One of the Most Beautiful "I Am Poem"

 The last unit I teach every year is a poetry writing unit. For many kids it is a way of expressing ideas about what is going on in their world or their life. They learn that they CAN write poetry. We start with some easy templates where they fill in the blanks or there are strict pattern rules. I always have students do an "I Am" poem. The first part is about them in present time, the second their past, and the third their future. For most of these students I get to see them a little better. They bare their soul in this poem.

At the beginning of the year the student who wrote the following poem came to me and said, "You're a Christian right?" She then asked me to pray for family members who were hospitalize with covid and pneumonia. So I did.  The poem below shows how deep this child is.

I Am Poem by G.V.

I am powerful and faithful
I wonder if I’ll get to heaven where my goal is to go
I hear the holy spirit talking to me
I see the glory manifesting and descending over us
I want to be touched by the holy spirit
I am amazed by the things God does in my life
I pretend there’s no problems when you’re a Christian
I feel sad that I can’t save everyone from going to hell
I touch people and heal them
I worry for everyone’s salvation
I cry that people do bad things
I am encouraged by God’s word
I understand that God is my father
I say that God is the only God and that he is powerful
I dream to be with God and Jesus one day
I try to be good everyday to go to heaven
I hope I go to heaven and everyone does too
I am faithful that people will change

I was a slave of the devil
I understand that God save me and died on the cross for me

I heard false information about God and the holy spirit
I saw people burning and throwing away Bibles
I wanted to yell and stop them
I was devastated by them doing these horrible things
I pretended that everything was okay
I felt sad because people wouldn’t believe
I touched the hearts of some people
I worried I couldn’t tell everyone about God
I cried when I saw people murmuring
I was amazed by how people wouldn’t believe
I understand God loves everyone
I said I wanted to change people’s lives
I dreamed everyone was accepting Jesus
I tried to understand that people didn’t care
I hoped that one day some would understand
I was committed to tell people about God

I will be a believer of God
I will wonder if people are starting to believe
I will hear people testify what God did in them and the changes
I will see people accepting Jesus
I will want a life in Jesus
I will be obedient to God’s words
I will pretend I don’t get too worried anymore
I will feel blessed without what God gives me
I will touch other people and God will heal them through me
I will worry about nothing just about God
I will cry for happiness when I see more people converting
I will be happy with the outcome of the impact I will have’
I will understand it’s a test when I go through storms and battles
I will say that God is manifesting in my life
I will dream to be a follower of God
I will try to be my best to reach the mercy of the Lord
I will hope to be better every single day in Jesus Christ
I will be praising the Lord and believe in him at all times, even when times get hard.

Word of the Year for 2021

My word for this year is "LEARN". I had to think long and hard about this word. I mean, I am a teacher and I expect my students to learn each day. However, I looked back at this last year and realized there are a lot of things that I need to learn.

I need to learn that I can't do everything myself. When my co-workers offer to help, I need to learn to accept that help. I need to learn that if they have asked to assist me when I know how busy they are that it is a sincere offer.

I need to learn to be more flexible.  When a change must take place at school, I always say, "No problem. You know me, I'm the flexible one."  I am flexible. However, my emotions need to be flexible as well. I need to learn to let my emotions free. I hold them in and then find that I am frustrated or angry. All the time I am feeling this way, I am doing what needs to be done to accommodate the new situation. Holding feelings inside leads to emotional exhaustion. A splendid example of this happened on the 28th of December. This was the day before my step-daughter's wedding. We had so much to do. I had been working all day trying to get things ready for the next day. I had eaten very little for two days because I needed to get things done.  I was so stressed that I could not focus long enough to even make a list of what needed to be done. I became frustrated. I picked up a journal and began to doodle. This is something I do when I can't write to focus. Everyone kept asking what I was drawing. When I replied, "Just doodles", they kept asking what kinds of doodles. I finally asked everyone not to talk to me because I was becoming frustrated and needed to get my head focused before I could do anything. It was harsh. I felt guilty. Had I let my emotions out a day or two before, I probably would not have blown. Everyone was concerned because they knew how stressed I was. I know I hold emotions in and learning to let them out is probably one of the most important things I can learn to do for myself.

I need to learn to be a better communicator. I communicate with my students daily. I often come home so exhausted that I feel I have nothing left for my family. This is where communication breaks down. My husband can look at me and tell how my day went. He will speak and based on my response or how I responded, he will either back off thinking he doesn't want to add more stress to me or try to joke me out of my mood.  I often become so silent I come across as sullen. I just have no energy left.

I need to learn to forgive myself when I react in a way that I normally would not react. Most importantly, I need to learn to forgive others for doing the same thing. We have been under a lot of stress. Some days we are just holding it together. 

I need to learn that in the new year we will have a lot of changes and I can choose how I will react to them. I can choose to follow a negative path or a positive path. I must learn to always choose the positive path. Looking through a positive lens doesn't mean we don't acknowledge negative things happen. It means to look at it and try to find something positive in it that can be built upon. 

I must remember that no matter what our age, we are never too old to learn.  That is why I have chosen this word as my word of the year. May it be a year that we all grow and learn.