We closed on the house on Wednesday and moved in that night. The next four days were spent frantically unpacking and shopping/buying appliances (also, desperately missing the Internet!). Last night, we got the living room, kitchen, and bedroom looking in tip-top shape then threw the rest of the boxes into one of the other bedrooms. Outta sight, outta mind... right?
Today I started my first day of school. Well, more like the beginning of in-service week before the kids show up next Monday. I could bore you with all kinds of details like how I'm teaching 4th/5th and how I have my very own pull-out classroom for my deaf/hard-of-hearing students. I could tell you haunting nightmares of the DISASTROUS state of my new room and how the overwhelming sense of "no-way-will-I-be-prepared-for-kids-by-Monday" reduced me to tears. I could tell you about my friendly co-workers and how the jury is still out on whether or not I'll like the principal.
But instead I'll tell you about the incident that sticks out the most in my mind today. I went out for lunch with the art teacher and with one of the other deaf ed. teachers who is also new (and a first year teacher!). I'll call her Jane. Jane is slightly younger than I am and she has lived in this state her whole life. She was telling me and the art teacher the disastrous state of her own classroom when she walked in last week:
"There were hundreds of transparencies and note cards covering the floor! Broken crowns everywhere!"
I snapped to attention as I tried to figure out why there would be crowns on the floor. Burger King crowns? Happy Birthday crowns?
She continued: "and it was too bad about the crowns, because I don't have any of my own and Kindergartners really love to color and write with them."
As the realization hit me that she was actually saying crayons, I felt truly out of place. My version of normal pronunciation is clearly all wrong down south!! I stopped myself just in time from saying what I was thinking: "Ohhhhhhhhhh... you mean CRAY-ONS!!"
They talk funny down here :)
From Nightgown to Night on the Town
10 hours ago
5 comments:
Never mind how they talk! You're good at language learning!!! Mom
hi-LA-RIOUS!!!! Holy moly. I can just hear it already.
Ya'll best wartch out, er ya'lls be talkin' like that soon 'nuf! :)
Hang in there Sarah--you'll see how God will enable you to "get 'er done!" with extraordinary time and energy and efficiency! I wish I could come down there and put my organizing skills to town for you... Just keep remembering "this too shall pass" and then you'll have everything in place and things will be back to normal, as far as "normal" goes in a teacher's life... :)
I can completely understand about being overwhelmed. They use my room for summer school and when I went back to set up last year, I was horrified by the words I was scrubbing off all the furniture.
Hang in there though. I am sure you will be ready. I know the teacher who does pull out in my building does not start until the second week of school. Do you have to start the pull out right away?
And, yeah, it might take some time to adjust to the accent.
The southern drawl has a magical way of creeping in...next thing you know, your northern friends will be laughing at your accent! :)
Love Brenda
You may soon have to learn spanish to teach in Texas. Adios amigo.
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