The last month has been a bit of a blur really. The Fulbright Commission made us wait until the last possible second before they put us out of our misery. They pushed back the announcement date a further week and when judgement day finally arrived they held out until 4pm before sending the email with our fate.
I was lucky, they had found me a match! When the email arrived, I was sitting in the waiting room at the dentist and I had to fight hard to resist the urge to demonstrate my victory dance to the other patients. My dentist was stunned at the change in me because usually I am an awful patient. She had never seen me so happy in her chair!
I've been paired with a lovely teacher from a school in Homewood, Alabama, where I will teach a 4th grade class. There are so many things to learn about the US education system and I'm going to have to adjust to having the same class of cherubs all day long. I've never been to Alabama and I'm so excited to learn more about my new home. I'll be there for the school year and I hope to travel some before I return to the UK the following year.
So what next? Well, I've been drowning under a small rainforest of paperwork for the last few weeks but I think I'm mostly up to date for now. Now I need to wait on some medical tests before visiting the US Embassy and sorting out my visa. My lovely partner and I are swapping long detailed emails, and skyping when we can, to get to know both each other and the job we will have to do. I'm taking this opportunity to gut and clear the tat from my flat before I go and I'm spending as much time as I can with my family and friends.
I have no doubts that the year to come will be a hugely rewarding and fascintating experience and I'm very excited about 'The Big Move'. I have so many things to organise before I go that I've got lists for my lists and my penchant for buying stationary has paid off in spades. I'm begging friends for advice about living in the US, so if you've got any golden nuggets, leave me a comment below ;-) I'm off to make another list!
96 days and counting...The game is afoot!
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Saturday, 24 April 2010
I'm walking on sunshine
Isn't it glorious?
God I love the sunshine! Life is brighter and clearer, it's easier to get out of bed in the mornings, and walking to work is just a joy.
That's right folks, I'm back to work, and I've had a fab week. I can't believe how much all my cherubs have grown while I've been away, and it seems that some of them have even missed me as much as I have missed them.
The one thing my long illness has taught me, is that life, and particularly your health, is a very precious commodity and we need to take more care with it. With this is mind, I decided to spend some of my Easter holidays figuring out ways to reduce my stress and my work load. I needed to find more balance in my life.
My first big decision was to keep weekends sacred. No more marking, or planning or worrying about the small fry on a saturday or sunday. This was quickly followed with work ends at 5pm. No more staying in my classroom til 6pm, then carrying on working at home after tea. If it's not done by 5pm, it needs to wait until the next day.
If these decisions were going to be viable I needed to get organised, so I sacrficed two days and went into work. I tidied the classroom, throwing away the junk left by multiple supply teachers and the general detritus you find in the wake of 9yr old children. With a clean fresh room, I turned my attention to getting the cupboards in order and getting a jump on the term's planning.
I was lucky enough to have my teaching assistant give up some of her time to come in and work with me and between us we got the first few weeks sorted out. It made such a huge difference to know that I was riding the wave of work, rather than drowning under it.
So starting back was that little bit easier and the children were mostly on their best behaviour. As always when children ar involved, comedy is never far behind. I love the funny little things that I hear and this week has been no exception.
I was teaching about negative numbers, using money and overdrafts to try to make it relevant to real life. I stood at the board and said "I have £10 in my account and I spend £25 at amazon, what am I left with?" Quick as a flash, one of my world weary 9 yr olds said "Debt! That's when the loan sharks come in!"
On Friday, I was really pleased to see all hands in the air, and every child getting involved. I was teaching French and we were just starting to learn about telling the time. The children were suggesting words we would need to learn like midday, midnight, afternoon etc. All was going well until I asked Bob to share his word with the class.
"Miss Glass! That man over there is in the shower and you can see EVERYTHING!!!!"
Yup, my classroom overlooks a side road and it seems we can see right into the house on the end. You would think that since they overlook a school they'd have checked their windows were sufficiently frosted, but apparently this was not the case.
I love my job!!
God I love the sunshine! Life is brighter and clearer, it's easier to get out of bed in the mornings, and walking to work is just a joy.
That's right folks, I'm back to work, and I've had a fab week. I can't believe how much all my cherubs have grown while I've been away, and it seems that some of them have even missed me as much as I have missed them.
The one thing my long illness has taught me, is that life, and particularly your health, is a very precious commodity and we need to take more care with it. With this is mind, I decided to spend some of my Easter holidays figuring out ways to reduce my stress and my work load. I needed to find more balance in my life.
My first big decision was to keep weekends sacred. No more marking, or planning or worrying about the small fry on a saturday or sunday. This was quickly followed with work ends at 5pm. No more staying in my classroom til 6pm, then carrying on working at home after tea. If it's not done by 5pm, it needs to wait until the next day.
If these decisions were going to be viable I needed to get organised, so I sacrficed two days and went into work. I tidied the classroom, throwing away the junk left by multiple supply teachers and the general detritus you find in the wake of 9yr old children. With a clean fresh room, I turned my attention to getting the cupboards in order and getting a jump on the term's planning.
I was lucky enough to have my teaching assistant give up some of her time to come in and work with me and between us we got the first few weeks sorted out. It made such a huge difference to know that I was riding the wave of work, rather than drowning under it.
So starting back was that little bit easier and the children were mostly on their best behaviour. As always when children ar involved, comedy is never far behind. I love the funny little things that I hear and this week has been no exception.
I was teaching about negative numbers, using money and overdrafts to try to make it relevant to real life. I stood at the board and said "I have £10 in my account and I spend £25 at amazon, what am I left with?" Quick as a flash, one of my world weary 9 yr olds said "Debt! That's when the loan sharks come in!"
On Friday, I was really pleased to see all hands in the air, and every child getting involved. I was teaching French and we were just starting to learn about telling the time. The children were suggesting words we would need to learn like midday, midnight, afternoon etc. All was going well until I asked Bob to share his word with the class.
"Miss Glass! That man over there is in the shower and you can see EVERYTHING!!!!"
Yup, my classroom overlooks a side road and it seems we can see right into the house on the end. You would think that since they overlook a school they'd have checked their windows were sufficiently frosted, but apparently this was not the case.
I love my job!!
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