How do you spell that?

I decided to post this here and not on my own blog because I thought y'all would appreciated it more. If you don't know, right now I'm teaching a Pre-K3 class in Memphis while I eagerly await a job offer from Chicago (finally heard back from a school this week!). Yesterday, the ice cream truck came and you would have thought we brought in Hannah Montana. That ice cream man was the most popular thing to hit the preschool since.....well, I don't know. He was a big deal.

To control the over-excited young'uns, they sent us two school-aged children (mine were like 4th grade) to help out. We had to store the ice cream until the afternoon, so I put the 4th graders to work writing the children's names on their ice cream purchases. So, the older girl sits down next to one of my students and this conversation ensues:
"What's your name?"
"My name is Sky."
"How do you spell that?" (Sky has no idea....we just got that her name starts with an "S")
"A-S-S."
That poor school-aged girl looked at me with the biggest, most confused eyes I have ever seen. I just died laughing....

Books

So I feel like this is going to be the summer of garage sales and used book sales. It is only June and I am glued to the craigslist 'garage sale' postings. What a way to spend the weekends, right? Tonight I went to a huge used book sale at a local high school and bought some chapter books for $.50 each. I'm just curious what you all are spending on books and what you think is reasonable to spend building a class library?! Yikes!!!

Someday...

Congrats to all of you who will be employed in August! I'm SO happy for you! I'm hoping that someday I'll have a job, too. Last week, I went up to Chicago looking to learn about the city and hopefully talk to some principals and find myself a teaching job. Turns out, Lindsay was on my tour! Who knew?! The trip was okay, but I realized that I know a grand total of about 5 people in the city. It should be an adventure. However, I have to find a job first. I talked to about 20 principals at the Teacher Fair I went to while I was up there and am just working on contacting some more schools with openings. I think they're winding up their school years this week, so hopefully I'll hear back from some people soon.

As far as my licensure, I'm not yet licensed in Illinois, which was actually kind of an issue for some principals. I have the letter from Chris about being licensed, but getting the paperwork through, but they didn't really seem to care. I hope this isn't the snag that keeps me from getting a job and moving up there. We shall see...I'll certainly keep you updated!!

congratulations lindsay and kati! so great! i will be teaching 2nd grade at St. Pius X Classical Academy, it's a small Catholic school in north Nashville. It's not a good part of town, and the school does not have much money, but the community is great and I am very excited.

a couple of things:
Lauryn and I found some good displays and little teaching odds and ends at the Dollar Tree. like reader of the month and student of the week certificates, borders for bulletin boards, a big map of the U.S. poster, etc. just a thought.

also, on reallygoodstuff.com there are cheap decorations, materials etc. like 99 cents or 1.99 for big posters.

love this blog so much! yall wanna invite cliff to join?

Congrats on the job Lindsey! I just got back from a whirlwind tour of London, Singapore, and Thailand, and I am currently trying to get over my jet lag. Apparently that means waking up at 5am. Ouch.

I just found out that I am going to be teaching 1st grade which I am SO excited about! Yay reading!! So if anyone has any great ideas for teaching phonics let me know!

Hope all is well and I can't wait to hear where everyone ends up. Miss you all!!

-Kati

Update

What a great idea to start this blog. I think we are certainly going to need the support of each other over the course of the next year. (to make sure our own insanity is actually the norm).


An update from me: Last week I had a screening interview for a fifth grade position in Palatine. Tuesday I interviewed at the school (the principal, asst. principal, and four teacher). Wednesday morning he called my references and called in the afternoon to offer me the position! I am very, very excited. The school is just fantastic. Tomorrow I am going to meet the fifth grade team and Tuesday I will sign paperwork:) I'm not sure what I will do with my summer if I am not spending all my time applying for jobs...

What about everyone else... how is it going?


Lindsay

Updates?

Hey y'all! Hope your summers are going well! I'd love to hear any updates (work or otherwise) that everyone has. I know Kati has a job, but I don't think I ever heard Lauryn and Besty's plans...and Ashley, any news about jobs from you? Have you gone on your bus tour of CPS yet?

As for me...no job yet...but I've been on two interviews, and one of those principals said that if she didn't hire me she was going to email one of her friends who is principal at another school that I applied to and tell her about me. So, hopefully things will work out!!

I miss you all!