Back to School

  It's that time of year again!! Cleaning, moving around furniture, boxes, and books, meeting after meeting, then finally greeting 19 smiling, and sometimes crying, little faces. The first couple weeks of school are always a whirlwind of chaos, excitement, planning, and primping. I find myself full of energy, but ready to drop at the end of the day. It's a good kind of tired though.
  Already, I can say that I love my class. They are bright, funny, energetic and engage easily in the daily lessons. It's going to be a great year! I have seven girls and twelve boys. Almost half the children in my class have names that begin with J. I have an autistic child, two children with speech issues, one child with a deformed arm that does not slow her down one bit, and a variety of other personalities. My days will never be boring!!
  This year brings a lot of changes to our school and our whole system... new common core standards, new staff, new procedures and new evaluations. I'm ready for most of the changes and preparing for the others. I know I am going to love the new standards we are teaching. They are much more in-depth and really allow us to TEACH!!!!! Finally!! No more just scratching the surface. The timing is perfect, since they raised the bar for end of the year reading levels in kindergarten.
  The other big change is teacher evaluation... we are all being evaluated 4 times a year if you have a professional license and six times if you are just an apprentice. It's all good though.. I'm ready!
Bring on the new standards, bring on the evaluations and bring on the kids... it's time to rock and roll!!

Home again, home again!

I made it! I left the hospital Tuesday afternoon with six small incisions. After a bumpy ride home, who knew Nashville decided to add so many bumps and holes, I am recovering from my surgery with my best friend, DeDe, playing nursemaid. Everything is going well. My only discomfort is the trapped air they filled me with and trying to adjust to smaller sips and spoonfuls. I feel my energy getting better every day. I'm actually surprised at how fast I am bouncing back. The doctor said I have no real restrictions.. no weight lifting yet, but otherwise, I'm free to do whatever doesn't hurt. If it hurts, stop.
I weighed myself this morning and have already lost 6 pounds!
Here is my first progress picture. Warning, it's a picture of my incisions.