First Week... Check!

I made it through the first week!! :) Actually, although it felt really long... it was a good week. The kids are starting to get into the routine of things, and were excited to actually start some of the reading/math/science work in class. After all, you can only play so many get-to-know-you-games! I already have them all pumped up about science, which is really fun for me :) Next week many of the kids will get pulled out for Sped, ELL, and GT.... so I will have a much better idea of who I am really teaching and when.
Part of what made the week so long was the fact that I spent 3 of the 5 evenings after school back at school for 2+ hours. Even though I had time before school started, a) I did not have enough time and b) I didn't know what I needed to do with that time. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long year in general in the realm of preparation time, but the plan is to keep uber-organized so that next year it will be a little easier. Luckily, I also am comfortable "winging it" when I need to :)
It continues to just be delightful to work with people who are happy about being at school. My fourth grade team is really supportive, all of the specialists are so excited to talk about how I can help individual kiddos, and everyone else is great about checking in to make sure I'm doing ok! I found a good place to be :)
On the non-school side of life, I had fun yesterday at my friend Hollyn's wedding. She got married down in Evergreen, CO and it was an unusual ceremony to say the least. Before the ceremony started a herd of elk started crossing the road down to the meadow where the ceremony was being held. Unfortunately one of them got hit by a car :( We saw it get up, but didn't see where it went after that. But the rest of the elk (at least 20 of them) decided to come attend the wedding. They stayed on the other side of the creek, but them seemed pretty curious about what we were doing there!! Then, one of her bridesmaids fainted during the vows and fell backwards headfirst into the creek!! She ended up being ok, but they took her to the emergency room to make sure. Crazy!!! Luckily, even the unexpected couldn't spoil the happiness, and it was lots of fun to see my friend so happy. I think her cheeks are going to be sore from smiling!! :)
So today, as you can probably guess, I am headed back to school... but not before my puppy dog gets some serious play time! :)

Alex Landon

Here's my new love-nephew :) (aka my bff Marci's new baby boy!)
And I love love LOVE him!!!

Too tired to blog much... although the highlight of my day today was reading Yertle the Turtle :)

The First Day of School!

Is it Christmas yet? Just kidding :) My first day of school was actually really good. I got back from meeting Alex (a picture to follow as soon as Marci sends it to me) yesterday evening (by the way he is SO STINKIN' CUTE!!) and decided not to go to school, since it would probably just make me feel stressed. So I slept really well, got up (too early!) and was at school at about 6:45.

I think I was a little nervous this morning... but I wonder if it was because I thought I should feel nervous, because once the kids came I was totally fine. They were definitely squirrely today, but I think I handled it well because I kept mixing things up... even though I did a lot of talking. For the most part I think the class is going to be wonderful. I already have kiddos that I love to pieces, and a few that I would put up for trade... but I am sure by the end of the year I wouldn't have traded any of them :) (Or at least that's my story for now!)

My legs hurt, and I'm pooped... but I think I'll probably veg for a bit while the pooperdog runs around, eat some dinner, and head back over to work on the behind-the-scenes organization stuff.

Now if only I had someone to go grocery shopping for me....

Can I have an extra day please?

So Friday was a blur of rushing to get my room ready for the open house. My mom will laugh when I say that I resorted to my childhood habits of shoving piles of things in drawers and cupboards so that it looked nice and clean!! :) Luckily none of the students' parents looked in the cupboards!

The open house was good. I was a little nervous beforehand, but the first mom that came was really wonderful and from then it just flew by. I think a little more than half of my 22 kiddos showed up to say hi and put their school supplies in their desks. Most of the parents were welcoming and the kids seemed excited for school to start. Since it is such a small town, many of them know each other, so I am a little worried for the couple of new kiddos that I have... but I think they will probably end up adapting faster than I do!

I got up this morning and met up with Keri (my mentor) to brainstorm some "plans" for the first couple of days. It was more like a list of activities to do in between explaining the expectations and getting settled in the routine of things... but I think it will go well. I still have quite a bit of "behind the scenes" work to do in my room - organizing some files on the kids and such... but I am taking tomorrow off to head back down to Colorado Springs because MARCI HAD THE BABY!!! :) Alex Landon Eckles was born on Friday and I can't wait to meet him :)

So while that means I won't get a jump on school stuff for Monday... some things are more important!

Teacher Training Day 6

Ok... I'm a little tired of teacher training now...can you just send me the kiddos? You might think that education people might be good at making boring presentations a little less boring - but most of them don't. Luckily, as those who know me understand well (mischievous grin), I am pretty good at entertaining myself... and I have already found fun people to be shenanigans with :) Admittedly not up to the Marci & I standards of shenanigans, but that is pretty hard to match!! :)

Seriously though, I think I probably would have become comatose with boredom without the fun people up here. My mentor, Keri, is just awesome, funny, and a goofball like me. She is also my 4th grade teammate and next door neighbor. My principal rocks (especially because he is pretty young and so remembers very much what it is like to be in the classroom). Which means today and tomorrow should be a little less boring as the meetings are now specific to the elementary crew (instead of new teacher and/or district-wide stuff).

My room is still a work in progress, although its getting there. It will probably be done by Christmas :)

Here we go!

So tomorrow is the first day of new-teacher training!! I got a key to the building on Monday, so I have spent a couple hours each day Monday and today fiddling around in my classroom. I am just starting to get an idea of what I actually need to do... so it's a good thing I have two more weekends before the kiddos come! Once I have everything mostly done I'll post some pictures. So Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Mon are all new-teacher stuff, and then Tues starts the district-wide staff stuff. Friday the 21st is a teacher work day with a mini-open-house for the kiddos to stop by and drop off their school supplies and say hi... and then Monday the 24th is day 1. Wow... am I ready for this? I hope so!! :)

The best part so far is the people. While I haven't met tons of people yet (which is ok as I have already forgotten 80% of the names of the people I did meet), everyone has been amazingly nice, friendly, and welcoming. Everywhere I turn someone is offering to help me carry something, asking if I need anything, or telling me how excited they are that I am here. It's really nice :)

In the meantime I have enjoyed hanging out with my pooperdog and enjoying being back in a small mountain town. Sunshine, mountains, trees, and lots and lots of blue sky.

Unfortunately.... I have to get up early tomorrow :( Ahh well... Wish me luck!

Happy house to me!

So I walked around Ketchum to do a little shopping during my visit, and as I had been on the lookout for a little lamp for my new house I just had to buy this:


I love it! :)

To Idaho and back again!

The first day of school is creeping up quickly, so I figured I would go visit the friends in Idaho before I got buried under another school year. While the 13 hour drive (12ish hours + dog play time) each way was not so fun... the visit certainly was! I got to see Bronwyn (and Sherlock got to hang with Indiana and Dakota), Nichole, Justin, Michele (and her whole furry crew), Kyle and Brooke (and their furry crew), and it randomly worked out that Scott and Anna and their kiddos were in town from Seattle at the same time! I also saw some random locals who said it had been a long time since they had seen me around - to which I said, "yah, probably because I don't live here anymore!"

I ate at all my favorite places, shopped a little bit (another house warming present will be posted once I unpack it), dealt with a stupid flat tire, played some putt putt golf, tubed on a river, visited one of my absolute favorite places on earth (Redfish Lake), and most of all spent time with good friends.

It was a nice vacation and while sometimes bittersweet, it was fun to see the Idaho crew.

Check out some of the pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22139&id=1641470927&l=9964170b72

Now it's nice to be back in the new place and see the Fat Kitty. It's starting to feel like home :)