More schools means more blessings

LSEM > stories > Uncategorized > More schools means more blessings

More schools means more blessings

No Comments

This year I am blessed to work at three schools: Three schools, three principals, twenty-five teachers, and seventy-four students. This came about because of the passion for education and support of LSEM by principals who care about me!  Because the school I have been working with for four years had to tighten their budget, my LSEM position was reduced by half.  Area principals, believing in kids who need support, stepped up and requested LSEM time to fill my schedule.  By the grace of God, I remain full-time at LSEM. 

I have been so blessed by this: I have grown the relationship of LSEM with area schools and principals, I have met and reached out to so many new teachers, families, resources and students, I am learning so many new things!  I have discovered that our Lutheran schools do need someone to be able to offer support to teachers and students, especially as here in Wisconsin, where the Choice program is bringing students with more socio-economic backgrounds, more worldly experiences, and more educational need.  I am finding so many gifted and committed classroom teachers who are quite heroic in their efforts to educate, nurture and inspire as part of their Lutheran calling. I have discovered more services and specialized programs becoming available for newly diagnosed disabilities, now made accessible to parents and students even outside of schools.  I have the opportunity to make connections between teachers, curriculum, new ideas, and school practice that I have not before experienced in my 23 years of teaching…I am exhausted, yes! But I am inspired and hopeful. I am determined and proud to be a part of Lutheran Schools and a part of LSEM.  I know that I am making a difference.  

Every teacher who is still hanging on and making the decision to lead in their classroom with enthusiasm, creativity and grace is a reason to celebrate. I see them every day: Teachers requesting testing and intervention, teachers holding discussions about curriculum and begging for better resources, teachers sharing ideas about learning and commiserating about how education is changing so drastically and so fast, teachers finding encouragement when reading is finally clicking, when trying to explain to a parent that no, school shouldn’t be this hard, yet continuing to find strategies that just might help.  

I get to see student success! I see students who keep trying even when it’s hard. I am grateful when I get to witness the smile when they are encouraged and finding some success, for the joy they find in the new ‘game’ I just made up that allows them to jump around the room to find the letter on the dice. I am thankful for the personal satisfaction they experience when they can finally read the word list under the two-minute mark, or when they get the multiplication set memorized.  Every day I have a special story, because through all the hard work of learning to navigate through the struggles, we together glorify God in this miracle of education.  I see joy in the faces of children who still see the promise of the future.  Wow God!