That's right folks, it's starting to get real. Realer than real. (Is realer even a word?! I MIGHT be making things up now). July is quickly slipping away and the closer we get to the end of the month, the closer I get to being a legitimate teacher with real students and things. (OH MY GOSH!) Most of me is super excited. Then the rest of me (like 10 percent) is super nervous. I've never had a classroom all to my own before! ( I guess that's why they call it your first year of teaching, huh?) But, alas, I'm getting ahead of myself in explaining the excitement. I should start at the beginning.
You know the part about graduating college, that one happened in May and I already shared that story. I still can't believe it sometimes. And until yesterday when I opened my mailbox and saw my beautiful new diploma I really couldn't believe it. That's right, yesterday I got my official diploma, stating that I was officially a graduate of the University of Arizona and had fulfilled the requirements for a Bachelor's of Music degree in "Music Education- Instrumental Emphasis" (That's what it says on the diploma, and it sounds so official- I just had to write it here.) Woah. Now I just need to get a pretty frame so I can hang it up in my classroom as proof that I really do (theoretically) know what I'm doing. :)
THEN, last week, I finally was able to go get my certification. This piece of paper that says I have passed all of the requirements to be certified was a whopping $90. Holy Crap! I about had a heart attack. That is one piece of paper I will be holding near and dear so as to NEVER lose it. I'm pretty sure the replacement fee is significantly less, but I don't care. Losing a $90 piece of paper is like losing your phone, or laptop or something. Basically, not an option. And with those two documents, I'm officially a teacher in the state of Arizona. Which just feels insane. And so awesome. This, my dears, is what we call "living the dream." And I haven't even told you about today yet!
So, today, I went to my classroom to get some work done. I still have SO much organizing, and going through stuff to get done; but let me tell you, today we made some headway. The wonderful Band/Orchestra teacher at my school and my former cooperating teacher met me and we tackled that classroom and took no prisoners. They were an ENORMOUS help, like throwing away about 6 bags full of trash and a stack of old magazines as tall as me help. We went through just about everything in that room and decided if it was worthy of being kept or just too old for caring. Some of that stuff has been around since the year I was born. That's 23 years of accumulating dust. Wowzers. Thanks to those lovely ladies, I have so much less to do! But that's not even the exciting part. ( I know what you're thinking- wait, there's more?!) After a nice chat with my principal, I came to discover that my login information and email address are finally set up! Okay, so maybe that's not that exciting to you, but basically it's the coolest thing ever to me. Other than signing a contract, I feel officially part of the Flowing Wells family. And I can log into my computer at school now, which is awesome. I'm excited to spend some time playing with various SMART board lessons now, which I couldn't do when I couldn't log onto that computer. So all in all, a GOOD day.
It's hard to believe that in 3 short weeks, I'll be going to my first day of EEI training and then a week after that, I'll have students in my classroom. And they will be mine. Not students I'm borrowing, but actually MY students. Unreal and so exciting. I just can't wait.
Not to worry, I'll keep you as updated as I have time for... I'm going for a first day of school post- but I suppose that will depend on how busy I am. It's kind of funny, because all of this classroom prep really reminds me of RA training week, when I spent every spare minute in my wing decorating and preparing for residents. The difference is that I'm preparing a classroom for learning and the "residents" are much younger. Oh, and they leave after their specials time is up. ;)
I'll try to post pictures of the classroom once it's all done. I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm starting to see it in my head a little bit more. And that's just so exciting.
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