First Day! New Day!

AHHHH!!! I made it! I successfully made it through my first day as a teacher! Not that I doubted I would... I've just been building up 4 months and 1 days worth of anxiety, since I found out I got the job! There are students I will be working with that will push my knowledge as far as what I learned in school but they will also keep me on my toes about constant digging and research about I can help further their communication and academic goals. It's all so exciting!
There were a couple students that had me on the edge of my seat about today, but they were FABULOUS!! I seriously could not have asked for a better day from any of the kids! Especially the behavior kiddos who have a bar that may feel like it's set a little high at times. I would be complete out of comfort zone had it not been for the most awesomest year ever- 2009-2010 school year where I was a paraprofessional in an upper grade self contained behavior classroom. Now that I look back on those years not only did I learn so much from the kids, I learned so much from the teacher. The students never realize how big of an advocate for them and their success they had in their corner. The students frequently mistook it as us (teacher and paras) versus them (the student). Mike pushed them, hard. he knew those kids needed to be pushed to their boundaries because that's where we ALL get pushed to. Learn the coping strategies, learn to identify " the fire burning" in your belly! And to turn that fire off.
I find behavior extremely fascinating!! What is that make many students on the spectrum non-verbal?! I am working with a non verbal student who uses an ipad to communicate which is totally new for me. He is SO smart. SO SMART If you haven't already go watch A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism. Thank you Dr. Johnston for teaching on of my favorite classes on communication where we were briefly introduced to augmentative and alternative communication systems. She's pretty much amazing. Too bad she isn't leading the trips to Peru anymore!!
I have strayed far from where this post was originally going... I have some photos that I'll share and give all of you in cyber land a sneak peek!!!

The first being my awesome entry way! Whhhich isn't done yet. 

Next up will be about two-thirds of my room. So teacher table straight back, the carpet center between centers then another teacher station. 

And my desk area!! I really do have a ton of room in the classroom. Everyone who had been in the classroom before mentions how bright and open it is. 

I am SO happy here. The responsibilities at times seem daunting and overwhelming but I am CAPABLE!! What I do not know I can learn! 

Energy and persistence conquer all things.
~ Benjamin Franklin

The time has come!

No way this really happening!

I've been dying to get into my classroom pretty much ever since I found out I got the job and saw the class in May. Who wouldn't? I want it to be perfect. Pinterest has been great in providing ideas that I otherwise would never have thought of but it also provides false hope... seriously! It probably has more to do with I'm not very crafty, thrifty, or patient than anything else.

I see this great, fun, colorful (but not overwhelming and crazy), classroom but no idea how to get from a completely blah and blank canvas to an ORGANIZED fun environment! This is when I need all of my teacher peeps from back home! My classroom is a bizarre shape in the first place. No counter tops to use for shelving/storage but fortunately TONS of closets! HIDE THE MESS!

I got to spend a lot of time with the super awesome tech guy and it was great picking his brain and getting an insider scoop on a lot of the stuff I was never exposed to. Like needing to place "orders" for getting tech help, student log ins, my log in, access, a student's ipad. SO. MUCH. STUFF. After 4 hours of being there my brain was officially on system overload so Ash and I went to Costco and had some retail therapy.

This week I'm off from the daycare so I spend pretty much all day at the school going through drawers and cabinets pretty  much taking inventory. I need to spend a lot of time familiarizing myself with pretty much all new curriculums. I've looked them up and done some research on them over the summer but not had full access to any of them.

It's exciting, yet so overwhelming that I can start getting my hands dirty and figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I just have to remember to breathe and that I have over a month to get stuff set up!!!

Catch up!

I have totally dropped the ball on this whole blogging thing! I just don't know what to write about... All Stelly and I do is work! Correction: I work, Stelly sleeps and plays with Mo. Daycare in the day, bar at night. If I were doing some exciting DIY projects, I'd be sharing that with you! Once I get access to my classroom I'll probably start more because my hopes is to start a teaching blog for other teachers to follow with resources for what is working in my classroom. BUT I don't have my keys yet! The anxiety might kill me. I'm dying to start going through the classroom to see what all is in there, and familiarize myself with two new curriculums.

What I have started though is getting all of my IEP dates together and working on individual folders for each student. Each folder for now will have their goals, all progress monitoring sheets (reading, writing, math), and a contact form that seconds as a parent contact log. I've gone through all of the IEP's that I have and made note of the IEP that need changing due to part time K's going into First; so mostly extending the time they'll be receiving services. Staples need to have their penny sale and teacher day sale ASAP, I can get more done when I have that stuff!

I've also been trying to work on a letter home to introduce myself to parents and welcome students but that is going very slow because I hate talking about myself.

MOMMY WILL BE HERE TOMORROW!!! 

Yup yup. Mom and Daisy left yesterday and are taking the long way from UT to WA. She'll be here for 4 or so days and I'm excited! I've got Tues-Thurs off to spend some time with her and D. Stelly will be happy to see D, I probably can't say the same for D. She loved being an only child when Prairie passed before I got Stelly. So far no plans!

 

Week in rewind

As luck would have it I have been sick for over a week now. It started last week-Thursday to be exact- after my first week at the daycare (as expected), COMPLETELY lost my voice! Dreams may have just came true for some but in reality I just squeaked like a baby T-Rex. So, I didn't didn't go to work Monday and was feeling better but still screeching. Talking with me was like a botched MAZE assessment. As part of a comprehension assessment three words are given every seventh word and students have to pick the word that best fits there. Wellllll, with me, your three options weren't there and it was more like every 4 words. 

SO I went to work Tuesday, feeling better with the exception of not really having a voice. They put me in with the babies seeing as how not much talking needs to be done versus the toddler room. 

Lucky me. 

Pink eye!!! 

Couldn't go to work Wednesday as I was pretty much crying boogers. This photo was actually Thursday after majority of the eye boogers stopped. BUT my eye was completely swollen shut! Usually they don't put you on antibiotics for pink eye, not for meeee! Thursday was quiet so work didn't need me anyway and I was still one eyed so I stayed home. 

I woke up Friday feeling ok so I called work asking if they needed me in as my eye clearly had something wrong with it, thankfully they didn't. I went back to sleep thinking it was really cold. That turned into the sweats. Then the chills. Sweats. Chills. All the while listening to the roofers, from next door, terrible 80's metal music. 

I slept the entire day. From about 9am to 6:30pm. Walking up here and there to cough up gallons of phlegm and re stuff my nostrils with tissue. I took the dogs out once on their flexi leads, sat at the bottom of the stairs and just held on. 

Stella and Mowgli kept me company all day while Ash worked. 

It is now Saturday and I'm feeling much better except for an awful cough. Fingers crossed that this is the only illness I will get while out here!! 

Settling in

It's been almost a week since we've been in our new home! Still so crazy to think about. I honestly feel like I'm just on long vacation. A vacation that you have to find a job while you're there! I found some part time work at a local daycare, about 30 hours a week. I'm hoping to still find another job waiting tables or something so I can slowly stash away some tip money.

I love it here! I honestly do! I am BEYOND lucky to have Ashley here going through all the same stuff. I knew I'd be doing this one way or another it just makes it all easier having a great friend along for the ride!

Stinky Stelly is doing FAR better than I ever could have imagined! She's being so well behaved, and starting to play with Mowgli. She is getting much more comfortable around the waves at the beach and now just wants to zoom around in them. I have her on a flexi leash for now until I feel a little more confident in our recall abilities for when (and it WILL happen!) she goes running off down the beach after a bird. Her favorite part of the beach is "bonking" the empty crab shells and of course chasing all of the seagulls. I'm will be working on redirecting her when she gets so locked on to the birds because I eventually want her to see the bird and be like yea whatever... but right now I think it's funny so I can't help but laugh when she chases them.
The drive from SLC to LB was about 17 hours... loonnnggg! We went straight through.
Stella was less than thrilled:

After the first Xanax didn't work, we waited 6 hours as per recommendation and gave her another pill. Well let's just say "nigh nigh Stell!"
So fast forward a brutal 17 hour drive and we arrive at our sleeping accommodations for night.

The next morning we got to unpacking with the great help of a son of my mom's colleague who lives in the area- seriously couldn't have done it without them!  We started unpacking after a few hours the sun came out and looked like it was to be a beautiful afternoon. TO THE BEACH!!
Stella got in her classic roll!

Pack your bags Stella!

We shall find out if blogging is for me! I want it to be (if that even means anything). I graduated from the University of Utah on May 3, 2013 after a LOOOONNNGGGG **eh hem** 9 years of messing around at the community college, and finally in 2010 figuring out what I want to do with my life. I've had my share of challenges along the way, and faced them head on (that may explain a few things..). Here I am now, less than 72 hours away from moving from my mamma's basement, 879 miles to Long Beach, WA., with one of my bestest friends Ashley, after being offered my first big girl job as a special education teacher to 25 awesome kids in a resource class! (It still doesn't seem real, come August I imagine it will feel alllll too real!).

Besides family getting me through these last few years of school I give full credit to my stinky muppet mutt, Stella. She makes me laugh when I want to scream that an assignment hasn't uploaded (or I forgot), she's the cuddle bug I need on those blue days, she's always there. She's stuck with me, and I'm stuck with her. I wouldn't trade her for a million dollars. I'm serious. I'd rather be homeless. But hopefully mamma would take us back in. Mamma?!

My hope for this blog is to share with all of you the adventures of a new fledgling (aka me - from my bird nerd of a mother who will just replace me with her live cam birds and their babies) and my obnoxious, anything-that-stinks loving dog!!

Kristin & Smella