Shrinking World

A couple of years ago, I wrote a paper for one of my undergraduate courses. My professor suggested I consider getting it published, and I submitted it to the most highly regarded publication I could think of, figuring I'd start at the top and work my way down if it was rejected. To my surprise and delight, I received a letter a few months later stating that my article was accepted for publication. Sweet!

It was published about a year and a half ago, and it's brought me some notice. The coolest "Hey, I'm almost famous" moment came when I was told by my international colleagues that they'd found my article in an Eastern European country's library last summer.

And it continues.

Westley's sister-in-law is pursuing her Master's in our shared field at the moment, and one of her courses required her to review an article in a professional journal. In her presentation to the class, she paused for a moment, slightly confused.

"The author's name sounds familiar, but I'm not sure why."

At the next class meeting, she informed her colleagues, "I figured out why the author sounded familiar. The article I reviewed was written by my future sister-in-law."

(For the record: There is no ring, no formality attached to that connection, although some talking has been done on the subject ...) :-)

Three weeks already? Some reflections

This week did feel especially long, considering it was the first full week of school, but I still have a hard time believing that today marked the end of the first three weeks of school. How is it possible that it's already been 3 weeks?!

Other teachers have asked me how my first teaching job is going so far ... and I honestly tell them I love it.

There are times that it has made me cry (twice, though only when I am alone or on the phone with Westley), but I can't even begin to count the times that it has made me laugh, grin, glow with pride ...

The eighth grade classes are still testing me, but I'm learning and they're getting away with less and less. I heard from another teacher that they said I was "really strict." Ha. I couldn't help but feel quite pleased when I heard that. That's exactly the impression I want them to have.

My younger students are still sweet, and they're constantly surprising me with how fast they catch on, especially when they perform better than the older students. I've been told by other teachers that the kids say they really like me, that I'm really nice, that I have a pretty voice ... I love hearing this feedback, but whenever a colleague shares something like this, it makes me wonder ... Who initiated the conversation? A curious colleague or a chatty kid?

~*~*~*~

As Westley had predicted, I recently became aware of my status as a "hot" teacher. Gulp. Just today, two of my sixth graders who sit near my desk were chatting.

"She's gotta be in her twenties. She can't be thaaaat old." One of them said.

"Yeah ... she's pretty hot, you know."

I made the mistake of sharing this revelation with my parents.

"That's so sweet," my mom gushed. "You might be their first little crush. Think about when you're 50 and reflecting back on your early teaching years ... you'll think it's really cute."

"It reinforces your image as a role model. It means they look up to you." My dad stated.

"Um, I'm not sure of that," I countered. "I think it just means they like to look at me."

"It's actually a good thing," my dad continued, "because you'll be able to transfer some of that positive attention onto your subject area ... and they could really fall in love with music."

"I hope it's that," I responded, "and that they won't just take my class because they think I'm 'hot.'"

~*~*~*~

I discovered that I work better at school than at home (because I usually procrastinate at home and then feel more stressed because the work weighs down on me) ... so I've been staying late at school. Our school gets out unusually late as it is (4pm), and I was at school until 6pm most nights this week and until 7pm last night.

It has not been incredibly easy adjusting to this schedule (See one of the recent previous entries regarding my typical day!), but it makes me all the more grateful to be living at home. The rent I pay and the cost/time of the commute is totally worth the extra pampering I receive: laundry, home-cooked meals, trading off hair-brushing favors with my mom ... and the occasional treat to satisfy my sweet tooth (because I refuse to buy those for myself but my parents generally have a small collection).

~*~*~*~

In a nutshell: So far, so good. :-) When I decided at age 14 that I wanted to pursue this career, I chose well.

The Saga of the Homeless Pencils

"Miss LastName, can I sharpen my pencil?"

"Not right now because it's during class time. Remember, we said pencils could be sharpened before class, during your warm-up activity, and after class. However, come over here and I will show you something."

My eighth graders turned around in their seats to face me as I stood in one of the back corners of my classroom.

"Let me tell you a story ... a sad tale about homeless pencils. Sometimes," I paused, allowing myself to adopt a pained and saddened expression.

"Sometimes, after a class has left, I find abandoned pencils on the floor. These poor pencils have been abandoned by their beloved owners, and they lie there, neglected, unloved, with no happy pencil pouch to call their home-"

"Miss LastName, are you crying?" asked one of the girls in the back row. (I was really hamming it up, and by this time, my eyes were almost moist.)

"Oh my gosh, she totally is!" One of the other girls said in response.

I interrupted my story to clarify, "No, I'm not crying ... I'm simply acting ... but let me continue with my story."

"So these pencils ... these poor, homeless pencils, left behind in my classroom ... I adopt them. When I discover one of these pencils which has been neglected, I place it in this bucket," I said, holding the bucket up, "and this becomes its new home."

"So ... if you forgot to bring a pencil, there just may be a homeless pencil which you may adopt." I handed a sharpened homeless pencil to the student who had wanted to sharpen her own pencil during class.

"Oh, and by the way, for those of you who were convinced by my acting ... I'm co-sponsoring the musical in the Spring ... in case you're interested in trying out."

Comments from students

"If I was disrespectful to you today, I apologize."

"Miss LastName, you sing like an angel!"

"The uniforms you talked about that we have to wear for the concert - do we have to wear those on days we have class too?"

"I like your shoes, Miss LastName!"

"But," (sob) "I've always been a soprano!"

"Miss LastName, you should try out for American Idol."

Average day of a first year teacher

Apologies to my lovelies ... in the past two weeks, my daily schedule has been:

5:00-5:30am: Wake up, grumble about it being too early, get out of bed

5:30-6:00am: Eat breakfast, read paper/email, tell myself that I better hurry and shower

6:00-7:00am: Take a shower (shave legs if wearing a skirt), apply makeup, decide on outfit

7:00am: Aack! I'm late! Alas! I must still pack my lunch!

7:05-7:10am: Pack lunch and head out the door

7:10-7:55am: Commute. Mostly on a road which has one lane of traffic in each direction. I'm screwed if a schoolbus or a slowpoke is driving in front of me. (Note: I tried passing a slow car on the first day of school and was pulled over by a cop who clocked me at my passing speed. Lucky for me, I didn't receive a ticket because he was paged about some sort of emergency and he let me go. NOW: No more attempts at passing.)

8:00am-5:30pm: Sign in at school, begin planning time, morning duty, more planning, teach classes, eat lunch with the other adults, more planning

5:30-6:30pm: Commute home during rush hour.

6:30pm: Arrive home exhausted. Debate over taking a nap. Decide not to take a nap because that will mess up my sleeping schedule.

6:30-9:00pm: Eat dinner, do the homework I brought home (grading, creating materials for class, lesson planning, etc.), maybe allow myself some time to unwind by checking email, blogs & the 'book

9:00-10:00pm: Talk with Westley

10:00pm: Go to bed.

This is Your Life...

Note: I wrote this entry about a week ago (Thursday, 8/21/08) ... but between sleeping, planning, and trying to get everything prepared for this first week, I haven't had time to post it before now!


As I was commuting to work this morning, I turned on the radio. I haven't listened to the radio much in the past 5 years, but now that I'm driving for nearly an hour both to and from work, I've re-discovered it.

This Switchfoot song came on, and the refrain was,

"This is your life ...

Are you who you want to be?"

Unexpected tears came as I contemplated the lyrics.

"Yes," I thought to myself. "I finally am what I've wanted to be."

"I'm now driving to my first job- the job for which I've prepared for over the past NINE years, ever since I determined as a freshman in high school that this was the career I wanted."

Powerful realization. I'm finally doing what I've wanted to do for so long.

Happy 400th Post!

Funny how such an event (woo-hoo! 400 posts!) should come on such an important day. Today was my first (contracted) day at school.

The festivities began with a lovely breakfast spread, followed by our first faculty meeting. Every faculty member I met was warm and gracious. While I'm not the only new person to the building, I am the only first-year teacher. The baby of the staff. :-)

Following our informative meeting, we were given time in our classrooms. I began work on the first of three bulletin boards; my goal was to set up the background and borders of all three today.

We had a luau-themed lunch (complete with paper palm trees and plastic leis) with yummy food. I met the person with whom I will be co-teaching one of my courses. Apparently, he was unaware of this teaching assignment until this morning. Aack. Not good. I have to think long and hard about how I plan to work with all of those students ~ whether it will be better to divide the class and teach separately or if we ought to group 70+ thirteen-year-olds together in one classroom. For my sanity, I'm leaning towards having only half of those kids to myself ... but ... in the back of my mind, I think it's probably better for the students if they have consistent instruction from me since it's my course. Must explore this option further.

I talked more with my mentor teacher at the school ... she's an organizational queen. She was giving me tips but I think she realized that I was soon overwhelmed, as I hadn't even begun to think about the system I would use for keeping track of grades and attendance! She offered to help me with whatever I may need (love her!) and I do plan to seek her out later this week.

A 2nd year teacher stopped by my room to introduce himself and to let me know that I could get additional bulletin board paper from the art room. This saved my day! (My department was seriously lacking paper.) I made several trips to the art room, and after several hours of work, I have my three bulletin boards -background and border- ready to go! I'm a little disappointed that that's all I was able to accomplish because I'd hoped to set up my computer (a mess of wires!), printer, and other technology. I'll have to wait until Wednesday.

I stopped by the office (just after 5:30pm, and the workday was to have ended at 4pm) on my way out to check if my identification information from HR had arrived, and I encountered my principal. I reminded him of some documents I'd requested from him, and he found them for me.

"How was your first day?" He asked.

"Great!" I replied, grinning. "There's so much to learn and prepare, but I'm making some progress!"

"Good," he responded with a smile as he handed me the documents.

"You know, I remember my first day," he continued thoughtfully. "It was a long time ago," he said half-seriously, "but I remember it. I imagine you'll look back on this day and I hope you'll always remember it fondly."

I think I will, I thought, smiling, as I walked out of the building after my own first day.