Fulton Falcons

I’m blessed to work at Fulton High School. I’m honored to work for people who love those kids and will work hard for them to succeed. It’s a hard place to work, it’s a school full of troubled kids, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

Bronce and I are blessed to attend an amazing church where the Gospel is preached every day. Don’t believe me or don’t know what that means? Listen to the sermon this weekend – it’s the real deal. Click here: Jan 24 - The Wrath of God Satisfied

Right now Fellowship Church is walking through a 36-week focus called “Engage” focused on four principles – Worship, Grow, Serve, and Invest. You can see more about it here: Fellowship: Engage

The church staff is collecting stories of ways our congregation is already involved in some of these areas of focus. One of the pathways we’re looking at is “Increasing Involvement in Relationships with At Risk Youth” – here’s where my love of Fulton High and my passion for my church collide in a really beautiful way.

Not only am I surrounded by godly, attentive folks at church, but the principal at my school is a wonderful, godly man. He also happens to attend Fellowship, and this Sunday they presented a video of him explaining a little about Fulton. Please watch it – it’s 5 minutes, that’s it! :)

Engage Response Stories: Jon Rysewyk from Fellowship Church Knoxville on Vimeo.

My Very First DIY

When we moved into our house we planned to do some major renovations… and we did. It took 2 months of painstaking work, paint-covered hands, drop cloths everywhere, popcorn-ceiling dust invading my lungs, and, since most of the renovation was the kitchen itself and we were left with a mini-fridge full of diet rootbeer and a tiny microwave… dozens of meals of Ramen noodles.

In that very same kitchen we took what used to be a large room separated by cabinets (food-prep area and a kitchen-table area) into a haven for cooking. It’s beautiful! Check out the amazing progress below…

Here’s the before. This was one of the photos we viewed before seeing the house.

Okay, prepare yourself. This is awesome. I’m very proud of the choices we made and the finished product.

I’ll do a post sometime and go through the process… pulling out soffits, tearing up the floor, new drywall, etc. But here’s the view from the other direction. I know it’s a terrible picture – the lighting in this room is weird and I was having flash problems. Notice the way we adjusted the depth of the counters when you get to the “eat-in” portion of the kitchen (the right side from this view). I lurve that part. :)

So the problem has been that part down by the door. You can see even more from this picture how vast the space was. (PS – isn’t the orange way better than the original terrible pale green?)

From the start I envisioned a glass-top table there – something with four chairs and a casual contemporary appearance to finish the room. Problem? They’re expensive, man! I’ve looked all over the place and for the style I prefer… we’re talking $600-800. Even if I could talk Bronce into saving for that (yeah, right), I don’t think I could stomach putting that kind of money into a stinking table.

So. I started searching Craigslist. And last weekend I found it. The perfect table. With ugly cushions. No worries, I can handle that!! Here are the Craigslist photos that caught my eye. (I’m keeping them small since they’re low quality).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and this picture of the center of the table was the real decision-maker for me. It perfectly matches the fabric I would use later that day to recover the cushions.

Dad met me in Halls to pick them up (thanks, Dad! You’re the best!) and help me haul them back to my house. I originally planned to change out the cushions and paint the metal frames, but Dad wisely talked me in to waiting on the paint. I still think it would look fabulous (and may become a summer project), but they ended up being less brass and more oil-rubbed bronze. Which works for me!

So looking at the chairs… Yuck. That fabric has got to go.

Taking off the old fabric…

  My friend Tracy and I had just gone to Short Sheets (an amazing fabric wholesale place in Crossville, TN) and found the perfect fabric for the den and kitchen windows. Mom and I fashioned some awesome grommet valances for the three windows/doors and I had the perfect amount left over for these seat cushions.

Using the old cushions as my template, I cut out the fabric for the new ones. And, since Mom gave me the brilliant suggestion to cut out extras, I cut 6 pieces in case I need to replaced a ruined/stained cushion at some point in the future.

Mom’s awesome electric nail gun (I’ve gotta get one of those… amazing!)…

Lather, rinse, repeat… three more times. Then, re-attach the cushions to the chairs using the screws I wisely placed in a ziploc bag (otherwise they end up rolling away…). And here’s the finished product!

Put ‘em all together and you have a wonderful seating area, ready for dinner! Or… more likely… laptops and coffee.

Check out the amazing curtains! I did help, but those are like 95% Mom. She’s awesome and crazy talented.

Total cost: $150 for the table and chairs, $20 for the fabric = $170 That’s way cheaper than $700-800!

Check out other DIY posts at The DIY Showoff, a source of inspiration for many of my future projects!

Back to Work

When we left for Christmas break I found myself strangely reluctant to leave the school building. I spent most of the two weeks looking forward to getting back to the kids, not dreading it as I had anticipated. The Sunday before our teacher inservice day I did have the impulse to apply the breaks to my master clock, as I realized a few extra days would be nice, but overall I wasn't freaked out about returning to school.

Monday's inservice proved to be a rather large waste of my time - due totally to my misuse of time. I spent 10 hours in the school building and only 2-3 of them were used effectively; I spent a lot of time chatting with colleagues and attempting to organize my workspace (still not done).

So Tuesday the kids came back. I got to school with a mixture of anticipation and concern (mostly that I didn't have enough planned for the day - which turned out to be a valid concern!). I started the day with bus duty, an evil little waste of time - from 7:30 till 8:15 I was stationed outside the cafeteria to make sure no kiddos attempted to wander into the hallways before the first bell. It turned out to be a nice chance to welcome some of my students back to school - I could hear their exclamations of "Is that Mrs. Rodgers?" from outside the glass doors and enjoyed chatting with them about their Christmas break when they came in and said hello.

Last semester's Kid That Drives Me Bonkers (KTDMB from here on) saw me as he walked in the building, tried to act tough for a few minutes, and ended up practically squealing with excitement when I gave him a friendly fist-bump and asked about his Christmas. He spent all last semester loudly comparing my teaching style to that of his previous Algebra teacher, implying (and sometimes just straight out saying) that I was the inferior of the two teachers. You can imagine my twisted pleasure when his new math teacher told me that he talked about me all during her class yesterday. What is it with teachers that we get that wicked glee from hearing a student has been talking positively about us? KTDMB found me later in the day to regale me with the stories of his day and make me laugh, earning him a place in my favor that he most certainly did not have when I had to spend 90 minutes a day stuck in a room with him.

I gave the "welcome to the semester - it's a fresh start for all of us!" speech to each of my classes. And I agree with this blogger - it's mostly just for my benefit - but it was a nice start. All my students took a diagnostic test to see how much info they retained over the break (imo, a great way to see what they really know at this point). And they NAILED it! Seriously, it was fantastic and a real encouragement for this semester.

It was a good day. Really. I'm now sharing my teeny-tiny office/break room/copier room with another teacher and I'm adapting to that loss of solitude fairly well. He's a nice teacher and he's new, so I can relate easily to some of the things he's going through. I hear the kids talking about him - more than most kids their age, they don't like change, as it's usually associated with something traumatic to their history - I think it may take some time for them to warm up to him (and, honestly, him to them!). Hearing about his day and contrasting it with my own startles me. I feel so good about this job! I love it! And when I look back at how far I've come in one semester, all I can do is praise the Lord for the miracle of this position and His guiding hand along the way.

Today (Wednesday) hasn't started yet (for me - I start with my planning period), and my attitude may change by the afternoon's final bell, but I'm grateful for this job and excited about the new semester.

Did I mention my principal came into my office yesterday to tell me I'm doing "a really good job"? Well, that's just icing on the cupcake. ;)