Being a 1st Grade Teacher

For my new 2nd career, I went back to school for a year to get my teaching degree. I got my dream job teaching at the school where I student taught. And I was hired to work with the 1st grade team that I student taught with. So I am in heaven...
And exhausted...
My class keeps me young...but wrangling 20 six year olds can be funny, serious, difficult, eye-opening and the most rewarding job I have ever had. I have never had a job where I have experienced every single emotion I am capable of in one day! Sometimes it feels like I am living in a juvenile soap opera! I now totally get "Lord of the Flies"!
But I am loving it and loving the kids! They entertain me, amaze me, make me laugh, make me smile, make me cringe, and humble me. I am privileged to be a teacher!

2nd Career Teacher

I am waiting to hear about a couple of teaching jobs I applied for! Being out of a J.O.B. makes me nervous...and it makes my husband really nervous! I have been working, for the most part, for the past 30 years!!! Damn...did I just write that...30 years....wow! I now officially sound like my mother.
ANYWAY...I passed my certification tests, completed my student teaching and have had 2 interviews...hence the wait. And while trying to keep a positive attitude is what is best for me...it is tough.
This is the career I really want!!! I have been selling for so long, and now in my 40's realize what I really want to do...really! So, I send out applications and wait to hear. Meanwhile I clean, work in the yard, clean, run errands, clean, try not to spend money, and geez...clean!
However, I refuse to vacuum the floors more than once per week...just to have something to do!
And do I will just continue to play the waiting game with my positive attitude tucked in my bra...and clean!

2nd Grader Angst

My second grade boy is having a ROUGH time of it this year. And I, as a future educator, don't have any good ideas how to help him through it! Nice huh? He is struggling with doing more difficult work. He is struggling with having to be more independent. He is struggling with wanting to be more independent. And who knows what other kinda crap he is struggling with that he doesn't verbalize!
I am simultaneously shouting "poor thing" and "Geez"!
As parents, you just want your children to be happy and well adjusted enough NOT to end up in the newspaper under the caption "Arrested yesterday in a bizarre drugs for sex scandal "! But finding the best way to guide your child through all the mine fields of young life can be mind numbing.
My problem is that some of the decisions I have made as a parent in the past, which I thought were good sound judgements , in retrospect seem kinda dicey!
So what's the answer. I suppose just keep plugging along with the consistent positive messages and hopefully they will sink in eventually!

Back to school at My Age!

Ugh! That's right...Ugh! I have had my mid life crisis and decided to go back to school and get my teaching certificate. Being a sales person and dealing with the general public, even if I was on commission and good at what I did, SO lost its appeal for me! In a big way!
I have my bachelors degree, so this is ONLY a 2 semester...(1 year) program. But...you can, if you are so inclined, get your masters degree while you are there...only another 12 hours...ugh!
Why do I say Ugh...because this means that the courses I am taking for my certification are masters level courses... Ugh! It means I am working my ass off for the next year...reading, writing, and arithmetic...ing. I am getting my certificate so I can teach Pre-k (never gonna happen) through 4th grade. My favorite grades to teach so far are 1st and 2nd grade.
They are so young and naive, yet so smart and clever. It is incredible to watch a child learn to read and write! Seeing them have an AHA moment because they finally get it!
So here I sit reading and writing about reading and writing. I KNOW it will all be worth it...as long as I can get a J.O.B. If I don't, my husband may just stroke out!