4 official days

I have been an APS employee for 4 days, officially, even though I have been working for the last week and a half at my school. I have 19 students in my class. 4 are legally blind and require special services daily. It is an incredible challenge and I learn something new every day from them. I am completely exhausted after only 2.5 days of teaching. I hope I'll be able to get into a routine sooner as opposed to later, but so far I am still having a hard time figuring out what kind of flow to have during the day. Thankfully, Monday will start pullouts and specials, so it will help break up the day a little bit more. I'm love working at this school and everyone is so supportive and helpful, even though I am sure I am really irritating several of them with all of my questions. It has been a good week, though, overall, and I'm glad that I will get a weekend to try to catch my breath and recover before next week.

That's all the news for now. More updates to come!

First year jitters

Yeah, they are starting to set in. It probably mostly has to do with not officially being hired at this moment. Yes, I got the call that I had a job on Tuesday of this week, but my background check still hasn't made it to the APS central office. Supposedly this was the fastest way to do it, but apparently I should have paid the $30 to just have my fingerprints taken again, because I might not get it in time to start on Wednesday. It is stressing me out! I'm sure I am not the only one that is going through this, but it is super frustrating.

My principal and the staff I work with are amazing. Don't get me wrong, I really miss my previous school's staff and will always miss them, but I feel so welcome at this school and everyone has helped me tremendously. I have so many more resources and materials than I started out with, which was NOTHING, so I'm very grateful for that. Several teachers have taken me under their wings to show me the ropes and help me out with these first few days of school. The school is wonderful with technology as well. Every classroom has 5 computers, I have a laptop, and my classroom has a document camera, a smartboard, and an LCD projector. It is wonderful!! I now have to learn how to do all those things, haha.

My class is going to be very unique. I have 6 ESL kids, 4 visually impaired kids, 3 gifted kids, and several "in the middle" kids. I am really looking forward to working with all these students! I have to teach in Spanish for 45 minutes each day and I have to give an ESL lesson every day for the ESL kids. It is going to be really interesting and I'm sure there will never be a dull moment! What a way to start out my teaching career.

Speaking of never-a-dull-moment, I am ready to go to bed. Have a fabulous weekend and I will do my best not to stress out over the weekend!

Job news

I got a job! 8th time's a charm apparently, because that is how many interviews it took, but I don't care anymore! 3rd grade bilingual... So excited and nervous and curious and all kinds of other emotions. Let's start at the beginning- what does one do on the very first day of school?? Anybody know?

New hobby

Just a quick job search update- still nothing. I have another interview today that I am extremely excited about, but I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up. We will see what happens.

So, my new hobby is painting. I did my first one in a class in college (art for kids or something like that) and gave it to my sister. Then, this Christmas I made one that kinda matched it for her. She wanted to learn how to do it so that's when we made the one for the kids. She branched out and made one for herself but I designed it for her. I just finished my first one for someone that isn't my sister, lol, and it turned out so cute! I love doing these and they are relatively quick and easy to make, so it's a doable hobby. Anyway, here they are!


The very first one I made in that art class.


The matching one.


The one I did for Jordan.


The one Lauren made for Shelby. This was her very first one to paint, I think she did great!


The one my sister made for herself.


The one for a cousin's baby.

Waiting game

Yep, here I sit, still waiting for the job God wants me to have. I was so optimistic that I would get a ton of job offers after several interview and I would have my choice of where I wanted to work. Well, apparently God did not have that same plan for me. I have done 7 interviews now, including the one for kindergarten I did today, and still nothing has popped up. I got a call yesterday from HR asking if I still wanted to sub starting in the fall. It really hit me then that I might not be a full time teacher, but instead I will be making half that as a sub. Not that it is all about money, because we all know teachers don't make enough to begin with, but we have some things going on and having a salary would be a much greater benefit for me than just being paid hourly. I want a class of my own because I really rely on routines and being in a different class every day would be really difficult for me. Not to mention my slight fear of strangers and strange situations (which every day would be...). My wonderful husband is so supportive, and says amazingly encouraging things to me about why I haven't gotten a job yet. He tells me I am a great teacher and I would bless the lives of the kids in my class, that he knows I can teach anything anywhere in Spanish or English, and that God must have something super special lined up for me or else why would He have me wait this long? I could not ask for a better man to be by my side through this.

I don't really have anything new to say on the subject. I'm still waiting and there is nothing I can do about it. There are three openings in the school district that is closest to me, but they are going to wait just long enough to hire someone so that person will be classified as "short term" like I was and then that person will have to reapply again next school year. It is pretty crummy, but again, nothing I can do about it.

I am starting to get excited about my upcoming trip to Lubbock. I get to spend the weekend with some fantastic friends, and go to a wedding for another friend. It is going to be so nice that I am afraid I am not going to want to come back, especially if I don't have a job waiting for me.

I get to play soccer again this weekend. I haven't played in 6 years, except for once in Honduras and two or three times in Peru a couple of years ago (on dirt fields). I played last weekend with a friend who needed more girls on his team and it was so much fun! Thankfully my skills came back pretty quickly and I was able to settle right into playing. Unfortunately I am not in as good of shape as I was when I played all the time, but it was OK because we had enough subs to cover when one of us got tired. I'm looking forward to playing again and I hope I can make this a semi-regular thing, although I think this is their last game for a while. Maybe we can just play for fun? If only Jason played, too, then it would be even more fun. But I will take what I can get for now.

Ok, off to the grocery store. Have a blessed afternoon!

life as of late

In all reality, nothing much is going on in my life. I am still enjoying my summer as much as possible. I workout (ZUMBA!!!) every morning, which is really enjoyable because it gets me up and moving for the day. Then, every day but Wednesday I tutor. I am thoroughly enjoying tutoring and it makes me so happy to see progress being made even in a short amount of time. I think I can really make a difference for one of my tutorees, and that is really exciting. Then, inbetween tutoring and everything else that happens during the day I am spending a lot of time with my sister and her babies. It is so nice to get to see them so much and I know I am really going to miss that once school starts again in August.

Speaking of school starting, I am still without a job. It is so frustrating because there are a ton of jobs I am qualified for but because my Spanish is not perfect I keep being passed by for other people who speak better Spanish. I am very confident in my teaching capabilities, however my Spanish is not that of a "native speaker" and that puts me at a huge disadvantage. Unfortunately, the only way I am going to get better at it is if I practice by teaching! Nobody is willing to give me that opportunity at the moment, though, and I don't know what I am going to do to convince someone to hire me. I know my Spanish is good enough for most situation, but I do not interview well aparently because nobody else has seen it yet. It is just a bummer. In fact, I applied for 8 jobs today alone. Half are middle school math jobs, but it doesn't look like I have the right endorsements for those jobs. I think I need to get my math endorsement, but I don't know. We will have to see.

And, I am going to Colorado with my sister on Wednesday to pick up her son who is with our parents right now. This just adds a little more stress because I have to rearrange some stuff that is on my schedule. I hope I don't get called to do any interviews on those days or I am not going to be able to go. I hate playing this waiting game, but for whatever reason God wants me to wait for something to come up, and as hard as I try I can not get Him to tell me what is going on. I know He will take care of me, and of us as a family, but I am so ready to have a job so I know what is going on in August! But alas, I am just going to have to keep waiting.

Ok, I am sitting in a super messy office and an even messier desk, so I suppose I should get going. If you would say a prayer for me that I would be patient in listening for God's voice in all this, I would really appreciate it. I know it isn't the end of the world if I don't get a job in the fall because I know I will be able to sub, but that is definitely not my preference. *sigh*

Vacations and interviews

We got back from Lake Powell about a week ago and it was such an amazing vacation! There were 18 of us on a houseboat, not including Jordan. This houseboat was pretty fantastic and fancy, but it was still a lot of people in a relatively small space. Thankfully the spot we found to park at for the week had room for several tents on shore, so 6 people slept in tents. There were plenty of beds and enough room on the top of the boat for people to sleep. The guests included Jason and I, both our parents, my brothers, his sister, my aunt, uncle, 4 cousins + 1 exchange student, and my grandparents. Add Jordan and all we are missing is the partridge in the pear tree. It was super fun spending so much time with so many of my loved ones. We had plenty of food and drinks, a lovely fridge and freezer that allowed us to keep all our homemade meals fresh until we ate them. The water was a wonderful temperature and we could pretty much swim at any time, which was lovely. And I didn't even get sunburned! Between swimming, boating, and playing on the tubes/skis/boards/etc, I figure it was a pretty big deal that there was no sunburn. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone got sunburned, David so bad that his face blistered starting on day 4. Not good. And on top of that he lost his glasses going off the slide. He is as blind as a bat without them, so that made the game playing and lure tying pretty interesting. And, in the middle of all the chaos, I had a phone interview while on the water. Jason had to take me to the middle of the lake to get cell phone service that was strong enough for my interview. It was interesting and I feel like it went pretty well.

Turns out, it must have gone pretty well because the asked me to come in for a second interview. I had that interview today and I don't think it went quite as well. They asked me exactly the same questions as my first interview, although this time all of the questions were in Spanish, which means I had to answer them in Spanish. It was pretty difficult and I don't think this interview went quite as well. I thought it was going to be different, but nope. And I did all my prep work compiling my portfolio and everything for nothing, because they didn't even want to see it. I would really enjoy working at this school, and it sounds like a great place to work and a wonderful fit for me, but I don't know if they are going to be of the same opinion. I guess I am just going to have to wait and see!

Here are a few pictures from my vacation. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go back.