A year of knowns, and unknowns

Well it’s a new year and one filled with exciting expectations. Eric, will graduate from high school. I will finish my Bachelors. Max comes home this year. Emily turns 16. Brian turns 25. My grandparents are going on a mission, and we have a few baptisms to look forward to this year. But for now, all that seems like an eternity away. I started my student teaching experience this week, and am finding that 1^st grade is extremely difficult. I am doing a 6 week stint in 1^st grade and another 6 week run in 6^th grade, so I will have the joyous experience to experience both extremes. I am so glad I am doing 1^st grade first though. It would be so hard to go from older students then teach younger ones. There about a bizzilion transition and their attention span is about 20 minutes long. By the end of the day, I am completely exhausted and I don’t even teach the whole day yet. Luckily, I have a wonderful teacher that is so supportive and has so many great ideas for me. She makes sure I know what’s going on, and gives me many opportunities to step in and do more teacher things. It will be interesting to see how this semester goes, but I keep telling myself, 3 months! I am almost there. After doing this stupid schooling for 5 years, I am sort of getting burnt out. I am trying to decide if I should take a break after I graduate, or if I should just go out and get a job. I should be able to get a pretty good one at Bates, where I am at now; I am the only student teacher there that will be in need of a job. The other woman there already has an offer at a different school, so that would be grand. Plus the school is the top elementary in the district. It’s wonderful. Best option would be to find a part time teaching gig somewhere. I don’t know what will happen in a few months, but I am looking forward to it with excited anticipation. Hope all goes well. Wish me luck.