Here I sit, with a big bowl of microwave popcorn with extra butter and nutritional yeast and a full glass of wine on the Friday after my first week with students. I have a puzzle to work on later and some ice cream in the freezer. I feel like I'm ending the week in the best possible way!
It feels like so much time has passed since where I left off in my last post, but it is just because so much has happened in the past week. I rushed off to Portland last weekend to collect all of my things from my storage unit and say goodbye to the friends and family that I am leaving behind by moving down here. I got to Ashland on Thursday night and stayed with my parents before heading out Friday for a nice long ride together with my mom. I'm not very used to driving with other people in my car so it was interesting spending five hours in such close proximity to another person. We made it after many stops for bathroom breaks, gas, and traffic. I love my mother but being in the car together that long sure did make me nervous, especially when she took a turn driving! I feel much more comfortable when I am behind the wheel.
We finally arrived and I got ready to head downtown to spend the evening at Italian Fest with two of my best friends (I'll just refer to our little group as The Trio from now on). I got to see some other good friends while I was there, including the friend I made at my previous job. After almost two years spending 8 hours a day together, we became pretty close and I am REALLY going to miss her company. I don't know what I would have done without her the past couple of years and it was a tough summer not seeing her much since she was busy getting married and going on a honeymoon ;) and now I am gone but I hope we can always keep in touch. J & M, I plan on visiting whenever I get a chance to come up. You guys are the best! Anyway... Italian Fest. It was a lovely evening of lasagna, gelato, wine and good company. Afterwards I stayed up til the wee hours of the morning chatting with The Trio about everything that happened in the last couple of weeks in all of our lives. They were sweet and celebrated my bday with me, a few weeks early since when my birthday gets here in a few days, I will be all alone down here on the river.
I spent the rest of the weekend packing, spending time with other people I will miss dearly (including my best friend and her kids), and eating some of Portland's delicious food. There is so much that I am going to miss about Portland, but the traffic and constant chaos is not part of that!
I finally got back to my new home on Monday afternoon and was in my classroom until late that evening working on last minute decorations, organization, and lesson plans. First thing Tuesday morning the kids would be arriving and I was a ball of nerves! I spent 2.5 years with all the same kids and was very anxious about meeting and connecting with a whole new group of kids. I really struggled to make a solid plan before knowing the kids at all so that first day I had planned mostly fun activities and procedural things.
Somehow, I was able to sleep just fine Monday night. Maybe it was because of being so exhausted from the weekend so full of driving, packing, tearful goodbyes, and just a general lack of sleep. Whatever it was, I slept well and got up early to get to school and get ready for kids. They started arriving at about 7:45 and for the next 20 minutes there was a continual stream of students and parents coming to meet the new teacher. Everybody was extremely nice and many already knew a bit about me from whatever the newsletter that went out had said and whatever they'd heard from others in this small community. Many were excited to have a local Native person as a teacher since there is such a high population down here. I am really hoping to be able to incorporate as much culture as I can into my teaching.
As first days go, mine was excellent! There were definitely a few hiccups and there was one breakdown (not mine, fortunately), but we all made it through and I was feeling good about it that evening.
I was up at the main house chatting with my pseudo-aunt that night when I got a text from my dad. Since we were in the middle of an important discussion, I didn't look at it right away but when I did I found out that my grandma had just passed away. It felt like deja vu almost... The last time I started a new job, my grandpa had passed away but that time it had been a few weeks in rather than on the first day. When he passed, we had kind of seen it coming and I had been to visit him about a month before so I felt like I'd had that time to say goodbye. As for my grandma, she lived in Washington and I hadn't actually seen her since I was a teenager but we kept in touch on Facebook. She spent a lot of time on there and it had been so neat to be able to reconnect with her that way. Just the night before she passed away, I had thrown out the thought of starting a blog and one of the last things she'd done that night was write to me to encourage that I do it so she could keep up with my adventures. Finding out she was gone hurt really bad and I felt/feel awful because I was so close when I was living in Portland and kept telling her I would come visit but I never had the time or money to make the drive up to see her. It is scary for me because she (as my dad's stepmom) isn't really that much older than him, and although she has had health problems recently, she still seemed like she was doing well and had a lot of time left. Anyway, that's when I started this blog and why it is dedicated to her. I wish I had taken the time to be more a part of her life.
So, that was my first day of teaching. What a way to end! That rough evening led to a very rough second day. I had been overly ambitious and my students weren't able to handle all the tasks I tried throwing at them and being in an emotional state already did not lead me to having the most clear thought process for the day so everything was crazy. I tried having group rotations but the activities I had, the groups I had formed, and the structure were all wrong and it was utter chaos. It was too much for a second day and I was not in a good place to deal with it in the moment. The best part of the day were the sweet students who came in excited to be there. I had one student bring me a delicious plum he'd picked from his yard and another who brought a frog. Apparently his mom had told him that she wasn't sure he should bring it in because his teacher might not appreciate it but he insisted that I would. He was right :) He had it in a jar with holes in the top and a bit of water at the bottom. He nicely asked if it would be okay to share with everyone and I of course supported that. He even brought frog book that he went through to identify the species. It was awesome! This same kid also wrote a story about snakes mating later in the week, so I think I know what I can expect from this little rugrat.
Third day was the charm. I worked out at least the biggest kinks and things went shockingly smooth. I was given cupcakes and flowers in the morning and the students were practically angels all day. After that day I started to truly feel like I could do this and that everything was going to work out. I still have a lot to do such a assigning student jobs, implementing a positive behavior support system, dealing with assessments so I know where all the kids are at, and then getting our daily schedule set so that we can all feel comfortable with the routine.
The kids had pizza at lunch today. It smelled and looked amazing, so I talked to the cook (whose son is in my class) about what the process is for teachers to eat school lunch. Apparently she makes everything from scratch and all the fruits and veggies are organic. That sounds WAY better than my boring PB&J that I had for both breakfast and lunch today. I may start eating school food sooner than later if it keeps looking so darn good.
Alright, the popcorn is gone and I think it is time to go get the ice cream and work on my puzzle. This is thankfully a three day weekend so I can go see friends and swim in the river tomorrow and still have time to take a trip to Eureka for supplies and get ready for next week. I have some more reorganization to do in my classroom because we will be moving the piano into my class since I am the only who can play. I am SO stoked about it :D
The plum one of my students gave me. I totally thought it was a funny colored apple at first.
The beginning of the mating snakes story with accompanying picture. The student needed help with the writing, but the story was all his.
The beautiful flowers I was given on my second day in my awesome wolf mug that I hold my highlighters in :)
A sweet treat.
First note I caught being passed in class. She really didn't try to be sneaky at all. She put it on his desk right in front of my and I scooped it up before he had a chance to even open it. I think she is giving him too many options. This should be a YES or NO question.
One of my kiddos spends a lot of time in Hawaii and made me this picture to show what it's like in case I want to go. I like the drink with the umbrella ;) Is that really an appropriate stencil for kids?
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