Let me explain

I don’t think I fully explained my current job situation, and as it will end next week, I feel I should clarify.

I graduated in December with a bachelor’s in Secondary English Education. Basically, I want to be a high school English teacher. Gag. I know. But it’s been a love of mine for years, and I hope I can at least get students to appreciate it. We shall see.

Well, due to the economy falling into the 7th circle of hell (Dante reference??), many schools in the area are not hiring. While it is difficult to find a teaching job in December anyways, all the people that graduated the previous year in December had found jobs. So, it was a little upsetting not to find anything.

So, I decided to be a substitute teacher. As a certified teacher, a sub can make decent money, and I figured if I was on the lists in enough school districts, I would be able to work everyday.

Well, January 4th, I get called from a school district. They have a teacher going on maternity leave, and they needed a sub. For January 6th. Yes. 2 days notice.

Being the broke college student adult that I was, I happily accepted. Basically 3 months of a for-sure job sounded glorious. I wasn’t thrilled of not knowing whether I would work from day to day. I mean, who really wants to go to bed at 9pm if they don’t have to???

Fast forward 3 months. I am in my last week and a half with the long-term sub position, and I am not sure what to think. After days like today, I couldn’t be happier to leave. But then I realize that I will miss some of the kids and I love the team I work with. I work with people who truly love their job and want to help their children.I have truly enjoyed my time there and I have learned sooo much. Good and bad. But this is probably the best learning experience ever.

Working with teachers like that makes it more enjoyable for me, as a new teacher, who is feeling a little jaded already due to extreme testing standards and the fact that so many states are cutting education budgets by BILLIONS of dollars. BILLIONS!

How can you justify cutting so much money from an already struggling sector, but still want our children to compete with Japan and China?? it’s. not. possible.

They demand more from teachers, yet expect them to do it all for less pay. What other profession would people do this??? NONE! Yes, there are teachers unions, but who really pays the price when teachers strike?? The students. Their education is already suffering due to the fact that teachers are losing their want/desire/ability for creativity because we have so many standards and content to teach to make sure our students perform well on tests.

I digress. I could literally talk about this for hours. But I won’t. It’s one thing I am very passionate about and it just upsets me that politicians aren’t listening. Why is education one of the first things that money is cut from??

Ahhhhhhhh.

Well, I will step off my soapbox now and go on to lighter things.

Such as, the greatest dinner ever. Well, not ever, but it is rather tasty and fairly cheap and healthy.

Tortilla pizza

It is a tortilla. I put a little olive oil on it and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for like 3 minutes, just to crisp up the tortilla. I then put spaghetti sauce on it, then some low fat ricotta, fat free mozzarella, and a little Parmesan. Put back in the oven for about 5 minutes, sprinkle with just a dash of pizza seasoning or basil, and Voila! It may sound goofy, but it is soooo good. Fiance puts artichokes or onions or other things on his, but I keep mine simple. Yummmmmy.

Also, if trying to eat a little better, but have a salt addiction like myself:

The Best Pringles Ever

They are truly addicting. And yummy. Just a suggestion.

I hope you all have a good evening. I must find a way to teach clauses in a way that my students don’t die of boredom. Wish me luck.

New Teacher. New Wife.

The refrigerator door

I’ll write a longer post tomorrow, but….. (drum roll please)

Our wedding invitations went out and while visiting friends, I was so excited to see our invitations on their fridge door!

Totally lame, I know. But fiance and I have a  few on our own, and it was excited to see ours at other people’s houses.

About 2 months and I will marry the absolute best man for me. My best friend. My everything.

OKay. Done being mushy. I’ll have better stories for tomorrow…..

New Teacher. New Wife.

Oh to be in college still….

Oh, this anonymity thing is already difficult! How does lawschoolwife do it?

All I want to do is scream and shout about my alma mater and their truly amazing showing in the NCAA championship today!!!!!!! Well, I guess that narrows it down, but I can’t help myself. Go us!!!

All my still-in-college friends get to go out tonight, celebrate our victory, kick off spring break early and have fun. i still have to go to bed early. and no spring break next week. I’m not used to this being an adult thing yet.

Also, the weather is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l today. gorgeous. all i wanted to do was take a book outside and read. oh, spring, how I have missed you.

My mood is just through the roof today. We had testing the first 3 hours of the day (just nice because it was quiet and my students worked hard). So, as a reward, I took my group outside for like 20 minutes to enjoy the weather and stretch after working hard. I don’t know if I am still naive, but I was the ONLY teacher to do this. All our kids worked hard, and instead of giving them a short break before starting back into class and working, the other teachers went straight from the test to teaching.

These kids need a break and need to know WE know they are working hard. THEY are the ones who (unfortunately) hold funding based on NCLB in their hands. Let’s reward them and show them how important they are.

It was 20 minutes and when I saw those kids in the hall later, I could tell they were in a better mood and were grateful.

I try. Also, i wanted some fresh air. It’s a win-win.

Something I do not look forward to-teacher drama. They need to realize we are all working, while everyone may not see eye to eye, no need to get all ticked off and send e-mails.

Oh well. I went outside. Enjoyed the sunshine. Hung out with my students and showed them that teachers can be fun too. I think I earned some new respect.

Isn’t it what it’s all about anyways??

I hope you all have a fantastic day and get some sunshine (if it’s sunny where you are.)

New Teacher. New Wife.

—-All I want is to say is GO “ALMA MATER”!!!!

Need a 9-5

People seem to think that because teachers get summer break and Christmas break, then the job is cake. Throw in “getting off” at 3pm, and people think monkeys could teach.

My schedule:

5:15am: stumble out of bed

5:30am: realize I haven’t actually gotten out of bed, only thought about it.

5:40am: realize that I have no more time and MUST get out of bed.

5:45am: start cussing because I have to get up

5:45-6:15am: get ready…try to make sure clothes match and I’m not repeating the same outfit too much. (I did just graduate, so still working on broadening the wardrobe, but on a limited budget. Also, 8th graders can be ruthless.)

6:20-7:15am: make my daily drive. listen to anything that will keep me awake. silently wish the principal will call me and say I deserve a paid day off

7:20-3:05pm: deal with everything a 13 year old can possibly throw at you (literally and figuratively), all while trying to expand their minds. it’s intense. and tiring. you wouldn’t believe how tired I am by the time 3pm rolls around.

You get the idea. Tonight, I stayed at school till 7:30pm, and I will be back at school in less than 12 hours. Geeze.

I’ve never worked so hard before.

Side note: fiance is SUPER stressed. He has had some exams in his MBA classes and at least in one class, it looks like the professor is intentionally trying to fail students. Fiance told me that one girl literally wept during the exam tonight because NOTHING on the test had been covered/talked about/taught/read/thought of during the past 2 months. I feel awful.

All he needs to do is pass this class. He’s been accepted to law school, so he just needs to get through this.

Thoughts/prayers/whatever you feel like sending is appreciated.

Must sleep. Goodnight.

–New Teacher. New Wife.

Not a man to count on

So, you know the saysing, “The only man a girl can trust is her daddy?”

Yeah. That person wasn’t planning a wedding when they said that. And if they started planning a wedding after this statement, they soon regretted it’s popularity.

I have asked my dad to do ONE thing for the wedding. (Other than pay, but that was split between the parents so I wasn’t involved in that discussion)

98% of our guests will be from out of town, so I wanted us to get some blocks of rooms at a couple different hotels and send the info with the invitation so the guests wouldn’t have to guess which hotels were in a good area/close to the venue/right price/ etc. I asked my dad to help with this is OCTOBER. Yeah, a whole 8 months before the wedding. As time got closer, my mom and I have asked him to work on it  because invitations need to go out soon and we need time to get the info together and so forth. We even asked if he was too busy and wanted us to do it. “Nope. I will take care of it.”

Well, here we are. Invitations are supposed to go out in like 4 days and we have NO HOTELS.

None. Nada. Zilch. Not One.

All because he promised me he would do it. Promised his only daughter (and ONLY child that is actually blood related to him). PROMISED.

Isn’t a girl supposed to be able to take their father at face value when they promise something????

Well, apparently not.

Apprently, in the 21st century, along with students telling their teachers to F*** Off, promises made by a father to his daughter no longer matter.

I’m about to explode. And cry. And cancel everything.

Well, not cancel, but I would like to run away.

Now, you readers may think I’m being melodramatic. Which I probably am, but you also don’t understand the relationship my divorced parents had. They got divorced when I was 6, but remained friends. And when I say remained friends, I mean still had keys/garage door openers to each others houses, talked everyday on the phone (granted, usually about my brother or me), basically got along, just couldn’t be married to each other. I switched houses every week, they got along. Heck, they didn’t even get a lawyer when they divorced. They figured out child support ON THEIR OWN! I know, completely unrealistic for 99% of divorced couples, but I lived like my parents weren’t divorced. They just lived in separate houses and married other people.

So for them to be fighting and my mom telling me on an almost daily basis that after this wedding, she never wants to talk to him again, it throws me into a bit of a panic.

I mean, at 23, this is the first time I have ever been put in the middle. I don’t know how to handle this. I want to please both sides, but can’t. It’s unnerving.

I feel like a 23 year old toddler- one who can’t decide which parent to go to.

I’m furious with my father and completely disappointed, but I also can’t imagine my mom and dad not talking. My mom has done practically EVERYTHING for the wedding since I am out of state, so I feel like I have to side with her, but since my dad is paying half, I don’t feel like I can upset him. (like, there are 5 people from his side we STILL don’t have addresses for, despite the 10 e-mails asking for them, so Mom is ready to sen the invites without the addresses and say screw those people.) I don’t care if they come, but he might.

I think a bubble bath and a giant bottle of wine are needed.

Oh wait, I have to teach tomorrow and get up at 5:30am. I guess it’s just the bubble bath. Damnit.

-New Teacher. New Wife.

Epiphany

I finally had one of those moments where I knew my direction.

No, I don’t have all the answers. I will still have bad days and days when I want to quit.

But when I stay at school till 7pm setting up a whole project for all my students, I know I’m doing something right. I was so excited about the project I had come up with that I was more upset to realize that it was 7, and I still had a 45 minute drive home.

I was excited to get to school today so that we could start the project. I put so much time and effort and imagination into the whole thing that I just wanted to share it with the students.

It had been a tough week, and because of their behavior, we were doing mostly book work so they could figure out how to act/behave in  a classroom. I just wanted to do something fun and something they could enjoy, while still learning.

I feel renewed. I feel like I am in the right career and I’m excited about what’s to come.

Now, ask me during testing time and you may need to remind me of this little post.No Child Left Behind is terrible, but I won’t get on my soap box tonight.

I was in the best mood. I was so excited. I wanted to call everyone I knew to tell them about it. Granted, most people wouldn’t see any excitedment about a project for 8th graders about adverbs and adjectives. But I guess it’s the small things.

Also, the fact that our engagement announcement was in the newspaper may have added to my over-joyed mood.

I am so excited for this wedding that is in 2.5 months. I want to put up a picture of what my boquet will look like, but it won’t let me. Still working on this blogging stuff.

I started this thinking I had more to say, but I am exhausted. I’ll get more sleep and do better tomorrow.

New Teacher. New Wife.

This first post is stressing me out.

Not sure where to start. What to say. Where to stop.

So I will probably ramble. Bear with me. Hopefully they will become more cohesive as I get the hang of this.

So here goes.

Being sick is never fun. It’s even worse when you’re the teacher. I’ve been struggling to fight off something, but it won’t go away. I went to school Monday and Tuesday, but today I woke up and thought there was an elephant sitting on my chest, so I decided to stay home.

Most people think, “Hey. Even though I don’t feel good, I get a day at home to rest.” Well, when you’re in a job where others rely on you, it gets a little more complicated.

First off, I had to wake up early enough to call the person who calls substitutes. I felt so guilty calling in. I felt like she was thinking, “This girl isn’t sick. She just wants a day off.”

I’m not like that.  Not that I don’t want days off, but I am such a rule-follower, that it takes a lot for me to stay home. I’ve felt guilty all day long. Why?? Who knows.

Then, I had to e-mail in my sub plans because I obviously didn’t plan on not being there. Remind you, all of this at like 5:30am when I can’t breathe, my head is pounding and all I want to do is go to sleep.

I type out this long extravagent e-mail with all the details any sub would need. I press send….and my e-mail server timed me out.

I spent about 20 minutes on this darn e-mail and it gets erased.

I almost started crying. I considered just letting the sub figure out something on his/her own, but I decided I couldn’t be that mean to someone who is stepping in to take over my classes. (I’ll explain more about the little angels demons I teach.)

I rewrote it. Kind of. I definitely didn’t put all the details in it like I had the first time. All day I have worried about if I forgot something.

So much for rest and relaxation.

And what happened to getting taken care of while sick? I miss being a little kid and your mom set you up on the couch. She would put in my favorite Disney movie and bring me peanut butter sandwiches or juice or medicine and hang out with me all day. Now, I have to do it all myself.

Well, not entirely by myself. My fiance did try to help out while he could. Poor thing is trying to finish his master’s (he started in August and will be done by this August. Yes, probably about 2 weeks before law school starts. He’s a champ.) But, he had a day class and a night class and a quiz in both, so he needed to study.

So tomorrow, no matter what, it’s back to school for me. I will probably stay late to finish up on some things because I don’t do well when I try to do them at home. I usually get distracted. Most the time, by this cute boy I know…

*Note: I am taking the route of some other bloggers that I follow. I don’t think I will be revealing who I am for several reasons. 1. I am a teacher. I don’t need students/parents/colleagues finding this. I want to be able to vent about different things and not worry about who knows me. 2. My fiance is a very private person and he would not want his personal life spilled for everyone to see, especially when we are about to start a new chapter in a new place. I’m sure something will slip here and there, but I am trying to be anonymous. We’ll see how it goes.

Off to iron clothes for tomorrow and get some rest. Goodnight!

New teacher/wife

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