Tuesday, July 05, 2005

And we're off...

Well, summer school began yesterday. Talk about having to be flexible!

I had two courses all planned and ready to go, and I was very excited to be able to be teaching at my own school. It meant that I didn't have to pack up my classroom, I was familiar with the building, and I would be teaching with some of my colleauges from the regular school year, who are also teaching summer school.

For various reasons, however, enrollment was really low this year, and the powers that be changed the way they determine whether or not to cut a course. That meant that both of my courses got cut. This was not a big deal, though, because I could still be rolled into the cirriculum and ESL classes, and would be able to keep my job. I hadn't received a confirmation by last Friday, so I didn't do any planning. I supposed it was gonig to have to be a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of month.

That is, until Saturday.

I was at the beach with some friends enjoying a fabulous day (the day after the previously mentionned disappointment #1) when my cell phone rang. It was the summer school principal. "Oh good! He's confirming what I'll be teaching!" thought I to myself. But no. Numbers were still down, and he wasn't able to hire me.

Oh

my

goodness.


The principal was really good to me, though, and he made calls to the other summer school principals to see if there were any openings at any other schools, and he found one! I suppose I didn't have the best attitude, cause hey, at least I have a job, BUT, I was going to have to go and pack up all my stuff at my school, bring it all to the new school, teach all July away from my buddies, AND, the "best" part??? I would be teaching PRE-KINDERGARTEN and kindergarten ESL and language arts. Hmmm... I am an intermediate teacher. I lvoe little kids, they're very cute and fun to play with, but as far as teaching them? They're just tooo little! Plus, THESE kids... many have never been to school and don't speak a word of English. Great. This was disappointment #2.


****************************

Well, Monday came awfully quickly. That was a prep day, thankfully, so I moved all my stuff, went to the staff meeting, and then my mom came and helped me get my room set up (she's a preschool teacher, so she had lots of tips for me! We're gonig to go pilfer her preschool later this week for some fun stuff :) .

Then the kids arrived today. Apart from the registration chaos, it was actually not too bad! (Hey, any day can go great when the kids get to play at centers half the time they're there! Don't worry, that will change, but today was a settling in day - more so for me than for them!) I actually had a lot of fun with them! There was only one girl who wouldn't let go of her mom's leg, and one boy who started crying when he came back from recess becuase he thought his mom was going to come get him then. He didn't realize that there was still more school, and I couldn't explain it to him becuse he doesn't speak a word of English! Poor litle guy! He jsut cried and cried and repeated the same entence (I think) in Chinese over and over... all I oculd get was "mama" out of it.

And the biggest thing I say "Thank GOD" for today.... nobody peed their pants!!!!! Let's try to keep that record up!


Well I survived day one. Only 24 to go...

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