Back to Work!

It's back to work for this girl! It was a good first day back; there was a ton of new staff to meet! I still haven't met everyone, but hopefully will very soon! There is a new 5th grade teacher on my team, she's right next door to me, so I was looking forward to meeting her! She's young like me and this will be her 3rd year teaching, so she has experience to help me out, too! I didn't stay late like I usually do, it was rainy and Dayna and I go to church on Tuesday nights so after I gave the new 5th grade teacher a tour of our school, we headed home. I say "we" because Dayna and I are best friends, roommates AND colleagues so it only makes sense to drive together, especially in these beginning days. I'm sure there will be days during the school year where we'll drive separate depending on our schedules, but for now, it's nice! Isn't God so good to us in the friends he gives us?! :)

Our school is part of a School Improvement Grant (SIG) which includes us coming back earlier than other teachers in our county or state. So, we still have this week and next week before our students come back! This week mainly consists of trainings and next week will be more geared toward faculty meetings, meeting with our grade levels for planning, and working in our classrooms. We are given an hour for lunch each day so Dayna and I went to lunch at Palace Pizza with some other teachers. I enjoy lunch out with teachers on these days because once school starts, there's no leaving work to get lunch! At our school, we have to eat in the cafeteria with our students, so this is a big treat to us! Ha! Training was really good today! It's not one of those trainings where you just listen to someone talk and are just watching the clock 'til it's over. This was seriously good! We're adopting a new reading program, Action 100, that I had the privilege to see in action (no pun intended! ha!) back in May with our principal at another school in Florida. It is AMAZING. The kids are so engaged and they're reading books of their choice on their level. I cannot say enough good things about this program but I can say how excited I am to introduce my students to it very soon! I opened boxes containing 300 books today just for my classroom. A teacher's dream? I think so! :) Better yet, each teacher has a set with 300 books and they get rotated from classroom to classroom, so there are thousands of titles floating around our school! Reading is the key to education, so, we're all expecting great things from this program! Tomorrow is another full day of training for Action 100 and then in the afternoon I'm hoping to stay and finish getting all of my bulletin boards put up, at least the paper and border. I have 3 up already, and 5 more to go! I have a lot of bulletin boards! I also will take pictures soon so that my classroom posts aren't so boring like this one is without pictures! Sorry!

Tonight, during my devotion and prayer time, I got so emotional (in a good way!!) about my job and upcoming school year! I just became so humbled that God has chosen me for this career, for this school, for this grade level, and for these students-who I still don't know yet! I think teachers have such an important role in the lives of their students. Yes, that's cliche, but there's really no other way to say it! Teaching is a demanding, yet a so rewarding career. In 6 short months, I have found that to be true. I was thinking a lot about my most recent group of students too tonight and just prayed over their futures. I prayed for a breakthrough at our school this year and for a great, positive change to take place in the minds of our students. Most importantly, I thanked God for my job. I truly feel so fortunate. I could say that over and over again! I wouldn't be here without Him, guiding my footsteps and showing me His way. I'm so eager to begin this school year and am SO thankful to Him. He is the Giver of ALL good things!!!