A Well Deserved Honor!

Hello all,
Things have been crazy the last few weeks, and I am so ready for our holidays! Yesterday, I had a extremely great speaker visit my class from Automotive University Technical Institute located in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was really worried about how my students would behave- this gentleman had traveled quite a few miles to speak to us. Once again, I was delightfully surprised, my students were very attentive and respectful, they asked interesting questions and told the speaker some interesting stories of their own!. The UTI Speaker actually invited us to visit his Nascar Technical Institute in North Carolina (Which to my understanding is a great honor that is not given out very often) and I am currently working on this trip for my students.
When all seems to be crazy and confusing- just leave it to a few great kids to pull a surprise!
I hope that each of you have a Healthy Thanksgiving with your family and friends, and I wish God's greatest Blessings on you all for all you do- everyday, to make a difference!- Riley

Amazing Wednesday

Hello all,
Well, we have survived Spirit week and Halloween, our students were allowed to dress-up for Halloween and it really was amazing. Some of my students, that don't seem to participate in much of anything came to class in costume. As I stood in the halls and lunchroom looking over the students, I tried to imagine just how they came up with the various ideals that they had applied to their outfits. Did they see these ideals on television, or even possibly in a book? Heaven only knows, but I think that these students actually created some of these outfits in their very own thoughts. This proves what I believe with all my heart, our kids are capable of achieving things in this world that are unimaginable! Let's continue to pray that they will apply their talents in a good way and enjoy it! -as we continue moving forward toward Thanksgiving and Christmas! --Riley

Another Day in Paradise!!!

Well we've started another very exciting week. Friday was actually a teacher work day we only had one meeting and the rest of the day was ours and as if it just couldn't get any better our principal let us go home at 1:30. Alright back to my topic, since I've been a teacher I've realized that a day can only be as bad as you make it, or in other words you get out of the day what you put into the day. If you wake up in the morning in a bad mood 97 percent of the time you will have a bad day if you wake up in a good mood- you have a good day. Every morning we as teachers are required to watch our hallway to make sure all the students behave and that they are cleared out of the halls after the bell rings, and I imagine most of you teachers know what happens when teachers stand around in a group together? They start talking about something negative or how they have it so bad and there is nothing physically wrong with none of them or their families, so when they ask me how my day is- I always say "it's just another day in paradise" I know we all go through hard times, but lets face it. Things could be much worse than this if you don't believe me just go and visit a nursing home you will see that we really have it great. So just think positive and keep your head up, and what other job can you go to that after the end result you look back and see your passions being shared in the lives and hearts of so many other people. One more thing before I close this blog down, I don't have a big budget so I came up with a auto detailing class for my second period which is 95% special needs and in that class I found a student who no one thought could do anything. He is turned out to be an excellent auto detailer and now he has the hope of getting to have a normal job for the first time in his life. Hope- is there anything better or more satisfying than that? He told me yesterday that for the first time in his life he feels he is not just plain dumb and that there is something for him. I think I held my head seven inches higher that day because I felt the passion teaching brings. I hope all is going well.-- Riley

Keep On-Keeping On

Hey All,
This is the end of the first nine weeks and we are busy working on final grades for the report cards. We had a busy week, with spirit week (which went better than I expected), homecoming, pep rally, parade, signing up for teacher work classes for our professional learning day, voting on Queen and King, and ETC...In many ways, this nine weeks has gone by fast. BUT, in many other ways it has dragged on forever! As I read every one's blog, I realize that this small world- truly is a small world. We all seem to be experiencing a lot of the same situations, students misbehavior, overcrowding, observations, report card, etc..and well honestly-- it takes a world to raise a child. I hope to encourage someone in some way today, keep on - keeping on. This job truly has it's rewards, sometimes we just have to wait on 'em. I'm trusting that the best is yet to come! -Riley

Spirit Week

Hi All, Our school is having spirit week this week. I can't help wondering if it's really worth the trouble. Each day there is some sort of plan for the students to wear a certain color, dress-up in a certain attire or to do something a little outrageous. My students seem to pick up pretty easy on every chance to act a little too silly. I am experiencing extra behavior problems already and it's just Monday. I understand that the students are still kids, but is it worth all this to have them act like pre-school instead of high-schoolers? Well, it's not my choice, but I will choose to try and be a little outrageous myself- maybe to even tolerate a little too silly students?-Riley

field trip

Hi all, Today was an exciting day for my students and myself. Today was our second field trip , but it was our first field trip to a large dealership. My students behaved so well, most of the time they all come through for me but today, I think they were so involved and interested that they didn't think about misbehaving. We toured the dealership and met some technicians. The technicians were great as they explained about their jobs and what all it involved. Also, I had a visitor from Lanier Technical College who came by to observe and get acquainted with the Senior students. He spent almost the entire day with us and actually went with us on our field trip. Some days all goes well, and today was an exceptional one. -Riley

Observation

This week has been a great week I had my first observation yesterday, everything went great. Jesse couldn't have been more helpfull. We began our discussion on tire safety this week and for the most part I think everyone understands how important tire safety is. The lesson that was discussed went great and the lab activities that followed went smoothly, if anyone is worried about their observation dont be worried. Riley Ray

Every day is a great day!

This week at school has been a great week. We've accomplished a lot in a short period of time. The kids have been pretty calm, we have our first pep rally tomorrow so our schedules will be shortened and the whole day will be thrown off just a little bit. But no matter how rough a day may seem it's always a great day to be alive, healthy and have the ability to do all things. This week I started my kids on basic engine identification. I split the kids up into four groups had them tare an engine down, identify every piece that they remove and give the function of each piece. I truly feel that this was a great project for the kids not only did they learn how to tare an engine down,they also learnt what tools needed to be used when removing certain components and they also learnt how to find the proper size of the tool required for the job. Last year, I had a problem with students not returning their tools and cleaning their area up like they are supposed to do, but this year I started stopping all projects ten minutes early and giving the kids enough time to clean up and that was the solution I was looking for. I hope everyone had a great week and if your week was a little hectic just stop and look to the positive. Always remember it could be a lot worse, there's a Bible verse that I like to repeat when I feel a little down: this is the day that the Lord hath made. May we be glad and rejoice in it. Don't quote me on that, but I think you all get the point. God bless you all Riley

First blog

This was our first short week we had four days with kids and our first professional learning day. We had a speacker from the DOE his name was Wendell Christen. The discussion was on the Georgia keys to quality-preparing for school improvement. Some of the topics that were discussed applied to the CTAE but most of the topics did not, so I really feel that the day was a long and boring day. Most of the discussions that were discussed applied to the discussions that we already had at NTI, so I really feel that I have an edge on most of the other teachers. I don't know about all of you but, I would rather be teaching in the classroom with my students. Riley

First few weeks of school

The first few weeks of school have beem alot smoother then the first week of school I feal that I have more control in my class room my second week of school I had a student throw a wrench at the RVI teacher the student was removed from my class due to a safety violation, other then that its been great.