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...