those school days

so i went on addie's first field trip this morning, but more on that later.

 right now i want to talk about me, me, me.

seeing her teachers in action got me thinking about when i taught school, cause of course we compare our own experiences, right?

(ps - we would have been sooo much more organized).

 

waxing nostalgic, i fished out the disc my sweet co-workers made for all of the kindy teachers from my first year-o-teaching '05-'06.

 

love this one. this was my first time being "on display" as a teacher. some night before school starts open house. i'm offering to shake this kids hand and he's like "what? why? i don't think so."

and there's greg in the suit next to me, my first principal and he was awesome.

after my first evaluation (maybe a month in?) he told me that he didn't want to hire me (awww, sweet) but that glorene (my mentor teacher, love her!) really wanted me and since he trusted glorene he took a chance on me and he was so glad he did. he was always positive with me. i knew he liked me and even though i wasn't a perfect teacher, i knew he knew i was a good teacher.

it is sooo nice to have a supportive boss!

da' girls.

sally was our kindergarten aid and my partner teaching aid for my afternoon kindergarten academic intervention class. glorene, me (stand up straight, girl! and also, whoa! big hair.), and anne.

 we ate lunch together in glorene's room every day, just the 4 of us.

love 'em.

for my first busy year teaching it was so nice to have sally with me all afternoon!

crowd control, creativity, back-up, she was awesome.

and also, i think very importantly, she always respected me as the teacher.

 it was never a control thing. she had had a career and had quit that to have kids and was just working then to keep busy and do some good. for my first year i'm sure i made a lot of mistakes but she was always supportive of the fact that it was my classroom and my choice.

(not like i was some hierarchical ruler, but you know)

my cute class and my cute room. :)

umbrella parade!

and also, holy skinny lady!

and the worst of it is i didn't think i was skinny!!!

action shot.

it was so funny when they gave me this disc cause i really didn't even know when half of these pictures were taken and even now i don't really know who took them.

covert, i like it.

and my class from that same day.

so many memories! you spend so much time with a group of kids and they drive you crazy and you love them and get to know all about them and their families. and then that's it. i am especially grateful for these pics because neither of the schools i taught at had yearbooks.

lame.

little miss mccracken. :)

she drove me cray-cray.

she was a little fire-cracken.

(see what i did there?)

haha, love this one.

having a rough morning, miss seagrove?

the land of the letter people!

we introduced a new one each week, but i don't think i had a full set (popped easily) so my class went over to glorene's room to hang out.

we made foot prints for mothers day and i got out of working with their feet.

haha. :)

teaching didn't come naturally to me, it's something that i felt i had to work really hard at. but if any grade did come naturally it was kindergarten. as much work as it was, i loved it. and as much as i loved the arts academy in new mexico, i never felt quite good enough there. like it was great because it really required me to work hard and grow and learn and leave my comfort zone, but i never felt like i measured up. but teaching at martin sortun was comfortable. it was still hard cause half the time i didn't know what i was doing (first year teaching and all) but it was supportive and the kids were sweet and i felt good at it.

and now i will return from my trip down memory lane.