Taking A Leap

I am not a person in love with change.

Or risk.

Or leaps of faith.

However, although I don't love those moments in my own life,

I'm crazy about them in pop culture.

Ariel trading her tail for legs...

...Jim kissing Pam...

... Harry leaving with Hagrid after hearing,

"Yer a wizard, Harry."

I love that first meeting between Harry and Hagrid SO MUCH.

So when no classroom job turned up

 where I could put my spankin' new credential to use, 

I went ahead and took the PE job I was offered.

Take a chance, I thought.

Make a leap.

What's the worse that could happen?

Plenty.

This little angry piggie is the closest image to how I felt.

I was exhausted, chronically dehydrated, and only working two days a week.

Plus!  I only got to see the kids ten minutes or so at a time,

since I team-taught.

Stop, kids!  I want to talk about what you did this past summer!

A big reason I got into teaching was because I like hanging around kids!

I wanted more that the few minutes I got, for example, to discuss with one little girl

why she thought her sister was a squib.

Poor Filch.  And poor sister.

I thought I was stuck with my job,

but I got a call to interview for a part-time teaching job,

and realized that available jobs were appearing again on the websites.

I applied to several, interviewed, and yay!

was hired as a part-time "push-in" teacher in a kindergarten class.

Zoidberg shares my glee.

What exactly the new job entails, I'm not sure.

But I know I need to take a leap, 

if I'm going to move on to the next stage of my life.

Library To The Rescuuuuuuue!

So.  Like I said.

I'm back in school.

But it's spring break! 

Wooooo!!!

However, I'm not spending it boozing or showing off my bosoms.

Instead, I'm catching up on my blog!

Woooooo!!

Anyhoo, today I'm talking about teaching.

Specifically, teaching supplies.

A lovely new teacher came to one of my teaching classes last week,

and explained that when she got to her brand-new classroom 

at the beginning of the year?

It was empty.

And when I say "empty," I mean
e-m-p-t-y.

She wasn't just in charge of getting cutesy stuff for her bulletin boards...

...she also had to somehow wrangle her own dictionaries.

She told us how she's been getting items through Donor's Choose,

but that's crazy, right?

Having to depend on the kindness of strangers
for basic teaching supplies?

Let me tell you,
when folks say that education's problems can't be solve by

 "throwing money at it,"

I roll my eyes Liz Lemon-style so hard it's a wonder they don't

fall out of my head.

So, yeah.  I've started amassing supplies now for my future classroom.

I hit the sales and dollar bin at Target,

but the best source of classroom books?

The used bookstore in my local library!

Just look at what I've found!

I found some sweet Golden Books for my Little Free Library...

... some nonfiction, poetry, and a cool dragon "handbook"...

... Calvin and Hobbes! Yay!!!

Both old friends...

... and new.

  
Crazy bargains, like these books on tape for FIFTY CENTS EACH...

... and these pristine, hardback copies of the My Father's Dragon trilogy.

The one on the right?
One dollar.
The one on the left?

FIFTY CENTS.

Look what they originally cost!

And yep, I even found some class dictionaries in excellent condition,
ranging in price from fifty cents to a measly three dollars.

SCORE!!

Bottom line:  I don't have the patience to spend my weekends
 combing yard sales for bargains for my house.

But when it comes to my future classroom?
I'm happy to visit the library used bookstore weekly.
Because, as any teacher knows:

Well, I Thought it Was Hilarious

I've been working with kids for over twenty-five years,

and I always say:  it may be hard, but it's never boring.

Case in point:

D. ran up to me yesterday afternoon, yelling

"I lost my tooth!"

"How exciting!" I said, because it is.

Kids never get blasé about losing a tooth.

"No, I LOST my tooth!  It fell on the ground!!" he continued,

and after I told him Go find it!

he ran off, hands flapping, hollering Auuuuuuugghhh!!! as he searched for his lost tooth.

And I laughed and laughed.

ALSO...

I spent the morning photographing my three new Harry Potter quilts!

Here's a taste of the first one:

Keep an eye on my shop for the other two, coming soon!