Summer: Over.

Ahhh...100 degrees outside and back to work.  I will miss you free time.  I am awaiting your arrival cooler weather.  Hurricanes:  continue to stay away!

This time work is completely vague.  I have been directed to do "inclusion" with my gifted students, but still have no clear view of how to pull that off without disrupting class.  I will be internet searching all day tomorrow for the answers in my..............OFFICE!!!  I do share with two other people, but luckily they aren't home based at my school, so I should have it for now.  I won't need it much once I start teaching, but it's so nice to have a little space to do some work and have some quiet for IEP's and paperwork madness.

Oh yes.  It will be madness.  The paperwork is a jungle, and my machete will be ready!

That sounded more violent and aggressive than I meant...and I'm not particularly feeling that adventurous just yet.  More like my butter knife will be ready.

Today this thought actually ran through my mind (be prepared to think I'm a moron):

"Thank God I'm wearing a dress.  I can just keep spilling crumbs and they'll land in the dress and then I can pick it up and shake it out later."

Yeah....slob.  I laughed at myself after thinking that because I knew it was pretty trashy...but then I finished my brownie and shook my dress out outside.  So...I laughed at the truth.

I am learning to censor myself a little...so I can't comment a whole bunch on my job other than to say:
1. I work with a handful of pretty awesome people with great senses of humor and a good focus.
2. I've only met one student, but this student really made me excited about the opportunity I have to expand some horizons for some kids this year.

I'm definitely more excited about the actual teaching part of my job now that I've met a student, but I'm still so confused on what it is that people want me to do.  I am hoping to find some good models and examples tomorrow during my search time.  I can't meet kids on the first day since there is so much going on in their classes--new routines, expectations, etc.  Plus there's the whole business side of things the first day--attendance when you don't know kids' names is a lot more time consuming.

I went from job to slob to job.

What else?  I'm exhausted.  I am FOR REAL going to be in bed in about 22 minutes (6 pm).  I will be reading to relax for a bit, but then will hopefully be asleep around 7:30 because I have to be at work even earlier than the afore mentioned 6:55 tomorrow due to first day insanity.  Parking could go awry, and this big ole pregnant lady ain't walking too far in the heat in the morning before her first day starts--I will not start off the year by sweating like a cow!  I plan on wearing my suit coat, so I really want to make sure that I stay as cool as possible.  Shoooo.

I have some things I want to vent about...things that frustrate me, but at this point they're directly related to my livelihood, so I will just have to bite the bullet!  Teachers sure put up with some crap to keep their jobs...
(I personally don't have much crap to deal with actually--I guess I just witness other people's crap and get aggravated.  The use of the word "crap" in this section has been taken a little too far.)