Saturday, September 7, 2013

A New Chapter in Life

Howdy!

As many of you know my life has changed a lot in the last year.
Since graduation at UNT I became a police officer, then decided I didn't like the 'big city' of Dallas or the thought of spending my working life away from family, working nights, dealing with crackheads, dealing with pessimistic and dishonest officers (just google search 'Dallas officer fired' and you will get PLENTY of examples), and working for ''the man''. So I threw in the towel. Swifty Morgan was only 22 years old and was already counting down the days to pension plan vesting. What a lame way to live. So the plan was to stick around with DPD until May. Then go work for my favorite Boy Scout camp in Oklahoma, and start obtaining my teacher certification in August so that I could potentially be in the classroom starting August 2014. But, just when I had all the dates worked out God had a different plan. And that plan was good!

In December I sustained a broken rib due to a training exercise with one of those over-zealous, 'just here to fight people', unable to follow instructions, type recruits. He was going 100% in a hand to hand combat exercise and broke my rib with his poor technique. I was ineligible to work out or participate in any academy training. It was only a matter of a week or two before I would miss training that could not be made up. This would cause me to be 'recycled' and have to either start the academy over or at least stay in an extra 12 weeks. At this point I began contacting Texas A&M commerce and was accepted into their program starting in January!  What a blessing! I then stuck around in the academy for another week or two. I remember planning my last day for the day we went back to the shooting range. Why? Because I love getting paid to shoot guns :) Let me state that again, and I don't mean to brag, but I LOVE to shoot guns, and getting paid to shoot my Sig P226 (approximately 150 rounds) is worth sticking around a few days for.

So I left the academy, and was promptly enrolled in school. I took several agriculture classes in the spring while working at home depot. I have PLENTY of home depot stories, but that is for some other time :p

In May I went back to work for the Boy Scouts teaching Welding Merit Badge and Hale Scout Reservation. One weekend I drove back to A&M Commerce and took the content portion of my teacher certification. A few weeks later I got the results. PASS!
That meant I could start applying for teaching jobs.

I applied every day for teaching jobs. Every waking moment I had at camp was spent working or applying for jobs.Camp ended and I went to Kansas to visit my Grandparents at ''Camp Grandma". While preparing to go fishing I got a call from one of the districts I had previously talked to, they told me that they were in need of a 5th AG teacher! They passed on me for their 4th teacher, but I was told on Friday to be in Elgin on Monday. So I drove back to Texas quick! On Monday I drove down to Elgin. I remember thinking the whole way down there how much I loved the scenery and could see myself living there. I interviewed with the two assistant principals. Afterwards, one of them came out and told me I did an excellent job! I had such a great time in the interview and really liked the campus and town. I kept praying that Elgin would call me before Wednesday because I had an interview in Levelland TX, (West of Lubbock) and they started teacher development on Thursday. I really did not want to live west of Lubbock, but if that's what it took to get a job I would do it.

Fortunately Elgin called on Tuesday and told me to come back on Thursday to fill out paperwork!

A week and a half later I moved to Elgin and started training on the 13th of August. 13 days later school started. And as I write this I have finished my first two weeks of teaching!

I love my job. I love the town. I love the school. I am so blessed to have this opportunity.

Now for the part of this post you have been waiting for:
The on-the-job stories!

Just yesterday I was teaching my Principles of Agriculture course. I was having students get on the computer to develop a powerpoint timeline of Agriculture in a certain decade. One student cried out 'Mr. Swifty Morgan!, what is this picture of?!?' I walked over to the student, she was looking at a picture of a man standing next to a large pile of lettuce. I told her that was just a man next to a bunch of vegetables. She shrieked out and said that was gross! I asked if she ever ate lettuce or vegetables. She got a discusted look on her face and said 'NO! That junk come from the ground! It's all dirty!'' It was almost hard not to laugh out loud. OF COURSE vegetables come from the ground, but she didn't want to eat them because they were grown. I wanted to ask her if she ate beef or hamburgers and how she thought that ground beef was 'created' but as a profession I felt I should refrain from doing so.

I had a student the other day that went nuts during my class. In my wildlife management course I showed a video about dove hunting on the Friday before dove season. I had a student exclaim that she couldn't watch a video about dove hunting because she was a vegetarian! Heaven forbid a vegetarian have to watch someone shoot and clean a dove. A little background on the student, she has super short dyed hair, and is.. well the best way to put it, she lives an 'alternative' lifestyle. So what I really wanted to tell her was that she should be more open minded to different cultures and believes. Tell her that people respected and did not judge her for her 'lifestyle' but instead I told her she could go to the back of the room and write about what she had learned thus far in the course. She refused and decided to play on her phone. I took her phone away and told her to come get it back from me in my office. She threw a fit but eventually left after the class. During the next period she came back and wanted to get her phone during 7th period. I had her read the note I gave her asking her to retrieve it after school. She started swearing and walked off. When she finally came to my office I gave her the iPhone back as well as a schedule change form. I told her that her personal believes may conflict with the course and that she should probably seek a course that better aligns with her educational 'goals'. She was out of the course by Monday.

I hate pawning a student off to some other teacher, but hopefully the student will enjoy small engine repair more than wildlife.

 -- More on my life outside teaching --

Today I rode my bicycle to a nearby town to look at a bridge. That's right. I rode almost 21 miles to look at a bridge. I also need the exercise, but hey, I wanted to see this bridge.

I live near the bridge from a scene in secondhand lions. When the kids jumps out of the car at the end of the movie and tells his mom she should do something for him, that was filmed in Coupland Texas. I road my bicycle down many dirt roads to get to this old steel bridge.
Here are some pictures from my trip:
 I started my trip to scattered showers.
 Shortly after I got a good picture of a rainbow near an old barn.
 Then the sky looked like this to the west. What a great view. I really hope someday when I get to heaven God will give me a few lessons in how he creates this art.
 Cows in a field, with a rainbow, I had to take a picture.
 Panorama from an iPhone.
 Cattle, Rainbow, and White birds in a dark sky.
 This is the bridge I rode so far to see.
 I think this is the right angle like the movie. This is the bridge from Secondhand lions. Specifically the part where the kid jumps from the car and tells his mom to leave him with the two old me.
 It is a pretty cool bridge.
Finally on my way back the sunset was beautiful. This is looking towards Round Rock/ Georgetown Texas from the area between Coupland and Elgin.


I love my new home and can't wait to have more adventures.

No comments:

Post a Comment