If you do not already know about Bakerella you must check out her latest blog post. Not only does she present the most amazingly delectable treats, but today's post included a very touching story that is a must read!
I promise you will love her!
New Beginnings
I officially filed my leave of absence today. It was recommended to me that I do that instead of outright resigning just in case for some reason we come back. I packed up my car with my teaching stuff and threw out a LOT of stuff.
When I dropped the form off at the district office, I spoke with the superintendent briefly to let him know that I am leaving and told him what a pleasure it was to work for the district and how much I would miss it. I am sure it is hard for the superintendent to know all of the teachers in the entire district, so I wanted to make sure he connected my face and name just in case I ever come back to the district in the future. He said he was sad to see me go because I have done a great job.
From the time I left the district office to the time I got home, they had already hired someone to fill my spot. It is a teacher from my school that got laid off this year, so I was thrilled to find out that she now has a job and will take over my classroom. I love my team, so it is very important to me that the person who gets to work with them is a great person--and she is. I am so excited for her and happy to pass the classroom (my second home) to someone who is an awesome teacher.
We are going to meet up next week at school so I can show her some of the curriculum materials I have made over time to see if she would like to have them. I already threw out a lot of stuff, but now that I know the person taking over, I am more aware of what she might want to keep.
It is very bittersweet to pack up my classroom. I am excited for what the future has to offer yet it is always sad to leave people who you care about. I will miss the students and staff at my school very much and lots of learning and happy memories took place in that classroom. There are certain students that I will remember for the rest of my life. I have one more car load to take home and then it will be time to turn in my badge, laptop and keys.
Homeschooling Myself
I love summer break, but I have to say I do much better with a schedule. I can get more accomplished in the hours after work in the evening than I can in a whole day because having the whole day means I just take my sweet time for everything. In the next 6 weeks or so I want to try and learn as much German as I can. I feel like I need to assign myself a block of time to practice words so that it actually gets done. It's like adult homeschooling where I am both the teacher and the student! I am not going to far as to create lesson plans for myself....but I want to have some goals in mind for words I want to learn each day to increase my vocabulary bit by bit.
Spanish is easy for me, German not so much. I bought myself some books that seem really helpful and clear and last night I sat down to do some learning. I read the words and pronunciations, but I find that I can't remember them at all.
I have a few basics down:
Hallo!- hello
Guten Morgen- good morning
Guten Tag- hello/good day
Tschüss (tchews)- bye
Danke- Thank you
I am working on remembering:
Ich heiße (ikh high-se) Katie- My name is Katie
Freut mich (froyt mikh)- Please to meet you
sein- verb "to be"
This process will definitely make me a better teacher for my students learning English in the future. I cannot learn words without context and pictures. I need SO MUCH repetition and I need to practice the words with my husband so they stick. I remember taking spanish classes for a long time in school, but I don't ever remember it being this hard to remember the words! They are really hard to spell too.
It's worth the effort, how great will it be to speak three languages??
Do you speak a language other than English? Any tips for making a new language stick?
Job Offer
I received an offer from the school which guarantees me a TA position for the fall. The last email I got from the principal said it will most likely be in third grade, which makes me a very happy camper. I guess placements are not guaranteed until August, but I am hopeful that third grade will be my spot. One of the third grade teachers is actually also from Portland and taught at a district close to mine. It would be great to work with her because I am sure we have a lot in common. This is still all dependent on their ability to obtain a work permit for me.
I am now starting the process or wrapping my head around what the next 6 weeks will look like. I have lots of organizing to do both of my physical things and my thoughts. My husband does not want to officially make any announcements quite yet, so it is just our time to make sense of it all before we officially announce it to friends and colleagues. Given this process, I feel like nothing is 100% for sure until it is actually happening so even now, I can't say anything is "for sure."
Today is my first real day of summer vacation because ever since school let out we have been away. I woke up at 4:30 because of the 9 hour time difference, so I am trying to go full steam ahead with productivity until I crash later. I've got emails to send, friends to catch up with, cleaning, and lots of laundry to do. My poor husband has to go to work today which will be tough given the drastic schedule change. At least I know I can lay down at any point during the day when I need to. Being productive can be tiring!
Thanks for all the kind words in response to my most recent posts. This is quite a process and encouragement is always a great source of revival and support.
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