First Impressions of the New Job

I spent a few hours this morning getting a tour of the classroom & my duties from my head Teacher. First off, let me say that I am SO excited to work with this woman! She is just nice. She introduced me to about 5 other teachers, adn all of them ran to give her hugs. She seems to be just a humble, discreet woman, that everybody adores! All the other ladies were good humored & with cool personalities. Very culturally diverse. My head teacher adn the teacher next door both are from Mexico, so they break out into Spanish with each other...and are quite relieved I can actually understand it so that they don't have to try and translate! Ha! :)

And apparently I've won a free trip to Washington DC!!!! First week of May they have a class "fieldtrip" there, and she told me today that I WILL be coming to that, so she wants me brushing up on my American History :) I think it'll be pretty fun going there with the kids, I'm guessing we'll visit a LOT of smithsonians. Maybe even tour the White House? Now THAT would be cool, I've never done that before. I thought if we visit Arlington National Cemetery, I could do some homework to find where my great-great grandfather is burried in there, maybe leave flowers or something. Just help connect us to the experience. Anyway, I met two of the girl students today in the classroom, and they were super sweet kids! One was 9, the other is turning 12. I felt like I was about to start working in Young Womens :) They were both so polite, eager to please, and just good kids. Apparently, it's mainly the boys that need the extra attention and help staying on task!

One of the girls was so cute, she was telling us she was going to get her haircut today, and dye her hair a darker brown. Ms. Gabby (and I'm "Ms. Beth"), asked why she would want to do that. And she goes, 'Well, I just hate it when people call me blond! (then she gets embarressed) I mean....it looks good on YOU (she points to me), but...I just don't want to be called a blond!!!" :) It was so funny, and really cute.

Anyway, I got a better idea of what I'll be doing today. Basically I interact with the head teacher before and after school, but during the day we don't really touch base TOO much. So...lots of freedom to kind of do my own thing with interacting with the kids (Yay!). I'm specifically in charge of teaching a writing workshop 3 days a week (to help prepare them for testing. She says due to english being her 2nd language, she's not very confident teaching it to them). And I'm in charge of "Deep Cleaning" hour on Friday afternoons...where I manage them cleaning up the classroom. :P She also said she really doesn't know much about the calligraphy and music sections she teaches...which I assured her I have backgrounds in both, so she seemed pretty happy about that :) We'll also be starting a garden this spring to make it prettier outside! Oh, and every two weeks, we cook in the kitchen (yes, there's a full blown kitchen in the classroom, complete with a huge fridge, sink, microwave, oven, stovetop, and coffee maker!! They're going to be in for a surprise the first time they ask me to teach a kid how to make coffee!!). A group of 4 kids is in charge of planning the meal, budgeting for it, going to the grocery store to buy the supplies, then cooking it for the class. I get to take them to the grocery store, and we ride a free bus that serves only Ahwatukee. Interstingly enough, the bus route begins practically at my apartment front door, and ends at the school! I guess good to know, in case I ever need an alternate way to get to work!

First day starts Monday, wish me luck!! :)