Gone to a better place.

I know I'm a public school teacher and am not supposed to talk bout God and religion, but today's post breaks those rules. With that said, I'm sorry to report that little Tommy passed away this morning at 4:02 AM. Although this is very sad, think of how he was feeling and realize that now young Tommy doesn't have to deal with the pain and suffering he was going through in his fight against caner. I found this poem on his Caringbridge website, and would like to share it with you. R.I.P. Tommy!

Little Angels

When God calls little children
to dwell with Him above.
We mortals sometimes question
the wisdom of His love.
For no heartache compares with
the death of one small child,
who does so much to make our world
seem wonderful and mild.
Perhaps God tires of calling
the aged to His fold.
So He picks a rosebud
before it can grow old.
God knows how much we need them
and so He takes but few,
to make the land of Heaven
more beautiful to view.
Believing this is difficult
still somehow me must try.
The saddest word mankind know
will always be "Goodbye".
So when a child departs
we who are left behind,
must realize God loves children,
Angels are hard to find.

~Author Unknown

Something to do over MEA Break. Break out your journals!

Good day! Today is the first day of MEA Break and I hope you are enjoying your day. What am I doing? I'm already thinking about next week at school and the strategies we'll learn during writing that will improve our writing. While thinking about this, I thought there might be some readers of the blog that might want something to do beings the weather isn't the greatest today, and playing too many video games can get to be boring (Yes, there is such a thing as too much video games!). If this describes you (or even it it doesn't and you are just reading this because), consider this your lucky day because I'll introduce you a strategy I learned from the book Notebok Know-How by Aimee Buckner. It's called Writing from a Name. All you have to do is put your name or a family name on top of your page, and write about it. Here are some questions you may ask yourself if you can't get started right away. What do you like about your name? What don't you like about your name? Would you pick a different name for yourself? Are you named after someone? Who? How did you (or they if you are writing about someone else) get this name? Do you have a nickname? I could go on and on, but I'm sure you are ready to write and I want to get out and do some errands go running (yes, I still run in this crazy October weather). I also have some reading to do (finished Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days last night!) for my Master's class and that will take some time. So, enjoy writing from a name and enjoy your MEA Break. Don't forget to read, exercise and get some good quality sleep. Thanks for reading!