Year One: was technically only half a year as I was hired in December to begin in January. I took over two different case loads as one teacher was on a mission and the other on adoption leave (that's like maternity leave but you adopted). I had 5 schools to get around to throughout the week, I worked with 3 incredible speech therapists, was a member of 6 teaching teams, and balanced a case load of 30 students (that's a full load).
Year Two: My first full year of teaching. I returned sun-kissed, in love, and feeling confident that I knew better what my job entailed and what was expected of me. The good news was that I would only have three schools and one Speech Pathologist counterpart (plus a rockin' mentor)! The wrench was thrown in when I found out all my schools were on the "west side", my caseload started at about 26 kids, I was working with crazy teachers, my Speech partner left in December and moved to Texas, and the majority of my parents only spoke Spanish (and when I say majority I mean 22 out of 26). The good news was they hired a Speech Pathologist who was a pleasure to work with and started in January hitting the ground running. That didn't fix the Spanish speaking issue...but we survived and no children were harmed during the making of that school year.
Year Three (ok 2.5): The present. The year has started out swell. I have a great counterpart. She is actually one of the Speech Pathologists I worked with my first year, my favorite team from the previous year is with me again this year, all of my parents speak English, all of my schools are on the "east side", and I'm working with a variety of children with a variety of needs.
So what's the catch? Well, this year....I have psycho parents. I'm way over-yonder-on-the-foothills-east side which means parents with $$, expectations, and too much time on their hands. These are the kind of parents who bring lawyers to the IEP meetings and the type who you only give your email address or the classroom phone number to so they don't call you all-the-live-long-day. I love their children, but the parents might be the death of me. I've already had three parents come in and scream at two of my lead teachers for things which they don't really have much control over. The "east side" is just an entirely different breed, and I have to admit that I'm a little intimidated by the parents. I know deep down they do it because they love their child and most of them are paying for preschool so they want what they consider is their moneys worth. So we roll with the punches and give them what we can. I think this will be a good year!
In other news: I'm in the process of applying to the University of Utah's Masters of Education program. I should be able to complete an M.Ed in Early Childhood Special Education within a year. I've always wanted to get my Masters, it's exciting to think another dream could come true. The application process is a little more involved (a career statement, three letters of recommendation...) but nothing impossible. Luckily I took the GRE while I was student teaching and my scores are good for 5 years (even more lucky is that when I called to see what scores they look for, mine were within the average range so I didn't feel I needed to retake the test). Yes, I'm a little scared. How will I manage working full time and going to school? Will something suffer because I'm so busy? What if I don't finish? What if I don't get in? WHAT IF I DO??
Everything inside of me is telling me to pull up my bootstraps and get on with it. But...
What if I can't find my big girl panties?
