A week before school

I've managed to find this page again finally so rather than to use my precious few remaining days until the first day of school to prepare the myriads of things I need to have ready, I'm going to choose to procrastinate and do this instead. (Maybe it was better when every minute of my day was accounted for by TFA...)

So after struggling to put together my $30 Walmart desk and stocking my fridge with my own groceries for the first time, I'm officially moved in to my new house in Gallup, NM. I have to type while kneeling on the floor and my bed constantly needs re-inflating, but it's home. Our house even has a name: the "astrobode" - thanks to our astro-turf "lawn" that makes our place famous in the TFA circle. We've become a home for the corps member vagrants who are still looking for places to live, so every time I walk in there are new people setting up camp in our front living room. Makes for an interesting time.

My friend and I were joking about "adult points" earlier today, and I realized that I've been gaining quite a few this last week: opening up a bank account in town, grocery shopping for myself, starting a new career, getting insurance, paying bills/rent, etc. That probably doesn't seem like much to people who've been living in an apartment since their sophomore year of college, but this is all new to me. One of the downfalls of being an RA - falling behind on "real world" experiences. I bought chicken breasts and a sack of potatoes at the store before returning home and realizing I had no idea what to do with them. I moved the chicken from the fridge to the freezer and back at least 3 times before I finally consulted more veteran cooks for advice. I decided I'd make something potato-y the other night until I remembered I didn't have a peeler. There are a lot of basic household items like this that are easy to forget about until you need them.

In terms of the teaching aspect of things, I now have a classroom and was finally able to track down my principal - I'm pretty sure he's been avoiding me for the past few weeks. But I now know that I will be teaching 6th and 8th grade Social Studies (inclusion), 6th grade Math (inclusion), and 6th grade Language Arts (resource room). It was really strange today, meeting a few of my fellow faculty members who look old enough to be my parents and running into students who barely look younger than me. A few stopped into my room when I was setting up and asked if I was the new teacher. They looked maybe 2 years younger than me, even though they were 7th graders. They asked my name, and I was momentarily stumped. I knew I should say "Miss Handtke," but that sounded like such a joke to me while facing people who looked like my peers. I wanted to respond with my first name, but I figured that would break protocol. After awkwardly hesitating for a few seconds, I decided to compromise with an awkward response of my full name. Haha, I need to get better at this "authority figure" thing. I'm sure it will come more naturally when I have kids in my desks and I'm standing at the front of the classroom...I hope. I got a haircut today, so hopefully now I can pass for 18 or 19 years old...that will put at least a few more years difference between my students and me. :)

And that's been my life lately. Training starts this Monday and my first day of school is the 17th. I feel completely unprepared and in over my head, but I also felt a huge tingle of excitement today when seeing my classroom for the first time. I've been waiting for this for a while.

Hope you all are doing well and thanks for checking up on me. Let the teaching begin...