Getting Started

Well, I'm here! I have officially moved away from my childhood home. Craziness. We're still unpacking. Good news= the kitty likes it here. Now starts the process of getting my classroom ready. What?! We talked about classroom setup in college, but not how to actually set up the classroom, if that makes any sense. The teacher(s) before me left behind a lot of stuff that wasn't particularly useful, such as: an Atlas from the year I was born, and paper book covers from 1999 featuring Destiny's Child. Both of those items were outdated when I was in Middle School... Let's just say trash was thrown away. Those things that I won't use but am unsure of whether I can actually throw away (cough! Outdated racist posters! cough!) have been reburied in the cabinets where they hopefully won't see the light of day again. So, now what? I have an empty classroom. I have two days before training starts. Luckily, I have a husband who is crafty and has a vision for my classroom after showing him all the classrooms I've loved and pinned on Pinterest. Don't worry, when it's done I'll post pictures. As for now, I should sign off and figure out how to narrow down the quotes I love. Wish me luck! P.S. I'm supposed to have paragraphs. Blogger isn't publishing paragraphs. Anyone know how to fix this? It's irritating.

Introductions

I think I was born to be a teacher. I didn't choose it, it chose me. I forced my siblings to be my students, much to their despair. School supply shopping ranks high on my list of favorite things in the entire world. I've thrown up on the first day of school from excitement, and that has even been within the last three years. I loved being asked for help by my peers- there is a reason my teachers always assigned me to be a peer tutor. I finally realized my calling in 5th grade; before then my aspirations were to be a professional ballerina, despite my lack of a single dance class. That was roughly 13 years ago. My journey started: I had to figure out what age level I wanted to teach. Check- secondary. Do debate and drama class to get over my fear of public speaking. Check. Figure out what subject I wanted to teach. Check-history. Get good grades and score high on the ACT to get a full-ride scholarship to college. Check. Survive my gen ed classes. Check. Take all of my discipline classes. Check. Choose a minor. Check- Political Science and ESL. Yep, I'm an overachiever. Take my education classes. Check. Ace student teaching. Check. Graduate? Check! That's where it got scary. I never worried that I wouldn't get into college, or get a scholarship, or pass my classes. I never even really worried about not doing well in Student Teaching. But finding a job? Terrifying. It was the very first thing I encountered on my journey that I had NO control over. It wasn't up to me- I had done everything I could. I watched my friends have multiple job interviews, while I never let my phone leave my side. Not. A. Single. Call. Not one. I felt like a failure. Then, one day short of it being a month from when I graduated, I got my very first call for a job interview. It was to a school I applied for on a whim, but hadn't actually considered moving to. For you see, this school happens to be in the heart of a town that houses my University's largest rival. I grew up mocking this University. No one in my family has gone there, and I didn't even apply. Don't get me wrong, I know it's a good college, but that's not really the point when it comes to rivalry is it? So I've grown up mocking this University and town, and now I have a job interview in the very same town. Well, I start preparing. And I realize something- this school is a perfect fit for me in every way. I love this school. If I could design my dream school to work at, it would be this school. Now I'm devastated. What if I don't get the job? Odds are I won't. I go to my interview, and love it. I walk out feeling defeated, because now I REALLY want this job, but I don't think I'll get it. I start to go home. An hour and 15ish minutes later, my phone rings. It's the principal, and they offer me the job! I go home and talk to my husband, and we weigh the pros and cons. Cons = the fact of what town it's in. Pros = everything else in the entire world. This town, besides being my mortal enemy, is actually pretty cool. It has great shopping and food. It's the right vibe for us. I call the next morning and accept. And now I'm packing, because within the week I will have moved there. I'm slowly planning my classroom. I will be teaching 7th and 8th grade history- Utah Studies and the first half of US History. I decided to start this blog for a variety of reasons. 1. I think it will be fun to look back on and see what my first year, etc. what like. 2. I think it will be a way of helping me keep a good perspective on bad days. 3. It is a way to let my fellow teacher friends know what's going on with me. 4. As I've been preparing for my first year, I've realized how freaking useful other teachers' blogs are! It would be awesome if another person could be helped by my experiences. I'm calling this blog Surviving the Middle Ages: A Teacher's Tale. (My husband came up with the name. He's awesome!)It is of course, a play on words! I love history, referenced by the Middle Ages. Also, the movie a Knight's Tale? Yeah, during the Middle Ages. But of course, I am a teacher, and I'm teaching middle school. Thus: Middle Ages = period of of history and middle school. Finally, it will be about how I survive! Okay, you may not think it is as cool as I do, but I think it's pretty awesome. True story. Most favorite blog name ever. I'll end my introduction here. I will keep posting after I move and as I prepare for my very first year teaching. Right now, I'm going to go pack!