I get married in ONE week!!

Ahh!

My Classroom

These last three weeks sure have been crazy. I received my job, and then everything got crazy. We moved into the apartment about three weeks ago now (it was three weeks Saturday, actually). We spent Saturday moving in and had almost everything unpacked by Sunday. I had Monday and Tuesday to relax, and then the chaos began. I had new teacher orientation that Wednesday and Thursday, and then had my first official day of work on that Friday where the new administration (which is all four of the principals) introduced themselves and we did some team building things.

The whole next week was staff development, which was an over flow of information and stress since HR was behind and I had still yet to sign my contract (which does not happen until Tuesday evening) so I could not log into the computers, check my school email, or anything else that might be necessary in order to properly work. Then, this week was the first week of school.

Now, someone had to move out of my classroom in order for me to move in. He had been in that room about nine years, and was not AT ALL thrilled about moving despite getting put into a better room. So, naturally, he decided to make me miserable about it. So, he took his sweet time moving his things out, meaning I could not start moving anything in until Thursday, as in, about four days before the kids were going to be there for their first day of school. So that Thursday, after he moved out, my room looked like this...

Now, it might look bad, but you should have seen it before he began to move his things out! I was so overwhelmed and had no idea how I was going to get everything done. Luckily, I had a great group of people helping me out! My parents did a lot, and were even gracious enough to buy some things for my classes, and Michael was a huge help. His mom laminated everything for me, since she can do it all herself at her school, and when Michael brought it home the stack looked like this...

It was overwhelming just to look at that stack of stuff! I'm thrilled with all of the owls and everything, but I had no idea how I was possibly going to get it all cut out in time for me to get it all on the walls. Luckily I had a great helper and breaks during staff development to do some cutting. Then, they were kind enough to give us the Friday before school started as a "work day" which mostly meant that I worked on my room all day so that I could get plenty done and would not have to spend my whole weekend at the school finishing up. In the end, I am thrilled with the way that it looks...

I decided on the owl theme when I went to Mardel and saw all the great things they had, and then decided to go with the fall colors since they are pretty gender neutral. The kids keep talking about the owls and how they're cute, so I would say they're a success! With having 7th grade, I was a bit worried it would be too young, but that does not seem to be the case.

So there it is, my very first classroom!

-Tiffany

I apologize!

Hello all! So sorry I've been so horrible about posting, but things have been crazy. I guess it is true when they say you either have nothing at all going on, or everything at once. The whole, 'everything at once' has definitely hit, and I'm trying to find time to catch my breath. Between moving into an apartment with Michael, starting my first year of teaching, and finishing up wedding plans, things have definitely been a bit hectic. However, I am sure that things will begin to slow down soon, and I won't feel quite so overwhelmed.

This was my first week of work, and it definitively felt incredibly long. Human Resources has been really slow about the whole process, and so all of the new teachers at my school (which is quite a few because of new administration and everything) have been without our emails or any other technology because we do not have any log ins. Luckily, we go next Tuesday night to sign our contracts and everything, so that will fix all of that. I have some pictures of my classroom that I will share very soon as well, perhaps tomorrow.

Our apartment looks great as of now. There are still some things I would like to do in order to make it a bit more homey and like us, but for now I am happy with it. I feel like it's going to be impossible to constantly keep it picked up completely, and I've decided that I'm okay with that. It's not something that I am going to stress myself out about.

I've done a lot of the cooking since we moved in, and I'm feeling pretty confident in it now. Well, more so than at first, at least. I did not know how to cook much before, so I've just been using recipes that I've collected and things, and so far I haven't made anything that we haven't liked. I count that as a definite plus! Hopefully in the future I'll be able to share some recipes, as well :]

Anyway, thank you for everyone that has stuck around through my absence, and all my new followers! I will go through soon and check out all of your blogs as well! :]

-Tiffany

What's been going on around here...

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, things have been pretty crazy around here, and mostly in a very good sense. It really is amazing how a couple of things can change everything around for the better, and the future is looking pretty great at the moment.

So lately:
* I got rejected for a job that I was feeling really good about. I had some great connections and everything, but it just didn't work out for me.
* Michael began his job with Lockheed Martin, and I couldn't be more proud of him. It seems slow for him right now, but he thinks it's going to pick up pretty soon, which is great.
* We have picked out an apartment that I love, and we move in August 11th, which is really soon!
* We have found a lot of great furniture at great prices to fill our apartment with.
* I had three job interviews last Wednesday. After the first one in the morning, I got a call to go back and see the head principal. When I went back that afternoon, I was offered a job! Starting next month I'll be teaching 6th grade English.
* My bridal shower is this Saturday, and then we are celebrating my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. It's going to be a great weekend. (one of my best friends is coming into town for the shower too, yay!)
* Now I'm just waiting for HR to call to confirm the job and everything, and have started packing up stuff to move.

That's about everything that's going on right about now, at least that I can think of. Hope everyone is doing well!

Rejection

So, while this job search has definitely been stressful and frustrating, I had never thought about what could happen after the interviews. I know that sounds funny, but I was just so focused on getting the interviews to begin with and handling them professionally, that I did not think about the rejection that could possibly follow.

I had another interview on Tuesday, and it was with the school district that I would really like to work in, if I was given a choice. I was excited about it, because the principal had never even answered my email or anything, so I guess she was holding out, or one of my connections contacted her. I got prepared, and was feeling even better before this interview than my first one (understandable, I'm sure).

I felt like I had some great answers for their questions. I knew the sorts of things they were going to ask, and I was better prepared to answer those things. I know a lot of people write out their answers and things prior to interviews, but that doesn't work for me. I just stress about trying to remember what I wrote down, so instead I just go in and think through what they ask before answering. While the first principal I interviewed with was hard to read and told me he was impressed, I could not read this one at all.

Sometimes she seemed like she was incredibly pleased, and other times she seemed eager to get me out of her office. That wasn't too surprising, since the next interviewee was sitting outside her office waiting for us to finish. I guess she was not as impressed because Friday I got the call; she had given the job to someone else. That was all she said, aside from "thank you, goodbye."

I guess I was not prepared for those words. I knew that rejection was a reality, but I do not have much experience with it. Along with that, the whole job search has me so stressed and upset that I lost it. All my friends from school seem to be getting jobs already, and I've only had two interviews. I'm trying to stay positive, but it is not an easy task.

I still have no heard from the first principal I interviewed with. The position he told me might open up has, and he was supposed to contact me by the end of the week as well, but I have yet to hear anything. I would like to think that might be a good sign, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. So, back to the drawing board I go in hopes of getting more interviews. Wish me luck!

Tiffany