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| This is a fluke! |
Hello! My name is Jackie and I am a new teacher - having just graduated in June - but I am not a new human (closer to 50 than 40). I went back to school to get my teaching degree when both my kids were pretty much done with elementary. It had been all the volunteering at their school that had shown me that this is what I really needed to do.
My passions in life are teaching (no, really?), and various kinds of crafts. Okay, really it is pretty much everything that can somehow be wedged under the umbrella word "craft". I won't necessarily do them all in my lifetime, but I am interested in them! Oh, yes indeedy!
My training, I am an elementary generalist, which means I **SHOULD** be teaching K-6, but by some fluke that only happens when you really want a job, I am teaching Junior High. How did that happen you wonder? Luck (perhaps mixed with unluck) and a bizarre set of coincidences - but mostly it was a fluke (and I may actually mean fluke as in parasitic infection - the jury is still out on that). At least I have a job. A lot of my graduating class do not.
I am working in a private school focused on learning disorders. It is a very small school (about 100 students) with 1-2 classes per division. That means I teach all of division III (grades 7-9). I still have this lovely fantasy of teaching grade three, but I think that has to stay on hold for a year or two - perhaps it shall be my 50th birthday present!
In the meantime, I love the kids and I am learning a ton. Having teenagers myself probably helps (although it means I am surrounded by teens from 6:30 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. -- except my drive home. I guess I should be happy for a long commute!
No doubt I will soon have some great ideas to post about what we will be up to in the Fall, but until our big school meeting on August 17, a lot is still up in the air. The school moved over the summer, so it will be a new building, new teacher (ME!) and a whole new curriculum to be conquered in two weeks....should be a blast!
