About Me

Hi, welcome to Passing Period. I'm Kerry, a teacher in a small farming community. My life revolves around teaching, coaching, and being a wife. But the most important thing in my life is my relationship with God. Passing Period is about how life is full of rushing around and trying to fit things in here and there; like attempting to make crafts, trying new recipes, and developing awesome lessons for the classroom. 

I married my husband in 2012 and soon after became part of the best small farming community there is. I teach at the local k-12 school, I am a leader at Awana's at the local Baptist church, I help with community fundraisers, and I coach volleyball! Growing up I always wanted to be part of the community I was living in but I was too shy. As an adult I lived in other towns and cities that were too big for me to do much good. Now it's easy...too easy; community members expect you to help out and they ask you at least once a week to be a part of something. Sometimes I get involved in too much but it is hard to say no..."It’s for a good cause!"

I graduated from college in 2009 and began the hunt for a teaching job. I probably applied to forty different schools around the state and only had a few interviews. I couldn't compete with those who had Master's degrees and experience. I took a job as a paraprofessional in an alternative school and absolutely hated it; it was easy but I wasn’t teaching and that alternative school went against everything I believed as a bright-eyed and bushy tailed teacher fresh out of college. Now, my viewpoint is a little different.

Finally, in December of 2011 I went for an interview at a school in a town I had never heard of. They needed a part time social studies teacher and a secretary to help with a grant they had just received. I would have three different preps (classes). That seemed like a lot to me...when I did my student teaching I only had two. But, I had no other choice, I took the job and it was the best decision I ever made in my life. I started 2nd semester, no one told me where to go or what to do...I didn't even get the textbooks for the classes I was to teach until my first day! I had no idea what I was doing! To add to that neither did the teacher who had my classes before me. He was the P.E. teacher. They had the P.E. teacher teaching social studies! Although, I will say he did the best he could and he tried really hard. 

I was shown absolutely nothing that first semester. I didn't know how to take attendance, I didn't know how to enter grades, I didn't know that grades had to be posted and updated every three weeks, I didn't even know where the lunch room was for the first week (I ate in my classroom alone for a long time). 

And on top of all that I was also supposed to help out with a federal grant for physical education. It was a pretty big deal and I knew nothing about it. I won't go into all the details of the grant; but that first year was rough. Luckily we had two more years to figure it out. We eventually got it figured out though and would love to receive another of the same grant!

Remember the P.E teacher who was teaching social studies classes? He was also the director of the grant and my boss. He told me what I was supposed to be doing, although at the beginning I am not sure he knew exactly what I was supposed to do…he just knew that he didn't have to teach social studies anymore and for that he was very thankful. We eventually got into a routine and dove right into the grant and we started to do amazing things for our school. I might post about some of these things later.

Here comes the kicker…the guy in the aforementioned paragraph…he’s now my husband! (Read more about our “love story” in this post Snow Days and Proposals) Isn't God good! He definitely has a plan it is just sometimes hard to believe. You want to know another weird coincidence? The year after I graduated from high school my husband, Joe, taught at my high school! He is from a town 2 hours away! Sometimes I wonder if I had been a better Christian at the time and listened to God instead of myself maybe I would have met Joe then and had seven more years with him? A very sobering thought. I am just thankful I got back on track and started listening and following God’s plan for my life. Things are so much easier when you trust the Lord in everything you do!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

I thought that year was hard; the next year was even harder. I had seven preps, two of which were Communication Arts, one was an independent student trying to recoup a credit to graduate, and two were middle school classes. I was only certified to teach 9-12 social studies so I had to take two Praxis tests (teaching certification tests) one to teach Communication Arts and one to teach middle school social studies. I was also supposed to take one to teach middle school communication arts but I refused…I did not want too many certifications under my belt. I didn’t want them to move me around in the coming years. It was bad enough I had to get certified to teach middle school social studies. I became a high school teacher for a reason, middle schoolers are not for me (although I do have to teach that age group now but it is something I have to do not choose to do. I do, however, applaud those who teach middle school.)!

Oh, and on top of all of this I was now the assistant director of the grant! It was definitely a long, rough year! I went into work before 7:30 and didn’t get home until 8:00 or later most nights and I still had work to do! I had to work on the grant, grade papers, make lesson plans with very little resources (most of the social studies textbooks had no resources with them; I did a lot of internet searching. By the way four years later I am still using the same textbooks with no resources), try and figure out how to teach comm. Arts (the Praxis to teach C.A. was easy; but trying to teach it that was a whole different story), host grant events…blah, blah, blah. I am sure there are people out there who understand what I am saying; heck they probably have it rougher than what I did. Either way it was a hectic year; but I made it through and it didn’t sway me into leaving and finding a job somewhere else where I would have less to do and get paid more. Of course part of that was the fact we have AMAZING students at our school…I’m not kidding they are AMAZING. I may not be able to pay my bills every month; but at least I don’t have to deal with disrespectful, willful students who could care less about their high school education. Another part to me staying is my husband. We got married the summer after my first full year and he is kind of tied to this town because he has a family owned farm that he helps out with.

There is a pretty high one year turnover rate for teachers at our school; but there is one teacher who has been there maybe twenty or thirty years (I’m not exactly sure, but it has been a long time). She taught my husband when he was in high school. Well anyways, my students and I like to joke that I will be her one day and I am okay with that…although when we start having babies I would love to be a stay at home mom, if the Lord wills it so.

We don’t have kids but we are trying! We are just waiting for the Lord to bless us! I think He is waiting until I finally have this whole teaching thing figured out so I can focus my energy on my baby and not on my lesson plans and grading! Is that possible? Will I ever get teaching figured out? Please say I will!

Hope you enjoy my blog! There should be something for everyone on here…eventually!