something to remember when I'm a "seasoned" teacher

Yesterday was a very long but awesome day. I, and my amazing assistant ,started bright and early in our classroom. We labeled, organized and speculated. We also had 4 parent teacher conferences - 2 of which were in Spanish! God has been so good in helping me remember words. One of the Moms (who is doing well in learning English herself) told me I have a good Spanish accent. What a wonderful compliment!! Then, a little later in the day, one of the other pre-k teachers and her assistant came by to see if we needed any help setting up our classroom. They were so wonderful. To be honest, they didn't "do" much... we'd already done a lot, and I'm still horrible about doling out tasks on the fly. They ended up putting up paper and border on our 3 bulletin boards, which was VERY helpful, but the lead teacher, Cindy, ended up doing more than any other teacher I've met yet. She told me many things she liked about the classroom. Then she asked me how I handle center time. After I explained it to her, she looked at her assistant and said, "We are going to do that!" (And today when I saw them again, they said they'd already made a chart like the one I use:)) Wow. To hear a teacher, who has been teaching for many years, say that she is going to use my idea made my teacher ego soar! I had some issues last year with my new supervisor telling me all the things she didn't like about my classroom, and not much at all about what she liked. I felt like I was a great teacher, but she made me have some doubts. Well, I've been finding my nitch the past couple of days. I like where I am, as a teacher, right now. I kind of have that "new teacher" excitement still because I've really only taught for 1.5 years, and I'm finally where I've wanted to be from the beginning. But, I'm about 4 years older than a brand new teacher would be, and I have a little bit of life experience under my belt. ;) I'm new enough that I've still got some "fresh ideas" to try out (and tell others about apparently!), but experienced enough to know about some things that work and don't work. So yeah... the past couple of days have been great. And I definitely need to remember when I'm a seasoned teacher and meeting young, doe-eyed teachers... find an idea they have, and adopt it! And be positive positive positive! Oh... and at our pre-k meeting today, Cindy was appointed as my "mentor." Hooray! The Lord is good, and His mercies endure forever! :-D

Mi escuela nueva!

*My new school!*

Ok, so after enough "encouragement" from my mother, I'm finally going to update you all on what's new in the life of Bonnie B! The biggest news is that I am finally teaching in Durham Public Schools. Since college (4 years ago!) I have wanted to teach in Durham. My whole vision when I came home from South Africa (gosh... almost 2 years ago now) was to "be" in Durham... live in Durham, work in Durham, and go to church in Durham. I always thought it was more difficult to invite people to come to church when it was pretty far away! By the grace of God, and in His true fashion "just in time," I got a call from the pre-k coordinator in Durham Public Schools. She called me the Sunday before I was to start teacher workdays for Orange County! It was a crazy, whirl-wind week, with me changing my mind every other day about what I wanted to do, but in the end, I knew it was finally my time to teach in Durham. There are some perks to Orange County's program that I will miss, like shorter days for the kids, a bilingual teacher in the room, and 3 adults in each classroom. I'm having to brush up on my Spanish, but yesterday I learned that I am capable of calling Spanish speaking parents and coordinating parent/teacher conferences! I was pretty psyched that the parents and I could communicate on the phone... maybe just in short, kindergarten sentences, but it's better than nothing! :) Maybe not having a bilingual teacher will be a plus - I'll be forced to relearn everything I used to know. I typically don't handle changes well... I know they are inevitable, but for some reason, they always catch me off guard. So the past couple of days have been somewhat difficult as I've tried to get to know some of the teachers, learn the policies and procedures of a new program, and reorganize my life around a new schedule. But the stress will be worth it I think. It may take me time to adjust, but I know I am where I am supposed to be for right now. And now... I have a whole notebook of salary and benefits papers staring at me, and they're not going to fill themselves out. Time to get some work done! Thanks for checking in...

finally painting!

After living in this house for about 14 months, I'm finally painting! Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I am waking up to go buy a few forgotten supplies. Then I'm going to paint the downstairs. What once was purple, will become a lovely pale yellow. I can't wait to see how the lighter color will brighten up the room! I'm excited to be at a point where I can start to do some "cosmetics" to the house. For the past year I've done nothing but fix and repair... There are definitely still some repairs that need attention, but they can wait. This little house deserve some pampering. ;) I got thinking the other day about how this house represents my life. I absolutely adore this house... even with its flaws (some minor, and some MAJOR!). It was in terrible shape when I bought it. It had sat empty for at least a year and a half. I had to clean from top to bottom. There were spider webs, bugs had taken up residence, and the whole house smelled of mildew. The water heater was on its way out, and decided to bust the first time we used it, the refrigerator died within 2 weeks, the heater/air conditioner has malfunctioned 4 times (at least), the kitchen flooded multiple times, the floor in the living room was caving in, and I could keep going... (really, I could!). There have been days when I simply wished for one week without something going wrong! So much has been done to this house. Today a friend of mine, who has heard about the house for a year now, but never seen it, came by for a visit. She came in and said, "what a cute house!" And my response was, "Yep, I sure do love it. I've had to do a lot of work on it, and there's still so much left to do, but it's mine, and I really do love it." :) You know... I can imagine God saying that about me sometimes. I was a mess when He bought me. He had to clean me up from head to toe. He's always having to clean up my messes and fix my broken pieces. I'm feel like there are some times when He wishes that I could go one week without something going wrong. And yet, He loves me. I am His, and He Has already taken care of every problem that may come my way. Nothing surprises Him. I can almost imagine Him chatting with the angels and saying, "There's my Bonnie. I sure do love her. I've had to do a lot of work on her, and there's still so much left to to, but she's mine, and I really do love her." :)