Since I'm being a bad blogger and not checking in much, I'm shocked that Misty would think of me. Misty is the artist formerly known as Molly here on my blog. She's one of my best friends, even though she followed her husband, my cousin, to Missouri. He's a big goober, but she's great. I wonder if they'd allow me to swap him for her in the family department. Hmmm, something to ponder.
Anyway, thanks Misty for my two awards. I've never gotten an award before so I'm thrilled.
What's new at school, you ask? I'm trying to make it through the day without officially losing my shit. That is all. :)
First, thank you all for your wonderful words of support. They mean a lot. It's nice to hear them. And a special thanks to Mike. My teacher friend will be thrilled to get some sort of answer to our burning Swedish question.
Today was a better day. Mainly because I went to school today with the attitude that it was going to be a better day. It actually helped. It also helped that I wasn't bombarded with paperwork. Good gravy the trees we're killing! I stayed late tonight (until 7) and put a lot of stuff away in my room. I'm finally less stressed about the room looking and being ready for Open House next week. I'm meeting the other new teacher at school on Sunday so we can work in our rooms for a while. Hopefully, I will be ready at that point. I'm hoping to be able to enjoy Labor Day weekend with the in-laws.
Regarding mentors: Yes, I have a mentor. He's also my team leader and a really great guy (except for a huge character flaw of hating cats). I've talked to him some about the mean teacher and he's assured me it's not personal. She's just dingy. That being said, they're also friends since she was on the team last year. So, I don't want to say too much because I don't know who to trust yet.
Well, write it down. It only took them a week to break me. Technically, half a day.
Today was our back to school orientation. The paperwork. The meetings. The training. Everyone I meet is handing me papers and telling me what I should do with them. I've met what seems like hundreds of new people. My room isn't ready. The psycho in my room before me is a bitch. No other word for it. Planning has me so terrified I don't know where to begin. And school is starting soon!
First, the psycho drama. Last night, she came into my room and disconnected the dvd/vcr combo. It was hers and it's fine that she took it. I would have liked to have been told she was going into my room, but whatever. She left the vcr that was in her room on my counter. Not hooked up, not plugged in, and with a dvd that I had accidentally left in the other player tossed on top. I feel completely violated. Who knows what else she's come in and taken. Be an adult and come to me and say, "I accidentally left my dvd/vcr here, can I switch them?" I'm not going to say no.
LMK urged me to lock my room at night when I leave. Great idea, honey! There's just one problem. She hadn't turned in her key for that room. That's right, she had my key all summer! The secretaries cornered her today and got it back, but what the hell.
The other problem is I spend every day feeling completely stupid. I swear, everything I learned in college is gone. GONE. Now I have diagnostic tests to give that I have never heard of while I have students in the room. How do I take one kid to the hall to administer a test while I have 25 others sitting in the room. Number one rule of teaching - never leave them alone!
Everyone on my team has such great, creative ideas. Most of the time I feel like a bumbling fool. They explained how we were dividing kids up today. Everyone is furiously scribbling text scores and I'm still trying to figure out how exactly to do it. I feel like it takes me a second (ok several minutes) longer than everyone else to pick things up. I feel like I'm always scrambling to catch up. Lesson plans? I have no lesson plans, I have no idea where to even start planning.
Everyone keeps telling me how great I'm going to be. Well, I'm not so sure. I spend the day feeling inferior and trying to catch up. I know I'm putting a lot of unneeded pressure on myself and I know it. I don't want to make mistakes. I don't want to look weak. I don't want people to look at me and think, "Why did they hire her?" But I wonder that every day.
To add insult to injury, we watched a really cute video today and it was about a school near my hometown in Ohio. (Near as in - my dad attended high school there) As I'm watching the video it hits me. This is not where I expected to be starting my teaching career. I wish I was in my old district, where I knew everyone and everyone knew me. Worst of all, I miss my mommy. She'd know what to do. She'd be helping me and giving me advice and I wouldn't feel so alone.
The saga, coupled with my other feelings were just too much. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who got lunch with me and "talked me down". We're good for each other.
When I thanked him tonight, he told me that he would have never gotten through his first few months of teaching without me telling him he would be fine and he was doing a good job. He said he was going to do the same for me. At that point, I laughed and told him, "The difference is, I know you're lying." Even he had to laugh at that.
I have been sitting in new teacher in-service sessions all week hoping to earn a ticket that will be called for a door prize. Tonight we had a reception for new teachers in my district as well as LMK's school. He came at the last minute (his boss saw me and called LMK to come down after I'd shoo'd LMK out when I didn't see anyone else from his school there).
He won the very first door prize they gave out!
Nuts!
Well, new teacher in-service is almost over. I must admit, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. At times, it's almost fun. If you ignore all the get to know you games that I hate and the group work. Each day there are door prizes and they give us lunch. True we have to sit through a presentation by whoever is sponsoring the lunch, but I think that is the least we can do for a free meal.
The only thing I do not like is the seating. We are either in an auditorium with the old, old, old style wooden seats or we're in the cafeteria on round stools attached to tables. By lunch time my ass hurts! It's awful. My tail bone still aches. Friday was so bad that with two hours to go a bunch of us were standing up, just so we didn't have to sit on those seats.
Everyone I've met has been really, really nice. They're so grateful to have us here that it makes me excited to work there. Yes, I have tons of meetings, but really, who needs sleep?
The trip to Chicago was great for another reason. LMK picked up a "part-time" job. Really, it's more like a consulting job. He's officially a staff coach for US Soccer. It sounds more impressive than it is, but it's still really exciting. It could be up to a year or so before he's needed, but it's still an honor. He's thrilled and it will make a fabulous addition to his resume. Woohoo!
We're finally back from Chicago! Why did it seem like we were gone for a month?
Anyway, I learned one very important thing in Chicago. I am NOT a big city girl. There's way too much concrete, asphalt, and people. And holy moly is it expensive. Good gravy!
Friday night after we arrived, checked in, and got settled we had quite a dining experience. LMK chose a restaurant that was close to the hotel and sounded inexpensive and reasonable. We ended up at Dick's Last Resort which was listed as a bar and grill. I knew we were in trouble when the waitress told us that sometimes they can be a "little rude". Mind you, this is after she was yelling at some other table. Me? I was terrified. I turned on my good teacher manners and "please" and "thank you"'d myself to death. Twin got saucy with her. To each his own, I guess. The food was good though and after I relaxed a little I had a good time. I even wrote on the table! Scandalous!
Later, we walked over to the Lego store (just as it was closing). LMK looked almost giddy at the lifesize R2D2 and Darth Vader made from Legos. Bet me we have a picture of him with them. Heh. Boys.
On Saturday, Twin and I decided to walk to Navy Pier. First, it looked a lot closer from our hotel. Then I wore the wrong shoes (totally my fault) and my feet hurt almost immediately. Lastly, it was hot. I don't handle hot well. Then put me on a medicine that makes me intolerable to heat and I get down right bitchy. But, now I can say I've been there and it wasn't ALL bad. They have these cute bike carts you can rent. I so wanted to go that. It looked like lots of fun.
Saturday night we ordered Chicago hot dogs (not too bad) and Chicago deep dish pizza (yummy!). Sunday, Twin and I decided to go to Shedd Aquarium before the soccer game at 12. If LMK had dropped us off before parking at Soldier Field it wouldn't have been too bad, but once again the heat and the distance killed us.
Good things about Chicago (according to me):
- Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
- Shedd Aquarium with the indoor oceanarium - too cool!
- Chicago hot dogs
- The nice Chicago lady who gave us directions when we were standing looking completely lost on a street corner.
- LMK's Coaching Symposium
- Seeing one of the refs for the game at our hotel
- US National Team Game
- Seeing LMK practically giddy while enjoying the game - I would go back to Chicago if it meant he'd be this happy again.
LMK and I are on our way to Chicago via Ohio. We'll stop off in Ohio for a few days and then leave out to Chicago on Friday with Twin. LMK is so excited about the coaching conference that he can frequently be found squealing with glee around the house. It's cute to see an almost 30 year old man grinning while he "eeeeeeeeeeee"'s around the house.
While we travel our thoughts and prayer will be with the 6 miners trapped in Utah. Living with a mining engineer means I understand what happened and am thankful he is not a practicing mining engineer. They've brought in listening equipment which means his graduate project is being used. Hopefully they have good news.
Coaching might not pay a lot, but after Quecreek and Sago, names I will never forget, I'm just happy I can come home each night and kiss my husband.
Christi asked where I got 30 white board for $15. Simple! I got a piece of shower board from Lowe's and had my father-in-law cut it down for me. He actually bought 2 sheets and cut about 48 12" x 15" boards. I took 30 and my mother in law took the rest.
They're great and really inexpensive! If you don't have a father-in-law to cut them for you, the store will do it, but they usually charge per cut. However, it's still cheaper than buying white board from any of the school supply catalogs.
Erin just posted an ingenious post about the high cost of being a teacher. She makes a lot of really good points that I won't make again so if you haven't clicked over there to read it - DO IT!
I have the opportunity to compare LMK's school budget with my own needs. Frankly, the only thing LMK has purchased for his classroom is a specific kind of dry erase markers. He writes A LOT and the generic type provided by the school run out too quickly for him. Everything else he can saunter over to the administrative offices and they'll give him what he needs. Paper clips, staples, file folders, etc. Me, I have to buy those things with my "allotment". As a first year teacher, I lucked out this year and got a total of $400 to spend. I needed every penny with the stuff I had to buy. (I am expected to furnish/purchase my own post-its, paper clips, staples, chalk, dry erase markers, folders, erasers, staplers, etc.)
LMK also has a fabric covered bulletin board which I insisted he needed and I put up. I love it. I will be adding fabric backgrounds in my room as time and money allow. He'd be happy with a basic paper covered board if I 
didn't horn my way in and try to make him look good. Otherwise, his room is pretty basic. He's not interested in a lot of posters on the wall (though I've been trying to convince him these are important, he's just not into it) and the main theme in his room is soccer. Shocker. I tried to convince him he needed matching curtains, but the lip sneer and the disdainful "No, thanks honey." told me how he really felt. Heh. Boys.
Now, my room is much better. If I must say so myself (and I must).
My purchases include:
- Fabric for curtains - $50
- Curtain rods (which are actually shower curtain rods) - $40
- Fabric covers for bookshelves and file cabinet - $30
- Border - $15
- Student mailboxes - $40 (on sale, I heart T.arget)
- Misc. Organizational Items (stacking drawers, baskets, etc.) - $45
- School supplies (pencils, folders, crayons, markers, etc.) - $20
- 30 white boards - $15
- Microwave - $5
- Trip to the teacher store for misc. teacher stuff - $50
Having a classroom that you love and is colorful, uncluttered, and beautiful - PRICELESS.
Now, just don't tell LMK that is still a list of stuff that I "need".
As Erin says, if you know a teacher, buy him or her a set of markers. They can use them and they'll be grateful!