Peace Out

I’m so, so, so, so tired. Didn’t I post this same time last year?

Except at NHS, I have to wake up at 5:15 A.M. That’s A.M. It’s pretty awful. I’m used to sleeping until at least 8:00 every day.

I really love my job though. I realized that today. I enjoy the kids that I teach and most days are fun. Everyone is so nice ( other teachers, except some of the English teachers lol) and it just really feels like a safe place to be.

Off to bed.

Yikes! I can’t believe how fast the summer went! Teachers start tomorrow, but T. has strep throat. The child has not been sick all summer and gets strep the week school starts. So, I guess I will miss, as no one wants to babysit for a sick child. There goes the first sick day of the year. Oh well, what can I do?

I finished a new novel by Anita Shreve- Body Surfing. It was okay- a nice read, but nothing fantastic. I like the way she writes. Not sure what’s next on the list.

Any suggestions?

It’s been a long one! I am so ready for this summer vacation. We have two weeks of playing around and then it’s off to NM for a couple of weeks. It will be great to see everyone and eat lots of green chile!

I celebrated a very wonderful birthday on Wednesday and felt very loved by my family and friends. The boys made me cards and bought me a carrot cake and m sent flowers to my work. We had a yummy dinner at Mandinas. Lots of fun.

I’m still exhausted, but did manage to sneak in a quick gym visit this afternoon. I’m so excited about this school year. CCS treats their employees VERY well. All new teachers went to a catered luncheon at the Omni hotel today. VERY FANCY! I got to sit by William’s principal, so I knew somebody. The morning workshops went quickly and were pretty interesting. I spent the afternoon working in my classroom. It turns out I will have my own space, instead of sharing. The woman I was supposed to share with is a first year teacher and very sweet and didn’t want to hurt my feelings about splitting up the space. But I’m thrilled because I have so much teaching junk from over the years. I won’t be spending too much time in there anyway because I’ll “pushing in” the regular classroom. I’m going to really try to go to bed earlier tonight!!!!!

And I haven’t even started working with kids yet! In fact, I did nothing but sit around in workshops for eight hours. Maybe that’s why I’m tired?

It’s going to be a great school year. I’ve already met a lot of really interesting teachers. It seems like everyone has moved here from somewhere else and that they really want to be here. Mastering the reading program will be challenging at first. There are many different components that all have to be taught in a certain order. It’s different from Louisiana where they just gave you the manual and said “Here, teach this.” I’m excited to work with a group of people who haven’t been at one school their whole teaching career and to not feel so new. The woman who I hope to be co-teaching with just finished doing Teach for America in an inner city school in New Jersey. She has some great stories to tell.
I just need to go to bed earlier from now on, I guess!

The first day of my workshop was great! It was hot because no one turned on the air conditioning and of course in a school you have to fill out paperwork to get the AC turned on, someone has to approve it, etc. etc. I met a woman from New Hampshire who just moved here on Friday. She reminded me of Matt and I- just picking up and moving some place because you liked it. She had two little girls and one is W’s age so we will have to have them over for dinner.

Flo did well on her first day home alone. No piddle in the house. She was quite excited to see us. She even barked!
On another note, it’s going to be hard to get to the uptown gym when I’m working. There’s so much driving time involved. I guess if I’m going to try to make a class, I’ll have to bring my workout clothes with me. It will be even harder when W starts going to aftercare at JV. Hopefully the new downtown gym will open sooner rather than later and I can start there.

Tomorrow is my first official day back at work. I have two weeks of workshops   until school starts on the 21st.  Monday and Tuesday will be reading workshops and then Wednesday through Friday are new teacher workshops. I’m nervous about starting in a new school district AGAIN, but excited to get back to work. I’m sure T will be happy to start school with his new friends. I know he’s missed having a group of buddies to play with. There are not many four year olds in our neighborhood for him to play with and a couple of “gym mommies” that I’ve called have been rather aloof. So, he’s excited to be around four year olds. W is of course always excited to go back to school. I hope his fourth grade year is a little more stable than third grade. At least he’ll be in the same school all year.