Sunday, September 27, 2009

Honda to Morano

Gone with the old and in with the new! Even though my Honda was very good to me for many years, I have been itching to get rid of it for the last year or so. Andy and I made a deal that as soon as I got a job or started making money (subbing) that it would be ok for us to start looking. Well you better believe it that ever since the day I got the phone call I have been ready to go looking!! This is my old Honda in all it's glory. I had only had it for a month or so in this picture and was starting my first day of my senior year of high school.


Now 6 years later..... it is sold to Andy's brother and this is my new sunshine! We looked at almost every mid-size SUV on the market right now. It came down to either this or a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Even though I have loved Jeep Grand Cherokee's for a very long time I just couldn't get over the new look of them. They are super boxy now and I really loved how round and smooth the Morano's are. After test driving many different Morano's we finally find this one and I couldn't be more happy! Which is a good thing because this one needs to last me another 6 years!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

First Day of School!!

One down and lot more to go! I had a hard time sleeping last night and was running around like crazy before the kids came. The but was 15 minutes late so that gave me even more time to be nervous before they showed up! I am very blessed to have two other full time staff members in my classroom and one part time Willamette Univ. student who will be in there 2 days a week. My IA is my life saver, she has been in this classroom for the past four years and translates everything I say into Spanish for the 10 students I have who do not speak English. We also have a parent assistant who actually isn't a parent who rides the bus with the kids and really helps out during the day.
We started out with only 3 kids crying and they were all fine before breakfast was even over. We did very little organized stuff today because of how new everything is. Explored the classroom, had center time, read an exciting story, and played outside. I am very hopeful that this is going to be a great year!! I wish I could share pictures because they are ADORABLE!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Still here and back with good news!


I think almost everyone knows this by now but I am officially a hired teacher!!! It all happened so fast that I don't even know what to think yet. I got a call last Wednesday saying they had a teacher who left and were going to need to fill the position with a sub until they could re-do the interview process. Then I got a call Thursday saying that the initial interviews they had conducted were enough and that they would be offering me the position. I had to wait till Friday before I got the "official" job offer.


I am now the new Pre-K teacher at Highland Elementary through Headstart!!! Headstart is an AWESOME program! On my very first day all of the teachers and staff were incredibly welcoming and have continued to check up on me and make sure that I am not feeling to overwhelmed. This week I had four full days of training. Because Headstart is a government program and this program is through the Salem-Keizer school district there is SOOO much paper work and procedures to learn. Everyone has been really helpful and I am starting to understand it all.


I am very excited to spend next week going on home visits and meeting each of my students and their families. The sad news is that with all of the work and reading I have been doing I no longer have time to finish refinishing my desk and many of my other projects are going to be on hold for a while.


I can't wait to keep everyone updated on my new adventure! I will post pictures of my classroom as soon as I take them. It is beautiful!! I promise to try and post as often as I can but the next 2 or 3 weeks getting into the swing of things might be slow.