Back in the Saddle Again

Glad I went in yesterday. The school, which was a mess with furniture in all the halls when I was there in July, is all back to together. Joanie and I re-organized the books in her classroom library and as she said, it was a good thing for me to do since now I know what books are there so I can help the kids. Looked over her class list, a good group. Even though my 4th grade colleagues and I made up the class lists in June, we didn't know which teacher would be assigned to which group, the principal has final say, and besides, who remembers who we put with who? June seems a long time ago. Joanie will have 4 of my classified kids which means Fatima will have about 5 plus the two of the"504" kids. I wish the numbers were more balanced between the two classes, but I have limited say. I spent about 3 hours there. Saw one of my students and her mom at the copy machine, saw both of my 4th grade colleagues from last yr who each gave me warm greetings, said hello to the principal, had a chance to hang out with Joanie and talk. We didn't do much "kid" talk, her priority was getting the library in order, so we just talked about "stuff," getting to know eachother a little better than we generally do since I haven't worked that much with her since I got there in 2005. This will be the first time I'm with her as a "real teacher" not a TA. Couldn't stay longer than the 3 hours since I had a doctors appointment. Maybe it was a good thing. My legs were killing me last night, after only 3 hours on my feet, and I even had sneakers on! I better make sure the new shoes I referanced in an earlier blog are comfortable!