Quote

"Never stop believing in your hopes and dreams."

Just fits... love it.

The move

I have officially moved to Wolf Point, MT!  I am excited to be here but it is definitely different from suburban life!  :)

Since I am officially a teacher now, not a student teacher, I will be starting my Teaching blog soon so keep an eye out for that gem!  :)

Tomorrow is the big day!

Tomorrow I head away from Washington for the next 5 months.  Wow!  I have never been out of the state that long!  

I am really excited to start this next chapter in my life with a real job and a classroom (and rental home) of my own.  It is sad to leave all my friends and family but the people seem super nice so I am hopeful that I will make friends out there.  It is nerve wrecking to think that I will be all by myself out there (kind of in the middle of nowhere!).  But it will be an experience... for better or worse, the long days, the successes, the students I impact, the chapter in life.  It will be a great learning experience in so many ways and I look forward to sharing it with you!  Wish me luck!

2 days...

Oh my goodness is time just soaring by me!  I now only have 2 days left until the big move.  And really it feels like tomorrow because we are renting the U-haul tomorrow and loading up everything.  It will be nice for my parents to have a clean garage (since my stuff has been taking up the majority of it for some time now!).  But it is getting a little weird to think I will be living half way across the US all alone.  :)  I am sure things will be fine and after school starts it will be easier to make friends and all but still... :)

I have been buying things like crazy (it seems like between a house and a brand new classroom it never ends!) but most of the stuff is the basics that cost a lot because they are all start up costs.  The nice thing about that is that I won't have to buy all of it again next year because it is stuff that can be reused over the years.  I am also excited to see my classroom and spend a day sorting through things to see what is really there for me to use.  That way if I choose to make a trip into Billings (yes, the closest town with shopping is 4.5 hours away) I can hit up the teacher store for some of the remaining things and the rest of the stores there for any last minute things.  

Plus, now I am trying to start wrapping my head around planning (not just decorating unfortunately!).  Since there are science and math curricula set up for me I am mostly focusing on reading workshop at this point.  The main focus at the beginning of the year is to make sure that I find a way to assess where the students are at (in terms of reading level and ability) so I know where to focus my instruction.  The district doesn't provide any assessments used throughout the school and when students are in 5th grade they have access to AR so until then, we come up with it on our own.  Yikes!  Good thing I have all of those books from my literacy methods classes at WWU.

4 days left

Wow!  I cannot believe I move in 4 days.  Things are moving so quickly but it is really exciting to be started at my first real job.  I am sad to be leaving my friends here in Washington but it is that time in life where some old things have to be traded for new ones.  And thankfully technology will keep us close together anyway!  :)  

Well, the packing and organizing and cleaning must continue... this is really starting to hit me that I am moving!  :)

One Week

I officially move in one week!  Goodness time is flying right by me.  Before I know it, the first day of school will be here!  Yikes!  Scary yet exciting to think about.  

I am pretty much packed up, though I do have some things to still box up.  I have a place to live (a 2 bedroom house!), and a moving truck reserved.  I have been working on class stuff for the past couple days so I have nametags, popsicle sticks, clothes pins, daily schedule titles and attendance nametags done.  Then comes laminating the whole works once I can get into Frontier.  :)  

In 9 days I will get to see my classroom (which I plan to take pictures of!) so that is super exciting for me.  My own classroom!  It is getting a little more real every day but it will really hit me when I get the keys and walk into my very own class.  So exciting!