The First Two Days

Since I have a spare minute or two, I'll update you guys on my first two days of school!

Yesterday went really well. I met my precious kiddos (did I mention that I LOVE middle school students??) and they are amazing. I have one class that will be a challenge because I have something like 24 boys and 6 girls. They won't quit talking! I have some quiet classes and some classes that are going to be a blast.

It's going to be a good year.

Last night was not as fun as the day, however. I got home with a migraine and was exhausted from not sleeping well and waking up at 5 am. I still had a lot to do and I was overwhelmed. Luckily, I am married to a wonderful man who loves to help me! He did so much work for me last night and I didn't break down in tears like I thought I would. He even brought me some pretty purple flowers and a bottle of blush wine. :-)

Today went well also. It was more like a regular day so we went over procedures and rules of the classroom. I don't like talking for 40 minutes but it was necessary to get everything done.

The best part of my day was receiving an email from an angry parent saying that she wanted to have a conference with me, her daughter and the principal. Her daughter asked to use her cell phone at the end of class to tell her mom that her bus was late. I said no, and apparently that was completely unacceptable. After I got the email I immediately looked up cell phone use in the middle school handbook and I was relieved. Sure enough, it says students cannot use cell phones on campus, even to inform parents of late buses. It's even in bold and underlined.

The principal replied so I wouldn't have to.

Whew!

I was surprised that a parent would get so upset about that. The student is the sweetest girl ever and didn't even complain or whine when I told her "no".

Sigh...

Tomorrow we start "real school". Yay for science safety training!

I also get to meet with my mentor to let her know how the last two days went.

So far, so good.

And now it's time to plan for tomorrow.

-Katie

Tomorrow

...is my first day of school!

I think I am as ready as I can be. I can't believe it's finally here.

Please pray for me! I will probably be nervous.

-K

School is... Around the Corner

"Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

Name that movie. There's a clue in my post title. Gotta be one of my favorite movie lines ever. I really want to make a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils just to have one to look at. I imagine a bouquet of pencils to look something like this (just no cup and all sharp pointy ends facing up):

However, this is much prettier:

Mmmm.

School.

If you haven't been able to tell by the fact I've been missing from the blog world for weeks, my life is crazy.

I just spent two weeks going to teacher trainings every day. There's nothing more exhausting than sitting in a chair for 6 1/2 hours every day. I honestly think I've gained weight from it (None of my pants fit, anyways... I want something to blame. No, I'm not pregnant.).

I left my school today feeling pretty prepared for next week. My room looks great, if I do say so myself! It's big and beautiful and has lots of bright colors in it. I wanted it to be a place that felt fun and exciting, and I think I got there. It is so surreal to think that my room will be filled with wonderful 8th graders in just three short days.

My team is great so far. I have been bonding with several teachers and my school is finally beginning to feel like home. Last semester was... horrible, really. I remember feeling so lost and not "with it". My students were terrible and I felt like a failure as a teacher. I really hope that this year will be better. I have had quite a few people tell me that this year is going to be a great year. You know, it is really nice to hear that from people!

I am so glad that I have a super awesome mentor. She is the department head and I knew her last semester. She is so helpful and I know that I am really blessed to have her as a mentor. Plus, she's an Aggie. :-)

Really, I never expected to feel like this just days away from starting my first real teaching job. Over the summer I was a nervous wreck. I told my girls group to pray for me and so for weeks they have been praying that I would have peace. One of the girls told me a while back to meditate on the fact that God is always present with me and that I am not alone. I just love that. I can tell you that I am so comfortably chill right now as a result of that meditation. I don't feel alone and I don't feel stressed. I have so much peace right now and it is amazing! I'm not even completely prepared and I feel great!

Today I was walking down the hallway after visiting another new teacher (I just know we're going to bond), I thought about how blessed I am. I wasn't 100% sure that I was going to like it at my school, but I still trusted God. I didn't want to teach 8th grade science, but I still trusted God. Now, I am grateful that I don't know what's ahead and He does! I have an amazing new school to teach at, a wonderful group of teachers to learn from and get help from, and I'm really excited about teaching 8th grade science. TAKS scores were not great last year and so I see it as a challenge to bring up those grades.

Thank you, Lord, for everything. :-)

So I promise that this was going to be longer than this. My brain is exhausted from working for 9 hours straight today.

At least I got free lunch today.

And a $150 gift certificate to the teacher store.

Sweet.

-Katie

I Swear,

I have very good intentions of writing on here soon.

I check this page every day and think about how I want to write.

I have lots to write about.

Just not much time.

But soon.

-K