Yes, the first week of school has cometh. Joy for many parents across the land, I’m sure…..unless those parents are teachers like I am.

Haha J/K

Oh, Alice, I’m sure if I was a rock and roll star, I’d be smiling while sending my kids back to school this week too. 

I love my job. I really can’t complain. It’s not an easy job, and I’ve been moved around more these last few years than many teachers are in their entire career, but at least the powers-that-be always have kept my strengths in mind when moving me.

In 2014-2015, after returning from maternity leave, I went right back to teaching grade 4, only to be moved to a new building and down to grade 3 the next year. Last year, it was learned that grade 3 in my new school was going down a section, while an AIS position was opening up that was half at my old school and a half at my new. That’s where I ended up, and that’s what I am currently doing, teaching AIS reading and math to children in grades 3-6. I’m happy with it thus far and plan to stay in this particular position until I either retire or die, whichever comes first. Ha.

Anyway, here are the 3 best parts of this last week, followed by the 3 worst.

Highlight #1

As I said above, transitioning to a new position is going well for me. I am very excited to still be in my “new” school from last year, while thrilled to be back in my “old.” My new position is definitely peppered with much “newness,” but I don’t believe any of it is insurmountable for me. I can do it! Truly, I am enjoying the AIS journey thus far. I also love the folks I work with at both schools, and, I work for three really great administrators. Talk about hitting the co-worker/boss jackpot! I feel like this year my work life is going to be great, so long as I can keep track of what cycle day it is so that I don’t accidentally show up at the wrong school. I have a feeling that may happen for me at least once.

Highlight #2

S10 had a great first week of 5th grade! Sometimes I worry about my ultra-sensitive oldest, especially socially. Over the years she has grown a thicker skin, yet underneath her ‘tough-gal’ exterior, there still resides an easily hurt, sometimes oversensitive persona. How do I know? Because I am the same way. S10 is not in the same class as either of her two BFFs. She had been with at least one since second grade! I do think she needs to branch out and hang with new girls, which she is, so all is well thus far. Plus, the whole 5th grade has recess together, so she still can hang with her gals, which she is happy about as well.

Awesome alert: S10 loves her teacher this year. Strict as well as challenging, he appears to possess qualities both S10 and I want in her teachers. Though she is an academic whiz, I definitely think she could use an academic and/or responsibility kick in the pants before she’s off to middle school next year.

Did I just say middle school? In a year? Say WHAT? Yeah, I’m gonna put that eventuality out of my mind for now. For my own sanity.

Highlight #3

S2 also had her first day of preschool this week! Twas a bit of a tough moment for Mike and me. While S10 attended daycare 2-3 days a week from 3 months old forward, S2 has been home either with Mike or Grandma. So preschool, a.k.a. one whole day without family was very new territory for us all.

Since S2 turned two, Mike and I have realized that she needs more stimulation, being such an active, inquisitive kid. Also, S2 needs peer socialization, since, with 8 years between our daughters, we pretty much have two only children. Additionally, Mike has started working at our CSA farm, he has been enjoying working out of the home very much, and he would like to continue being employed. So yesterday, S2 attended preschool for the first time and will be going to school 3 days a week for this school year. Yesterday, Mike and I were nervous wrecks all day long regarding our baby girl being away from her family. Enter Tadpoles, our saving grace.

Tadpoles is #totesamazeballs. It’s an app S2’s daycare uses to send me pictures throughout the day for ‘oohs,’ ‘ahhs,’ and most importantly, mommy-daddy peace of mind. The daycare also sends us a report at the end of the day (I usually receive it right before I leave work) telling what S2 did that day, how long she napped, and what she ate. When S10 attended this same preschool back in the day, this technology didn’t exist, which is so unfortunate! I looked forward to the notification bar on my phone telling me that a photo of S2 was added all day long, then when I had a free moment I’d admire the pic and text it to Mike, who has a sucky Windows phone and needs a new one (but teachers be too poor to buy phones in September. The money struggle is so real right now.). #Technologyrocks.

Mike and I were thrilled to find out that S2 had a great first and second day of preschool. No tears shed on either day! More positives: none of her classmates were assaulted, nothing in the classroom was broken, and her teachers were actually still smiling when we picked our little bundle o’danger up at the day’s end. I even received a picture yesterday afternoon of S2 standing next to a little girl with a beaded hairdo, and apparently, S2 was able to keep her curious little hands off those shiny, ‘come hither’ beads! Fabulous. All signs point to ‘S2 the Destroyer’ living up to her nickname solely on her home turf. Here is to hoping S2 has a full year of fun, safe, happy, and peaceful preschool days ahead!

Lowlight #1

It was HOT AS THE FIERY PITS OF HELL this week. Last week, the week right before school began, the weather was lovely here in lower NY. You could even feel the beginnings of autumn in the air. I started thinking of apple pie, pumpkins, and even Halloween.

After the last two days, my thoughts are pretty damn far from autumnal. Why, you ask? Well, because the weather has been SWELTERING this week, along with near 100% HUMIDITY. Why the F not, right Mother Nature? Everyone likes the air they breathe to feel like a damp blanket, pulling you down. My GD car temperature read 97 degrees yesterday, and today, Satan oh-so-generously removed 4 degrees to bring us to a brisk 93. Thanks, Lucifer. And cool it! Literally.

Oh, did I mention that public elementary schools in suburban NY have no air conditioning? I didn’t? Well, they do NOT. And FYI, THAT is why kids have the summer off over in this part of the USA. It’s not greedy teachers, nor is it lazy kids. Its mother effing global warming! My area of lower NY has swamp-ass granting summers and fierce, freezing, snowy winters. As well as some of the highest taxes, gas prices, and housing costs in the country. Wanna move here? #LOL

(I do love where I live, btw, but it’s very much despite the reasons listed above).

In one of my schools, my office is my old third-grade classroom, a.k.a. the HOTTEST room in the WHOLE DAMN SCHOOL. Like, Africa-Central America-Middle East type hot (I assume). I have a wimpy old fan pointed at my sweaty behind all the live long day, and that’s the extent of my heat relief unless I find an excuse to work in either the faculty room or the main office. Which I don’t, because one is filled with people eating lunch, meaning I wouldn’t get anything done because I’d probably chitchat, and the other is full of working office people, who would probably tell me to GTFO after loitering too long.

So, I’ve been uncomfortably sweaty this week. Teacher tip: bring antiperspirant with you to work. I don’t care what the commercial says, if you are post-puberty, nothing is fumigating your pits for 7.5 hours straight in the heat. Re-apply. Generously.

My other school has the AIS offices in a sort of “matrix” setup, 5 offices clumped together in a way that makes sense only to whomever the room’s architect was in 1970. And since the school was built in the 1970s, at least some of the peeps involved in the school design process must have been on drugs. Guess what? It shows. In the AIS matrix of school number 2, 3 of 5 AIS offices have no windows. Zero. I have one of those windowless caverns. It’s reminiscent of a past life, I can only assume. When I was a Homo Erectus hominid.

Good times. Livin’ the public school high life, I am.

Lowlight #2

I saw this picture:

WHY? It’s friggin 2016!
I know, I know. The girl one is a fashion magazine, the boy one is a Boy Scouts magazine. So the F what. This is the culture I am raising my daughters in, and it pisses me off. Kids are WAY too preoccupied with their looks nowadays, and magazines coupled with social media just makes it worse. And I love social media! I just wish S10 would cool it with the selfies (even though she has zero social media presence, being only 10). I’m already having to police her outfits in the morning because she is a very tiny-waisted girl who thinks she is 25. S10 is learning that just because shorts I bought her in kindergarten still fit her 5th grade behind, doesn’t mean they are appropriate for school. Lot’s of “NO” uttered these mornings, and not just from/at my toddler.

S10 is a budding feminist, but she still likes looking good. Unfortunately, her idea of what looks good and mine are beginning to diverge a tad. Though, a bright spot: together, S10 and I just shopped on amazon.com (I really hate malls) and agreed on 4 pairs of shorts that are appropriate styles, lengths, and prices! I was very pleasantly surprised! But I still prefer her in leggings. Maybe a big puffy coat, too.

Hey! Cooler weather! Where you at, bro?

Lowlight #3

Back to work. I arrive around 8:30 am and leave around 4 pm. So I’m working for about 7.5 hours. Plus, I work an hour away from home. Therefore, with my commute, I’m away from home for 9.5 hours/day x 5 days/week = 47.5 hours a week away from Mike and the girls. Just thinking about that makes me miss them, and I’m actually home right now!

But hey, only 39 weeks until summer vacation 2017, right? 🙂

Until next time, thanks for reading!