taking them on mission trips/service projects and showing them how much more there is in life
18. In middle school, I took a test that told me what jobs I would be good for. I got bodyguard and cabinet maker.
19. Everytime I take a personality test, I score 0 for extraversion. I'm a hardcore introvert and but I love meeting interesting people.
20. When I took a love languages test, I tied for first with all the love languages except Quality Time. I like to consider myself an equal opportunist
21. Sarcasm and food are my true love languages.
22. I'm an INFP
23. I'm also the baby of not only my immediate family but both sides of my extended family.
24. I love reading about personality theories. It helps me understand people
25. You know those movies like X-men or Heroes where suddenly the character develops a superpower like being invisible or mind-reading? I'm pretty sure that I have a superpower like that, I'm just not sure what it is yet.
26. I love to write and I don't do it enough.
27. I feel the most at peace when I'm making art. 
28. One of my favorite things to do ever is watch the stars. They are so cool. And big.
29. My favorite constellation is Pleiades
30. I wish that I could be a grandmother but I don't want to become a mother. If I had the chance to skip from 30 to 55 I totally would. They seem like smarter versions of teenagers. Actually I just want to wear a Mumu and ride around in a Hoverround.
31. I lived on a farm my entire childhood
32. I had about 20ish cats, a few horses, some fish, a goat, a dog and some raccoons and an old, obese opossum. Granted, we didn't pet the wild animals but we could sit in our barn and watch them.
33. I've been to Chile, Nicaragua, Canada and Thailand
34. My parents were born in Chile and moved away as teenagers. My mother's actually a Canadian citizen now because she lived there inbetween Chile and the USA
35. The past 3 generations of my family have all been born in one country and passed away in another. I kinda want to uphold that awesomeness.
36. While hopefully #35 won't happen while I'm on The World Race, part of me hopes that the end of the world happens in 2012, mainly so I won't have to get a real job.
37. Not many things make me feel uncomfortable--except everyone having their attention on me. That just makes me feel nauseous
38. When I talk to myself (come on--everyone does it), myself tends to have a British accent (which everyone probably doesn't have).
39. I drink all my drinks without ice and I like my soda warm. 
40. My bedroom has a hammock. Usually I just sleep in that, it's much more comfortable than my bed.
41. My biggest pet peeve is people talking during movies. There must be silence. I also don't go to the movies on Friday or Saturday nights because of it.
42. My favorite book is The Chronicles of Narnia's The Last Battle. C.S. Lewis is such a man.
43. My favorite movie is The Lion King. (Again along with #42, it's the whole lion thing)
44. My other favorite movies are Nacho Libre and Life is Beautiful. And Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (don't judge it til you watch it). I also have a very diverse taste in things.
45. 90s movies such as Cool Runnings, Hook, and Space Jam are literally the greatest movies ever
46. Books are seriously my favorite things in the whole wide world. It's going to be rough not being able to bring a ton of them on The World Race
47. I want to own a library one day like the one from Beauty and the Beast
48. Favorite song: The Call by Regina Spektor
49. I once caught a fish with my bare hands. I think it was dying and was really old and slow but it was the coolest thing ever
50. I can literally fall asleep anywhere. Naps are a big deal in my life
51. The best nap I've ever taken was in Thailand in 2011. When you experience such great things, you remember those historic events.
52. I love playing card games and board games
53. Every year, I make a new years' resolutions list with 100 small but awesome things to accomplish. Making this list is much harder than that ever was.
54. Some of my heroes are: Mr. Rogers, Mother Teresa, and Robin Hood. The cartoon one.
55. I often get confused for Dora the Explorer by small children.
56. I would do anything for a Chick-fil-a mint chocolate chip milkshake
57. In case you couldn't tell by this list, I'm somewhat scatterbrained.
58. I have the entire chapter of Hebrews 11 memorized. Because it's my favorite
59. I'm supposed to be writing a paper at this moment. This is a good alternative
60. I'm always about 10-15 minutes late and the worst procrastinator ever. Hence #59
61. I'm going to miss Chick-fil-a and sweet tea the most while on the race. It's gonna be rough
62. Addition to #2: The last time I ate hotdogs was 4 years ago at my school's annual "Dorm Wars" where you had to eat as many as you could in a minute. Thanks also to Dorm Wars this year, I will never eat Krystals again either.
63. I was saved when I was 13 after some older teenagers became my mentors and encouraged me to seriously read the Bible.
64. Shortly after, when I was 14, my father passed away from a long-time liver disease. 
65. My favorite scar happened almost 2 years ago. I tried surfing in a canoe and it flipped, leaving an awesome scar on my knee.
66. If I were a boy, I'd be a construction worker hands down. I love building stuff and working with my hands
67. Once, when I was 11, I tried to train myself to be amibidexous. It didn't really work but my left hand now has better cursive writing than my right. Mainly because my normal cursive sucks.
68. The last concert I went to was the Backstreet Boys/New Kids On The Block reunion tour. I regret nothing.
69. I only cry about once every 2 years. 
70. I have a habit of stealing shopping carts. I've owned about 3. Also, I have a few road signs and Caution: Wet Floor signs. One day I'll return them
71. I'm pretty certain that jackalopes are real.                                                                                                                                                                               This little treasure almost came home with me.
72. I've been 5'4 since the 7th grade
73. My vision is so bad, I'm almost blind
74. I used to have a tooth on the roof of my mouth. I called it my shark tooth but unfortunately, my parents had it removed when I was in 2nd grade
75. One of my greatest desires is to one day find Narnia. 
76. I've worn a Mickey Mouse watch everyday since I was 8
77. When I'm trying to keep myself awake in class, I name all the presidents in order and then all the kings and queens of England. I've been trying to learn all the czars of Russia but it's kinda tricky
78. I have an awesomely high tolerance for pain
79. My older sister Andrea is one of my heroes
80. Roadtrips are one of my favorite things in life. I hope to own a 15 passenger van or an RV one day to take epic roadtrips
81. I believe heaven is going to be like one giant potluck. Potlucks are my favorite thing ever because of the intimate community and the plethora of delicious foods
82. If I could be any character in The Lord Of The Rings, I would be Samwise Gamgee
83. Lucky Charms are hands-down my favorite food. You can't go wrong with magically delicious
84. I lived near Billy Ray Cyrus and went to school with Ke$ha, Mat Kearney and some of Paramore
85. The earliest memory I have is when I lived in California and there was a small earthquake. All I remember is that it was a Sunday morning and I was sitting on my bed that had a Sesame Street comforter. 
86. Proof that God listens to prayers: This one time I was in Thailand and for about a week I had been craving Mexican food. I kept jokingly praying for some Mexican food to appear and lo and behold, there was a Mexican restaurant right in the middle of Chiang Mai. God is good ya'll
87. I first found out about The World Race when visiting my friend Tempest. Her next door neighbor had a support card asking for prayer for her sister on The World Race. I thought it was The Amazing Race and kept reading. I checked the website out once and didn't think about it until a year later in this past June, when I came across it again. I prayed for direction and God led me there.
88. I'm hoping to get Disaster Relief certified this summer before going on the Race.
89. I wasn't good at soccer until after I quit playing on a team and just played for fun.
90. I used to practice archery. Mainly because I wanted to be Robin Hood as a kid
91. Top most common words that are used to describe me: easy-going, calm, and funny
92. I'm scared of wavepools and heights. 
93. Once I wrote a poem and it was published in a book. I don't remember what the book is called though but it's in our house somewhere.
94. My car's name is Ernestine after the lunch lady at my school. She's a big deal.
95. When I was 4, my preschool teacher thought I was mute when I was little. I was just painfully shy. It took me until I was about 17 to finally get over that. 
96. Contrary to popular belief, my middle name is not Pookie. It's Renee and I was named after my grandfather, Rene
97. I feel much more comfortable talking to children and middle schoolers than I do talking to adults
98. When I'm looking for an object that I've lost, I sing its name to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger". For example: Keys! Keys! Keys! Keys! or Pants! Pants! Pants! Pants! I've always found what I was looking for.  
99. I type in microwave times in square roots. So instead of 60 seconds, I do 64. This is mainly because I think the 1, 2, 3, and 0 buttons are overused and I want to give the other numbers fair chance of being pushed too. Yeah, don't analyze that one too much.
100. I have an irrational fear of dinosaurs. My biggest fear is that one day a dinosaur will eat me and my nightmares usually involve me running away from velociraptors that were trained by the FBI to hunt me down. Jurassic Park really messed me up as a kid.

Little Pookie

Love Never Gives Up. Love Never Fails.

Two weeks ago, I sat in the parking lot after student teaching. Gripping the wheel of my car, I sat there holding back tears and frustrated at everything. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to drive off and never return to that school again.
I hated teaching.
I hated being in a school.
And I definitely hated the 5th grade. I didn't even like it the first time around, much less having to return.
It had just been a rough day. The kids were out of control and didn't listen. The lessons that were to be taught ended up in a jumbled chaos and the supervisor who was evaluating my teaching always seemed to leave the room with an angry scowl.
I was drained. And I wasn't sure I wanted to teach anymore.


There goes 3.5 years of college. Wasted.

Those kids don't respect you and don't care about you.

You're nothing but a failure.d

That night, God and I had a talk. I like to call these talks "real talk". It's just me and God and I like to get completely honest with Him. This is exactly how it went:

God. What the f*** are you thinking? You call me to do this, you push me through 3.5 years of school, when I could be doing other things, pursuing other amazing opportunities and then throw me to the lions to be ripped apart? WHY? I'm being pulverized over here and WHERE ARE YOU?? NOW YOU LEAVE ME? God, just give me a break. I don't even want this. I hate these kids. Listen, if you want this to happen, YOU'RE going to have to do something because I'm done here. i can't do this anymore. I'm tired of this s***, and I need you to be the one in charge. Thanks, Stephanie.

For the record, these parts of my journal are always the most hilarious to go back and read, but it's also my favorite. It's good to be raw with God and honest about frustrations, mainly because He already knows what I'm feeling and I'm finally being truthful that I'm in dire need of a saviour.


Anyways, I sat around being miffed for a good while and not really sure what to do when finally God spoke up in the gentlest of whispers

You can't give up just yet.

No duh. Unfortunately I still had about 4 more months of this crap before I could graduate. At least, I felt a little bit better expressing my anger. 


Then, I kinda just broke down and started to pray for just extra love. And patience. Because I was tired and honestly couldn't do anything else.


And the next day was better. And I kept praying for these kids. And for me. Since we're being honest in this post, I'll admit it, mainly for me. 


The next few weeks went by fairly quickly. Some days were good! I was able to leave those days glad that I had spent those extra hours preparing for the lesson, even if it meant only four hours of sleep. Some days were honestly horrible, though I learned to deal with those. Kids are humans too and therefore carry their own burdens, choosing for themselves what their attitude in the classroom was going to be like. I could only do my best and keep praying.


And I realized that I kinda liked being with them.


Tuesday was my last day with those fifty-six kids. We had struggled over math together and still had small battles for control, but we also laughed together too. And got lots of hugs. 


It was also Valentine's Day. And in the morning, I was showered with cute little pieces of cheap, Valentine's candy and cards. And then some boys gave me a teddy bear and roses and my heart started to swell. Those kids really were precious.


But it wasn't until the end of the day that my heart completely broke. I was dragged to the front of the room and presented with a teacher tote bag filled with over $100 worth of office supplies for my new classroom. With grins, the class told me excitedly how they had secretly been filling up the bag for a few weeks and then surrounded me for a group hug. 


I was floored. No way did I deserve this. I didn't even think these kids liked me that much.


The bell had rung and the class was now empty. My teacher hugged me and congratulated me for surviving the fifth grade. With a big smile, she told me how influential I had been over the past few weeks and handed me a stack of notes from the kids.


Wait...me?


Once again, I sat in the parking lot fighting back tears. I was sitting in my car reading the notes from the kids, handling each one like a priceless manuscript. 

Thanks for sitting down and explaining math to me 

Thanks for being patient, you're going to be a really good teacher one day 

Please come back to visit us and promise me that you'll never ever ever forget us 

You were the greatest teacher I had since preschool!

and this one was my personal favorite, one that had been written by a student who had only recently arrived in the US from Mexico:

Journal entry from 2/14:

Dear God, You were right. I shouldn't have wanted to give up so fast. You knew what you were doing in all this and I realize now just how much you should be the center of my life. I am honored to be part of your plan. I don't deserve any of this and I am so incredibly thankful for what you've done. 

Your love NEVER gives up. 

Quick Update

How's my student teaching going?

Couldn't have summarized it better myself. 

The pros and cons of wrestling 5th graders are evenly balanced. Yesterday I wanted to cry for hours, today I was laughing so hard. First, I'll be giving them the stern "what-do-you-think-you're-doing" look and five minutes later I'm giving one of my students a hug. It's a never ending rollercoaster of loving, disciplining and sometimes actual teaching.

But those kids sure are adorable.

Shut up. I know I'm wearing a teacher cardigan.

High Dive

Whew. 


This past semester was crazy. Going, going, going. Always having to be on top of my game, always ready to perform, always prepared for evaluations, presentations and whatever else came my way. During this time, I did short sprints toward the end of the week, just needing to survive until Friday afternoon so I could just crash.


Next semester begins the marathon. The continued going. Not only will I be student teaching in both a 5th grade and 7th grade Social Studies classroom but also delving into some hardcore fundraising for The World Race (only $14,000 to go...). I can already feel the tiredness creeping up on me as I prepare for my last semester at school and giving up everything I own to go around the world. 


Oh boy. It's going to be a rough one. 


I'm sitting on the edge of the high dive, ready to take a leap and free fall into the pool below. I'm ready. I've been working up to this moment. I can't wait to actually do it. Finally experience what I always thought of as the future. But I can't jump in just yet. There's a knot in my stomach. What if I fail? What if I find myself climbing down the ladder, shakily holding onto the rungs, disappointed that I couldn't make it and full of shame? 


I can only close my eyes and hope for the best.




This post went nowhere near where I intended it to go. Maybe that was necessary.