**Please note that I have been drafting this post since mid-September...yes, it's been that crazy.**

I miss my blog world. I miss my mornings with my sweet, sweet Jack. The time that I had with him went by so fast. During those amazing seven months, I didn't want to be anywhere else except for right next to him. Things are so different now. Brian spends the mornings with him while I entertain the thought of not having any behavioral problems...the thought quickly diminishes when I hear the students leave the lunchroom and make way to their first period class. Australia was covered in a huge dust storm the other day. A normally sunny and beautiful Sydney sky was covered in red dirt.

I like to think of my school that way.

It is so clear and beautiful when I sit in my room to plan...and then, just like that huge red cloud crept over Australia and settled itself, the first bell rings and the students slowly creep in and flood the halls, classrooms, bathrooms, etc. and there is no longer clear thoughts or clear visions....it all becomes very cloudy. I am learning that at this school, it is one thing after the next, after the next, after the next. It may take me ten minutes to get the kids focused and ready to start class, and then another five minutes to remind them that they should have paper and a pen out, and then another five while they retrieve their supplies, and now twenty minutes has gone by and I can finally begin my lesson...only to be interrupted by the guidance counselor who needs tests and homework and such for a student who might be referred to this thing or that and then after the first interruption another five more minutes to settle the class again only to hear the phone ring and have the In-House teacher asking me for work for this student or that student, and yet another five minutes later and I have all of 15 minutes to teach a Before strategy, During strategy, and an After strategy, while covering the course of study objectives and ARMT specs. Did I mention that our class periods are only 45 minutes? (yes, I know those sentences were grammatically incorrect...) Did I mention that I have had a desk tossed at me and I have stood in the middle of two, bigger than me, girls during my 8th grade English class and broke up a fight that they were about to start?

I'm brave.

Not really. Not really brave at all. Most of the evenings are spent in a fetal position rocking back and forth telling myself and praying that God put me at this school for a purpose, a purpose greater than I will ever understand, I'm sure.

Don't misunderstand my thoughts here, I am being a little cynical...I need this break. It is now Fall Break and I am so thrilled to be home with my husband and son during this week. I need to recover. I need to cope with some of the things I have been faced with. I am such a naive little girl that has never lived in the kind of homes that some of my students live in...I need this break to breathe and decide what Jackson's 1st birthday party theme will be and scrub my baseboards...I love to clean my baseboards...I am happy that it is finally here...I am ready for this break. It only occurred to me just two weeks ago that I need this week to refocus and dedicate my thoughts to my God and our family...oh, just to get a grasp on things again...
I love the school that I teach in, I love the students that are in my class, I love the fact that I am at this school instead of being at any other...but I need this break.

I hope to post pictures this week of the past month. Jack is so big.

So cute.

It is easy to forget that I am so very blessed.

School Rules

I can't even begin to explain the amazing challenge of teaching at my new school. It really is an amazing challenge. I don't even think those two words do this school and my experience thus far any justice. I can tell you that I am in love with teaching! Each day is like Christmas morning. Every class period is a new package, wrapped so very nicely just for me. Some presents are good and some presents aren't that good...you wouldn't want to re-gift the bad presents!Just like Christmas, sometimes it all goes exactly the way your family hopes and sometimes it doesn't. I literally take each day as it comes.
Today I am staying late to get ahead...can you tell I'm really getting ahead?


After typing that sentence, I returned to my school work and did not complete the blog. I guess I snapped out of it. It is all I can do to keep my head above water these days. Fortunately, my time staying late on Tuesday allowed me to be able to finish my post this morning. Thursday. Nonetheless, I am caught up with my lesson plans for the week and this makes me so, so happy. I don't think I realized that I would be teaching FOUR different preps when school started. I was too focused on the fact that I got the job!! Two weeks into school, It became so clear to me, as if it were slapping me in the face every 5 minutes, how far behind I really was!
An establish teacher can go to their millions upon millions (slight exaggeration) of lesson plans, make a few copies and be set for the week. Not this gal. Nope. Everyday is a new day! I am so happy that I am ahead, even if it is only by one day!