Thursday, February 07, 2008

I got a job!

Hoo-frickin-yay! I must tell you, I hate not working. That is not a lie. Don't get me wrong, I do love time for myself, time to cook and craft and hang out, I do! But when that is all there is, and all that time spent in school is wasted and your brain is rotting, you get a bit pathetic. I've been living in the land of pathetic for a while now.

Thank God for Monday! I went in for an interview at 11:00 and was working by 2. I started teaching another class the next day and had a full schedule the next with no rosters, no curriculum, nothing. A bit off, yes, but all good! It's a tiny multicultural charter school, so basically it is as far from Scituate as you can be! These kids have been without a full time English teacher for months, so they have basically wasted a whole school year so far. We have lots of catching up to do. It's wild and unstructured and nothing like I'm used to, but I'm digging it so far. And the kids are so cool. They all have these beautiful names that I struggle to pronounce, like Nadjeama and Ahma'a. Plus I get to work with little ones for the first time! I have one-on-one reading with first graders a few hours a day, and they are so cute I just want to take them home with me. Don't worry though, I won't! A few at once is great, but a whole room of them I couldn't handle.

Now I'm full speed ahead creating my own curriculum with very few materials, trying to figure out new state standards and get these kids ready for state testing in a few weeks, learning how to pronounce African and Arabic names, sorting out a whole bunch of new personalities, figuring out who can't read at grade level or speak fluent English yet, and still get home to cook dinner. Phew. Should be an adventure.