My Apartment

Well I made it through another week of school. Things are going really well there. I have 18 students in my seminar class now and they are coming out of their shells, lol. I have really been enjoying them!
Some of you have been curious about my apartment so I used my new BlackBerry to take a video of it today. Hopefully I can get it on here with no problems.




Ok so the video is not the best but maybe it gives the curious a hint of what the apartment looks like anyways, lol. I guess if you want to see more you'll have to come visit me! Take care everyone, I'll blog again soon :)

First Week of School

As my sis-n-law pointed out in a comment on the last Blog I have been slacking on my entries. I do not have cable or internet hooked up in the apartment yet. They are coming on Thursday to do that!!! Thank goodness, I knew I liked TV but I never knew I was a junky until I had to go without it for over 2 weeks. I was able to pick up someone's wireless signal when I sat on my balcony the first week I was here, but last Saturday I couldn't get the signal anymore. I think that person had their internet shut off, the nerve of them! lol. Yesterday I got a cool new blackberry phone and you are supposed to be able to use it as a modem to pick up the internet.

I was sitting at the pool writing the first part, but the security guard came to lock up the pool area so I had to leave the area. I was able to get enough dowloaded there to use the phone as a modem so I am happy that the phone is working to get me online!!!

The first week of school was really good. Unfortunately, since I am only part time right now, I only work every other day so I only worked Tuesday and Thursday this week. I will work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week and so on..... I am team teaching with my Mentor in 2 Freshman World History classes. She is very funny and we have a lot of fun together. I also have a freshman Seminar/Advocacy class. I have 17 ESOL students with 8 different countries represented. They were so cute the first day all scared and 'dear in the headlight' looking, lol. They wouldn't talk to me the first 30 minutes of class but then we did a couple of activities and they started warming up to me and each other. On Thursday they were very chatty, lol. I asked them on the first day if they would like me to read to them and enough of them voted that they did want me to read to them. Then I had them write down which book they would like me to start with and I had a tie New Moon and Breaking Dawn! For those of you who have never heard of these books they are the 3rd and 4th books in the Twilight series that is very popular right now. I was thrilled because I love the series and I just happen to own the series :) They seem like a great group of kids and I think it's going to be a great year with them!

The apartment is coming along nicely. I ordered the new couch today so I will be taking some more pictures soon of my little place. I will try not to be such a 'slacker' anymore now that I'm back on the internet :)

First Day at My New School

Yesterday was the first day at my new school. It was A LOT of fun! The principal made an announcement on the intercom at about 7:45 that we were all to line up in the G hall. We all (about 200 people) congregated to the G hall. When they opened the library doors they announced that we should have our I.D.'s ready. I was standing with other new teachers that I had met last week. We all looked at each other like, "oh no, we don't have our I.D.'s yet". Well they were only kidding about the I.D.'s. They had the library decked out like a club! Celebrate by Kool and the Gang was blaring and the principal greeted each one of us as we entered Club Southeast. There were party favors that said Happy New Year on all of the tables and there was an awesome spread layed out for breakfast. We listened to old R&B hits as we ate our breakfast and mingled. One of the teachers that I met last week introduced me to the other ESOL teachers. My boss (the director of the ESOL program at our school) sat with me and one of the other new teachers. After giving a little speech about how great this school year would be and introducing all of the new staff (there's a lot of us). He asked for 5 volunteers from the audience, my boss was one of them. He then explained that we would all be doing the Buffalo (school mascot) shuffle (Cupid shuffle). The 5 volunteers were to demonstrate the dance. Only one guy knew how to really do it so he basically demonstrated. Then we all had to get up and do the Cupid Shuffle. It was great! Thankfully it's one of the dances that I actually know! lol. During a break that morning my boss took me to the office and we got my I.D. badge and a key to our room. I was finally starting to feel like part of the staff. Since I was only hired 3 weeks ago, my name has been left off of most of the lists. I was beginning to wonder if I had actually been hired, lol. My boss took me to lunch and when we returned we started on the task of getting me a desk and where we would put it. We decided to put it in the ESOL conference room. Since I am only part time for now, I will not get my own classroom yet. I am going to be Power 2 teaching (team teaching) this first semester. I will be team teaching with another teacher for freshman World History. Ok, I know U.S. History and African American History, but I'm a little nervous about World History since I feel like I know NOTHING! I guess I will be learning very quickly. I will also have a freshman Seminar which will consist of all ESOL freshman. Next semester I will not be team teaching but will be teaching Sheltered World History which means I will have all of the freshman ESOL students taking World History. For now, I will be teaching every other day on even days. I will be available to substitute on the odd days and the other teachers seem excited about that. My boss really wants me to be full time so she will be pushing for that all year long. It's a matter of budget cuts within the district at this point. I at least have a desk and a place to put all of my things for now. Today was full of meetings and that will be the rest of the week also. I took a couple of pictures of my area. My boss and the other teachers keep calling me a God send. I've also been helping them hook up their computers so they are liking me already :)

my area

This seems like an up-beat but layed back school. We are even allowed to wear capris and flip-flops. Awwww my kinda school, lol. It should be fun when the kids get there next Monday!

Moving Day!

Yesterday was moving day. Mom showed up in Pittsburg a little after 9:00 a.m. and we(Tyler, Tyrell, mom, and I) started to load the U-Haul, her van, and my car. Well actually, Tyler and Tyrell did most of the loading. I'm a good director although they probably wouldn't agree with me :). It was almost 1:00 p.m. when we finally finished loading everything. Mom treated us to McDonalds before we got on the road (thanks again mom!). We arrived at the apartment in Wichita at about 4:45 p.m. I tried to run in and take some pictures before we started unloading, but my pictures are very dark. It's a new camera and apparently I don't know how to use it yet, lol. My friend Dena (who has been my friend since the summer before 4th grade), her husband Rick, and thier son Reid was here waiting on us when we arrived. Let me tell you that when Rick Bruce moves someone in, he doesn't mess around. Did I mention that in order to get an apartment with a fireplace that I had to move to the 3rd floor? Well, Rick is a very inventive man and he found that he could throw my things to the boys (Tyler, Tyrell, and Reid) if they stood on the 2nd floor landing to save climbing all the steps. It worked well, although I had a couple of little heart attacks when I saw my 20 something year old mirrored headboard and dresser mirror coming over the side of the 2nd floor landing, lol. In the end it worked out extremely well and Rick and the boys worked thier butts off in temperatures that I believe were over 100 yesterday. It did not take them long to get everything in the apartment. My friend Julia also showed up with her daughter Alyssa at the end. Rick even hooked up my washer and dryer, I love that guy! Now I have the daunting task of unpacking everything today. Thank you so much everyone for all of your help yesterday, I love you guys so much! Getting a little teary, lol. My grandpa really wanted to come with us yesterday, but then decided to come at a later time when the apartment is put together. Here are my dark pictures from yesterday and one I took this morning.

kitchen

2nd bedroom

my bedroom

This is the picture I took this morning. If I stand on my balcony and look to the right, this is my view. Yes, that is the river right there. I am soooo country!

I guess I should get busy unpacking, it's not going to unpack itself. Tomorrow I get to see the classroom where I will be teaching! The adventure continues...........stay tuned!

Getting Started

I am back in Wichita this week to get things started here. I signed the lease for the apartment today and took care of some other moving business. I also went to the Dr.'s appointment for my physical for school. I've got a processing meeting on Wednesday and then start new teacher orientation on Thursday and Friday. I'm going to head back to Pittsburg Friday evening and then load up the U-Haul Saturday morning and head back to Wichita for the BIG MOVE. I get to see my apartment Thursday so maybe I will remember to take some pictures and post them on here. This has definately been a roller coaster of emotions the last couple of weeks. I'm so excited to start my teaching job and work with kids from all over the world. I'm a little scared because I've never lived by myself or so far away from my family. I'm anxious to start a whole new life and finally start my career. I'm also sad to leave my boys behind and I will miss them so much. Finally, I am thankful to have such great people in my life as family and friends. It's a blessing to have so much support to start this new adventure. Thank you everyone!