I GOT A JOB!!!! (Part 2)

So Thursday was my last day at Helen Gorman as a TOC for my friend, Kristy. I'm sitting in her office, writing up my final anecdotal notes, when I get paged for a phone call. I pick it up to hear Donna's voice. (She is the All-Star Manager of the TOC Department - an amazing woman.)

Donna tells me that she needs me to go to Glenmore on Friday for a TOC Shadow Day. I was confused. What does that mean, Donna? She tells me that I will be shadowing the gal whose mat leave I will be covering until the end of June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even pretend to hide my excitement! Or the tears!

All the ups and downs of this year have paid off! Not only am I taking over a Grade 3 French Immersion classroom at my old Elementary School, but I get a whole day to shadow the current teacher and then two weeks to plan and get organized! Is this heaven???

Stephanie, the teacher I will be covering, might also be a brother from another mother! Well, maybe a half-brother. She made me this lovely binder (no tabs), complete with everything I need to know; however, the classroom is a bit disorganized... messy... dirty. But hey! I've got two weeks to get it into shape and I know just the guy to help! :)

I met some of my new colleagues and they all seem "real nice" (..."that's because you have big jugs..."). I had the chance to see the 24 kids in action (two Abbys, but that's it for same names!) and an overview of the schedule. I will be teaching French and English Language Arts, Math and Visual Art to my class. Paule, from Quebec, will be teaching Science and Socials to my class, while I teach English to hers. Someone else teaches Music during my Prep (three half-hour blocks a week, one is first thing in the morning and the other two are right after lunch... ideal!). I have one period of my own Gym and one is shared with a 2/3 class. Supervision is on a rotating schedule, so it looks like I'll be doing 15 minutes (recess) once a week.

I am so excited about this assignment, although I am sad that I won't be back at Peter Greer for the rest of this year (even though it's further away, I would have had a split class and the contract would have been for a shorter period of time!). The postings for September come out in May and June, so we'll see what the universe has planned for us then!

I can finally uncross my fingers now, right? At least until those postings come out???

Signed,
Elated in Kelowna