A Letter for My Future Students

Dear Future Student of Mine, 

I do not yet know your name, but I have already been praying for you. I am praying that the Lord will give me a love for you that surpasses all understanding. I pray that we will be placed together for a greater purpose. I pray that you will see, through me, just how great my God is. I promise to continue praying for you throughout our time together. 

Please understand that I am a  human just like you. Our numbered days together will not always be perfect, but I will strive everyday to be better than the day before. I will mess up along the way because no one is without sin. I will say things I will later regret because I struggle with being quick to speak in anger. I promise to continue working on this. 

I have a passion and calling to teach you and that is what I will do. More importantly, I have a calling to love you even when I may not want to. Why? Because that is why I'm on this earth. To show you the love of Christ. To let His light shine through me. To show you that a life without Him is worse than a life without knowledge. No matter who you are, where you came from, or where we will go together this year I promise to lead you and your fellow classmates in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. 

Your future teacher, 

Miss Baine

Blog Hoppin!

Please note: At this rate I will be posting one blog per year.

I have been participating in the Blog Hoppin scavenger hunt! 

I have had so much fun going around taking pictures with this little guy...

He doesn't technically have a name. I call him my Stickman. My brother calls him Chico. And another friend says he looks like an Antonio. So maybe Chico Antonio?? 

You can see all of my pictures by searching for my hashtag: #stephbaine or by following me at @msbaine.

Seeing all these teacher bloggers posting pictures and comments has really inspired me to give this blogging-thing another try. So look for more posts soon! 

Imitate

Wow, let's jump nine months into the future!

I hoped to use this a way to share how I am glorifying the Lord in my job, yet I forgot about it as soon as I posted my first post. Hmmm.... Quick update: I am close to the end of my second year. I teach an inclusion class this year that has been more challenging than expected. I have been seeking the Lord for ways to show love to my students when it is hard. He has been teaching me more than I am teaching the children!

The best way that I can bring glory to Christ in any situation is to imitate Him. By showing his love, grace, and compassion to every one in my life, including my students. You may be a teacher who finds it easy to love all her students. That is amazing! However, it is not so easy for me. I have to remind myself every moment that these children do what they were born knowing to do: sin. They need the same grace poured out on them as Christ pours out on us.

All of that is to say that my mission in my day needs to be to imitate Christ. Just as children will imitate their parents who they dearly love; my students will imitate me. I need to make sure that I am imitating my Heavenly Father who I dearly love.

Follow God’s example,

therefore,

as dearly loved children.

Ephesians 5:1

Read the whole chapter!

I Survived My First Year!

Yep, I'm a teacher. 

(Please, no apples!)

I just finished my first year.

It was a great year overall. The teachers I work beside told me time and time again what a great job I did. However, I didn't feel like I had succeeded. Why? 

I treated teaching as a job, when I should have treated it as my calling. 

My hopes for this blog are to share how I plan on changing my attitude and how I will look at teaching differently in my second year.  I may also post "teacher-y" ideas and such, but I want to focus on how to teach to fulfill my purpose in life: 

GLORIFYING the Father!

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me rom this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, GLORIFY YOUR NAME!" John 12:27