Endless planning

I have spent hours planning, shopping, and preparing for this coming school year. Only, to look at my plans and wonder how so little planning has taken me so long. Really I still am wondering exactly what I am going to be doing the first day of school.

Lucky for me I have 2 weeks left to be completely ready to welcome my students. I also am very fortunate to have many family members which have volunteered to help me. I hope that I will have it all ready by the 27th and really I only have to be ready for the first 6 weeks because after that I will be off-track for almost a whole month.

I have been having a lot of fun planning. It is so nice to enjoy what has to be done. (Maybe if I enjoyed house work it actually would get done.) Every day I get more excited about getting to start the year with my own class and getting to share with them the adventure of learning! No doubt about it God knew what he was doing when he directed me towards the path of teaching!

Teaching Job

Next year, I will be teaching 3rd grade at Hayden Peak Elementary in West Jordan, Utah.  Hayden Peak is a year round school and I will be teaching B track meaning that I will teach from July to July but will get long breaks throughout the year.  Hayden Peak is the school which I student taught at and which I have been long term substitute teaching at.   I love the school and I am really excited to now be an actual teacher at the school.

The first day I came back from vacation my principal, Dana, called me into her office and asked me how my vacation was.  Then, after a very quick interview she offered me the job.  It seems as if everything went so fast.  I know all the basics for next year but I am slowly learning all of the details.  I wish that new teacher orientation would come a bit quicker so I could figure out all of the little things I am wondering.  I know that I could ask the other teachers on my team but I don't want to be a pest.  I feel like I have to bother them enough already with all of my questions about how to do all of the end of the year stuff.  If I am still left with any questions after new teacher orientation I will ask the questions to them.  Hopefully by then I will also know who my mentor teacher is going to be and I can ask him/her the question which I need answers to.

I will be on a team with 8 other 3rd grade teachers.  We are a really large team and I am really curious to see how the team dynamics will change with the changes the team has gone through this year and will go through next year.  I really like the other teachers on the team and I am excited to have the opportunity to learn more from them as well as continue to teach along side them.

I have been saying for awhile that I would enjoy teaching 2nd or 3rd grade.  I love the third grade curriculum (and I can actually do the math which is a plus).  I can't wait to get to set up a classroom of my own from the beginning of the year.  It is a dream come true to me!

Vacation continued

After 3 beautiful days in El Yunque Rainforest, we are leaving today to tour Old San Juan and then we board our cruise ship! I wanted to get some pictures loaded before I am unable to use the internet for a week due to the high prices the cruise ship pays. However, due to us being in the rainforest and the internet being slow I could only upload a few pictures.

These flowers are all over the place. Some are just pink and some are pink and orange. They are huge are gorgeous! These cute little lizards are everywhere!

A Coqui frog. These little fellows made such a lovely sound which sang us to sleep ever night. This quy is on a brink. They are all small some are this translucent yellow, some are translucent green and some are translucent brown. They are quick and are very difficult to see even though you can hear that they are everywhere The beautiful view which I woke up to every morning. A little piece of heaven which we were able to take part in for a few days.

A coqui frog

The cute little lizards which were all over the place

El Yunque

We arrived in Puerto Rico today. It is so different here. Although this is a territory of the United States you would hardly know that from looking around. Everyone speaks Spanish, all the signs are in Spanish, no one knows how to drive and there is this amazing rain forest here.

We are staying at this little bed and breakfast in El Yunque National Forest which is a rainforest. This place is just the vacation which I needed. We were greeted by the owners, a very nice couple and their three dogs, and shortly after our arrival they had pina coladas ready for us. I can look out the window from my bed and see an amazing view of all of the different trees in a valley, if I look past the valley I can see the ocean. Off of my room is a balcony which has gardenia bushes(my favorite flower) at the end of it. I am typing this right now listening to the sound of coqui frogs (I even found one in the kitchen sink earlier!). And Shaun found a cute little lizard watching us from the mantel earlier. I can't wait to see what other little critters we will find on our hike to a waterfall tomorrow. I am so glad that we choose to start out our vacation by staying at here as I am sure to get some much needed relaxation and rest as I enjoy the nature around me.

I am excited as I think about what the rest of this vacation holds for us and I am so greatful that I get to spend this time with my family!

Change

I had no idea how much I struggle with change until the last week or so. I am currently approaching many changes- some good, some bad. As I watch these changes quickly approach I am not sure what to do about them. I feel like I should be excited about many of them and sad about others of them but instead I am just on a constant roller coaster ride of emotions.

Graduation should be a really exciting time, and don't get me wrong, I am excited about it but I can't help but feel a little sad as well. I am going to miss my friends from school with whom I have shared much time with over the last few years. I will miss visiting with them in the parking garage after classes as well as miss going out to lunch and laughing uncontrollably over experiences we have had while teaching. I am not the type of person who constantly needs many friends but I really value what friends I do have and Westminster College Education Students Class of '09- I will miss you greatly! I hope that we will continue to keep in touch! I can't imagine teaching without knowing that if I need anything all of you will be there!

The other change which I am struggling with is my position at work. This week is my last week as a supervisor at Starbucks so from now on I will just be a barista. As crazy as some people may think I am- I completely love my job at Starbucks! I love the people I work with, the store and all of our crazy customers! I am looking forward to getting to work more with my friends who are supervisors but I will miss the role that I have had for almost 3 and half years. I can't help but feel some ownership over this little store which I help open almost 4 years ago and I feel like I am losing some of the control and imput that I have had in helping it become the awesome store that it is today. I really hope that I will not feel the change to much but rather will just continue to enjoy my job as I know that my time at there is limited.

I was reminded recently that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.(Romans 8:28)" While I am dreading some of this changes I can't wait to see what God's plan for all of this is and I am so glad that I can trust him and his plan.