one down

oof.  wow.  yikes.  sigh.  as some might say, "holy underwear, batman." first day done, and it was a doozy.

a teacher once told me that the definition of a successful first day is when you send home the same number of kids that arrived.  so, today was a success.  basically.  though one kid ended up on the wrong bus.  long story.

the good things: i got a good sense of each of my students.  i have begun to develop relationships with each of them, and they all seem comfortable with me.  we completed a couple of art projects (ie: coloring).  we read some books.  we all ate food at one point or another.  we made it to gym class for at least 5 minutes.  nobody got lost in the school.  no band-aids were required.

the bad things: i discovered i have two screamers.  one screamer is also a biter, scratcher, runner, and spitter.  intense.  the other one spent basically the entire first half hour screaming at the top of his lungs.  ouch.  some of my kids cannot really verbally communicate.  some of my kids cannot really use scissors, nor do they know how to properly hold a crayon.  some of my kids, meanwhile, can add, subtract, engage in pretend play, and tell stories (this should be listed in the "good things," really, but i leave it here in contrast.  it's the contrast that makes things tricky).

moral of the story: it's going to be a long year.  a learning experience.  exhausting and overwhelming but (hopefully) also rewarding.

bracing myself for day two.

surfer dudes

when i was little, i had a decided way with words.  i once told a doctor, when asked how i felt that day, that i felt "like a flower blooming."  i was four.  i also used to describe stomach aches various ways, depending on the severity.  most times this was communicated by referencing how stoked the surfer dudes in my belly were; bad stomach ache = active surfer dudes.

the surfer dudes are currently cruising on some pretty major waves.  everyone keeps saying "oh, don't worry about this job, you'll see!  you'll do great!" or "the first day/week/month/year will be tough, but then it will get so much easier."  any chance someone has a delorean i could borrow?  because i would very much like to visit my future self and see proof of this "certain future success."  i would like to ask my future self "how did you get through the first day/week/month/year?  it seems so daunting!  what did you do about [insert one of the many problems here]?"  i expect my future self would be very reassuring, and when future self says "you will be ok" i will believe her because, well, she would be referencing herself.  that would be so nice.

however, as i don't currently know doc brown, chances of time travel are slim right now.  and the first day of school is tomorrow.  yikes.  yikes, yikes, yikes.  i mean, i have done just about all that i can think of to prepare: i have activities for the first day lined up, my classroom is decorated, and i have things like my classrooom rules established (don't yet have a first day of school outfit set, but i will).  but i am sure there is more that i could be/should be doing.  i just don't know what.

so, future self: if you're reading this, chuckle away at your past self's anxiety.  i hope you think it's funny, and that you are now very happy and successful (and maybe won the lottery too or something.  a girl can dream, right?).  fingers crossed.

so, guess what?

i'm now employed.

yayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay!

words cannot express how great it feels to have a job, but i'm going to try to use them to do just that.  imagine being hit repeatedly in the stomach with a baseball bat while a swarm of angry bees, who have stealthily entered your skull, play ultimate frisbee.  additionally, president taft is perched on your shoulders.  throughout this, you have to be coherent, pleasant, knowledgeable, and charming while being constantly grilled with questions.  that's basically what job hunting felt like for me.  when i got a phone call from a principal that said (i paraphrase) "wanna come work for us, dude?" suddenly taft found better things to do, the bees buzzed off, and the baseball bat (apparently swung by nobody) realizes this and drops.  there might have also been rainbows.

quick funny story about how i got this job in the first place: en route to an interview i get a phone call.  it is my new boss (though i didn't know it at the time) asking if i would be at all interested in interviewing for this new semi-uncategorizable class.  he got my name from a posting my fourth-grade teacher's next door neighbor put up on a list.  i asked if he was free in two hours (when i'd be in town) and he said yes. during the interview we discovered i'm not technically qualified to teach this job.  however, he asked me to send him all of my school/work info so he could contact human resources just in case they would be able to make it work.  i did, he did, they did, and thus, i got hired.

so the job i have: i am going to be working in an ABA-formatted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis#Efficacy_in_autism) classroom with 6 or 7 kindergarden and first grade students with severe autism (and two teaching assistants to help out, thank goodness).  it's a great school with an AMAZING principal (he'd have to be amazing to go out on a limb and hire a newbie who has never WORKED in an ABA-format classroom) in a fabulous location right in the middle of a highly acclaimed school district.  i am very excited.

real world, here i come.

on the hunt

job hunting is maybe my least favorite thing ever. it sucks to have to apply to a bazillion things, only to hear from a few. then, with education jobs in particular, you have to interview with the county/school district first fora screening interview, if they like you you get put in a database where a principal can find your name and they choose to interview you or not and then they tell human resources what they think. then you mayor may not get the job. lots is up in the air. not a good feeling.

tips: print about 20 more resumes than you think you'll need (in case they lost yours or want an extra to pass along to someone else), wear sensible shoes (in case they want to take youona grand tour of the school and/or join in a classroom for a while, and don't hesitate to call them after an interview to follow up if you haven't heard from them in a while (they wont think you are a pest, they will likely see your enthusiasm as a plus).

would be nice to say that, after a month or two of searching a job has been offered to me but nope (in fact, two interviews and two nos so far. womp womp.). so instead it's story time:

i had a screening interview recently with a county that seemed to be going pretty well. the woman interviewing me kept repeating my answers back to me with an excited expression and saying things like "you'd be surprised haw many people come in here and say exactly the wrong response to these questions!". this sounded promising. at the end of the interview she literally placed a gold star on my interview form, gave me a hug, and said it was a real pleasure talking with me. too bad her school isn't hiring. oh well; the hunt continues.

no, zebras!

this post, much like the previous one, is entirely gratuitous - actual important information is to come later in the week. 

so as a parting gift to my kiddos, i made them a picture book.  it really turned out pretty cute if i do say so myself (which, clearly i do) so i wanted to share it here.  i blurred out the names for their privacy, so you can fill in whatever names you want there (zeke, chrysanthemum, josephus, matilda, pickle, etc.).  enjoy!

strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff

so hopefully this works: i recorded my kids singing "puff, the magic dragon" and it is crazy cute :)

that's all, folks!

so i'm done with student teaching.  which sounds (and feels) crazy.  totally nuts.  i'm not sure what i am going to do come monday morning.  it will feel strange not having to get up and go to school. 


i was able to do two very cutesy last-day-of-school things with my kids that i'll try to figure out a way to share here: we sang (and i recorded) "puff, the magic dragon," and i made them a picture book about themselves.  they loved all of it.  i got lots of hugs.  it was a good, good day.

i know what you're thinking.  ok, no i don't.  but if you were thinking "oh man, i totally love reading this and now it's over" never fear: student teaching is done, but job-finding and job-starting and job-accomplishing aren't.  there will be more to come :)  for now, i'm going to relish in not having to wake up early every morning for a little while.  time to relax.