School Days

In September school started for everyone around here. At the end of the last school year, I decided I was ready to go back to teaching. I thought this was the time.  All these thoughts were spurred by my children's school having a 1st grade position open.  In all honesty, I wasn't thrilled that it was 1st grade even though that is the grade I used to teach but I thought it was a start and at least I was completely qualified for this job.  I had teacher after teacher at Creekside telling me the job was mine.  I however didn't want to get my hopes up and I was having reservations that this really was the right time for me to be going back to teaching.  Well I applied, I interviewed, and they gave the job to someone else.  Ouch! 
It did feel good however that there were many a teacher who were outraged at this decision.  It hurt but I had prayed through the whole process that if this wasn't the time for me and my family than I didn't want anyone to offer me a job because if they did I would take it.  So that was my answer, crystal clear.  

About 2 weeks before school started, I got a call from the principal at Kaysville Elementary asking me if I would be interested in doing a long-term sub job for a 6th grade teacher who had been in a terrible car accident earlier that month. I would be responsible for getting the classroom ready for school to begin, all the lessons, contacting parents (as well as conducting back to school night - YIKES!), grades, etc.  In essence, I would be the teacher until further notice.  Due to the circumstances of accident recovery, no one knew exactly how long I would be there. And thanks to this not being a planned absence from school, there was absolutely no guidance from the regular teacher. I was really nervous to take on this responsibility because 1. it was 6th grade, you can't wing 6th grade 2. I only had 2 weeks to get ready and 3. I inherited a classroom that looked like this.

 This actually looks pretty good.  This picture was taken after 6 hours of cleaning.  It took me a full week to get things organized and looking presentable. 

With one week used to organize the class, I only had one week to figure out what I was going to teach. Which in reality was only a couple of days because of all the meetings that go on during the week before school starts. I was slightly freaking out.  But the first day of school came anyway.

The surprising thing was that when the first day rolled around I wasn't worried about my class but my kids.  Leaving that morning turned out to be much harder than I anticipated. I literally had to run out of the house that morning so no one would see me cry. JayDee stayed home until the kids were off to school so they could have a proper send off that first day.  Thank heaven! I love him. 
 My little scholars...

 
In the ensuing weeks we got into a solid routine, me and the kids, but I kept thinking, "I thought I was ready for this? I'm so glad this is temporary."  I had forgotten how really hard teaching is.  One perk? My class. They were fantastic! I immediately fell in love with them.  I really enjoyed every day we had together.  So much so, when their regular teacher told me she was ready to come back Oct. 1st I was bummed. I was excited to get my life back but I was going to miss my class.  

Our last day together was the school's Jog-a-thon.  We had a blast! Of course I ran with my class and they thought that was super cool because I guess teacher's don't regularly run it. We had lunch right after our run.  Here are some of my really hot and sweaty cuties. 
 

My class had also earned a reward that they were cashing in on that day. I call it Ipod Idol.  It is soooooo funny.  Someone picks a song off their ipod to sing, they wear their earphones so they can hear the music but no one else can, they are blindfolded to help with stage fright and then they sing. It was awesome!  In hindsight I should have recorded more these instead of just taking pictures but this is what is looks like. 

 

Even the boys got into it. They were the funniest because they didn't try to sound like the real singer like the girls did. 

This one was one of my favorites....

This was a perfect send off for me.  What a great group of kids.  This is the whole class before the Jog-a-thon showing off our class banner and their guns.  We had to make up a country/town to compete in the Jog-a-thon Olympics. Nice right? These guys crack me up.