Blog from yesterday

I am sitting at the new apartment that Theresa and I are renting in Madison. It feels pretty good to finally have a place to be alone. I am not on the internet RIGHT now because it isn’t hooked up. I am actually on Word and will post this tomorrow(Saturday) when I get to Eau Claire. The place is a decent apartment. It has a lot of space. I hung up the shower curtain and put toilet paper on the rolls, etc. I am now just waiting for Dad and Theresa to get here with our furniture. We are all sleeping her tonight since they are getting here late. It will probably feel like a hotel. Then in the morning we are heading back to EC because it is Christines 18th birthday(!!!) and I have to take another car load back down again. Hopefully soon I can take pictures of the apartment and my classroom so people can see what they are like.

Speaking of my classroom…I think I have almost everything ready to go. The room really came around once I cleaned it, put up posters and bulletin boards, and added all of my other things. I still don’t like that I have a chalkboard, but oh well. I have many other things to be thankful for. I don’t necessarily like how it seems that they use my room a lot for other things, like childcare for forums and storage. The other night they had a forum in the gym and some kids were being watched in my room. I was in there working when they first were coming in, some high school age girls were watching the kids, and I heard my principal basically tell them to stay in the open middle area and not to touch the instruments, etc. While I was still there they were playing the piano, and had opened my drawers to look at my props/toys for games. I was a little nervous, but I figured what the heck, they are toys so whatever and I left. The next morning I found my things all mixed up from where I put them and things were slightly messy. I was upset because I have these foam heart stickers that I use for rhythm exercises. They have a sticker paper thing on the back but I leave it on, and each heart has a rhythm on it(like a tah or a titi, etc.) I found a bunch of heart sticker backs and realized they must have gave them out as stickers. They also dumped a bunch of small things like that, that I had in separate bags, all together in one container. Gah, really I shouldn’t be mad because they are all things from Dollar Tree, but it takes time to put them all together. I also have enough things to do right now rather than sort through little game pieces. It’s just a little glimpse, I think, into what things will be like working with this culturally diverse school. I am not saying that because these people were African American and rude or something, but I mean they have different ideas on what is rude and what is not. I really don’t think they thought anything of digging in my stuff, or leaving other than they found it. I know this all comes off wrong, but hopefully you all know what I mean.

I had inservice at Falk today and yesterday was a workday for all staff. I met a bunch of staff yesterday on my tour with the principal and other new staff, or by them just popping in to say hi. Today I met some more people too because everyone was actually there and in meetings together all day. I am feeling pretty good actually about the start of the year. I feel like I should be more stressed out, or like I am missing something I need to do. I might feel different on Monday night before school starts. I typed up my schedule all pretty today and it helped me visualize what my days will be like. I actually only have 4 “grades” to plan for since 2nd and 3rd are all combined and 4th and 5th are too. That’s a different approach that I am not completely used to, but I am hoping my work with Montessori last year pays off. Kindergarten and 1st grade are separate and that is nice. I am almost done getting ideas for the first week of school. I know a lot has to do with getting to know the students and setting clear expectations. We also have a hip hop group coming to school on Sept. 11th so I will be jumping into hip hop with them right after that. I have never taught that before but I think it will be fun. I looked up some things today, like the history and the 5 elements of rap, etc. and I think I can make it short, sweet, and interesting. Rapper’s Delight anyone?...

Part of our morning inservice was on my school’s plan to decrease or eliminate the achievement gap between white students and “students of color”. It’s a pretty complex plan and it involves a lot of work too. It is really interesting. We each had to sign up for a session which will be in a couple of weeks that was based on one of the 5 strands of African American Pedagogy. Basically, there is a lady in our district working her ass off to research this topic and perform all kinds of tests and trials with our students and Mendota Elementary students too. I signed up for the classroom management session because I feel like that is usually a strength of mine, but with these new personalities it might be a whole lot more challenging. Again, I feel like I am walking on eggshells trying to be politically correct and not sound racist here and I hope you all know that I am not. I just want things to go well and I want ALL of my students to be successful and happy. I am the least sure of how to connect and relate to these students so it will be a challenge and I am going to be thinking a lot about it.

Anyways, did I mention before that one of the teachers here is the sister of Owatonna HS’s orchestra director? How weird is that?! Small world. Apparently they talked about me and he said good things which is nice since we barely saw each other.

I think Dad and Theresa will be here soon so I am going to shut the computer down. Hopefully we get this unpacking done fast and can go have some fun while we are in Madison. I have no idea what we are going to do after we unload. I know we have to go buy wood so Dad and make me and Theresa bed frames. My box spring was thrown away in May(piece) and Theresa had her mattress on the floor all last year too. It will be nice to not roll over and be on the floor.

ANNNNNNNNNNNND I am not mad at Josh anymore. I just needed to get that off my chest way back when and I feel MUCH better. So, I wanted to mention that I am thinking of him while he starts his new journey in Miami Beach.

Bye!