Today I started the first day of a long term position at Copeland Elementary in Cyfair ISD, as in two or three months. Oh happy day! The teacher I am covering just had a baby two months premature. I know... sad :( On the upside, the teacher who is right next door to me is one of my mom's best friends, Alison. She is outstanding and has been teaching for 21 years! I am going to learn soooo much from her. Alison is basically the one who set all of this into motion. Let's go back Sunday, August 30....
Sunday I get a call from Alison saying that her partner at Copeland just had her baby and they didn't have a sub yet, and she immediately thought of me. Thank you Jesus! The only bad part was that I wasn't registered to take the sub orientation until October 1. Right. Sub orientation. Anyways, to wrap everything up in a nutshell (because I started typing all of the details and it was crazy long and frankly I am ready for bed), I was able to squeeze into a condensed sub orientaion on September 1, got all of my paperwork processed, and started my first day today! The only thing I still need to do is get my badge made so I don't have to continue to wear a sticky, paper visitor's badge. Not my favorite. It rolls up by the end of the day and acts as a collection thingy for any lose hair that falls out during the day.
Back to the present.... Today was my first day, and all in all it was a good day. Alison combined our classes this morning so that I was able to observe the morning routines and will be able to do everything flawless tomorrow. Right. I was watching her today and all I could think of was, "Wow. I hope I can be Alison when I grow up because she is stinkin AWESOME!" She was so on top of everything. It was ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous in the mose amazing sense of the word. After morning message, we moved back into our room and began working on our alphabet adventure. Alphabet adventure is where we discover a new letter everyday and practice writing that letter and thinking about the sounds that letter makes. It is pretty cute. The kiddos have three different books that they use to discover the different components of the letters. One book is for a journal entry about the letter, another is a collection of words that start withe each of the letters of the alphabet, and the last one allows the students to practice writing the letters. Needless to say, these kids will know there alphabet, or they schould if I do my job right. Then we went to lunch at 11:30, and I have lunch duty which consists of opening juices, applesauce, string cheese, and any other edible something that is stuffed into ridiculous plastic. Then Alison has recess duty and I eat my lunch at 12. Then we have PEAM (P.E., Art, or Music) and a fire drill. Yes. Fired drill on my first day, because it wasn't crazy enought. I felt like the whole world dumped on me and it was impossible to interpret all of the information at once. It's all good. I have thick skin. Big family. Lots of drama. After the fire drill, the day is winding down and I am explaining the different literacy centers to my kiddos and the kids are gone; their minds were totally checked out for they day. All of a sudden the principal walks in and sees me losing control of my kindergarteners. Fantastic. Eventually I regain control and she walks out of the classroom. I felt like I had a big LOSER stamp on my forehead. I know they are just testing me out, becuase they have had so many different teachers in such a small amount of time. Before me, the students had their original teacher and a weeks worth of subs. On my way home I reflected about my day and my overall thought for tomorrow was be consistent and try harder. Easier said than done I am afraid.
Like I said, all in all it was a good day. Tomorrow will only be better, especially after my 5:30 A.M. bike ride. I am kickin this lump of a body into shape! Whoo!
P.S. I am tired, so please excuse the typos :)
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