1 down, 36 to go

Well week one of the 2012-2013 school year is in the books. All in all it could have gone worse.

The first week of the school year for you non-teachers is all about pure survival. If you make it through without a complete mental break down it's a success. I did in fact make it through, and only a little worse for the wear.

One of the posative things about this school year is that in most of my classes I have students I have already had at least once before. This takes of the immediate stress of learning lots of names, and establishing yourself as "the teacher" in the first few days. As a very young looking 28 year old female, whose only 5'2" this has actually been pretty stressful for the past few years. In case you don't believe me there are still teachers in the building that mistake me for a student all the time. Whenever they tell me this they think it's funny, or that they are the first person to ever do it. It gets old pretty fast.

One big change I am going through is that for the first time ever since I start teaching I am not teaching any math classes. To some people this may sound great, but to me it's been difficult for 2 main reasons. The first is that I actually love teaching math. I mean I really love it. And not to "toot my own horn" but I'm pretty darn good at it. I've been trying to pick up some tutoring jobs on the side to keep this part of my life, and also to supplement my income a little. The second reason this has been a weird transition is that the math department at school are my closest friends and confidants at work. Once you don't teach the same classes as they do you start to lose a little of that close relationship. I already feel "left out" for lack of a better phrase. I guess it's just something I have to adjust too and create realistic expectations about. 

But what's great about this year is I have some amazing potential opportunities in front of me that I can't wait to take advantage of. I am in the middle of starting a new part of our robotics program at Greenville using VEX robotics. It is a new adventure for me that comes with a lot of stress. Failure is not an option. For me or for the district. Part of this new adventure is hosting a VEX regional at the high school. While I am not in charge of his effort (thank goodness) I am definitely going to play a big role in the organization of the event. I just want this program to offer an outlet to the students as a way to get introduced to engineering and robotics without the major stress and commitment of the FRC program.

On Friday night we had our first varsity football and game and the robotics team was there in full force fundraising like crazy. I had a bunch of new students come out and it was great to start to get to know them!

New Camp, New Kids, New Experiences

Well we are half way through the third week of camp and we have moved locations and switched kids. I was assigned to the Level 1 (beginners) again at this camp with one of the other girls. (I am hoping that meant they were happy with my performance in the first two weeks) There are some huge differences between the kids at this camp. Their vocabulary is about the same but their writing and spelling abilities are way lower. But in general they are much better and speaking and know a ton of phrases. We are at a elementary school and there is a playground there which makes productivity at this camp go way down, but the kids are having fun and that is what matters. My kids again love Duck, Duck, Goose and all day every day they ask "Ahhhhdrienne, play Duck?"

After we went over numbers and colors we decided to play Uno with the kids to see how they liked it. Turns out Uno is a pretty widespread game and most of our kids knew how to play, but the ones that didn't caught on quickly and we all have tons of fun. They say "Stopo" for Skip, and "Passo" when they pick up and card and still can't go. They also all conspired against me today and kept making me pick up cards. Luckily I got them back when I won picture Bingo later :-p

One thing I love about this group of kids is anytime we say the word Happy they burst into song. I had never heard of it before so I decided to research it today and I found what they have been singing. It's kind of catchy and I've had it stuck in my head all week because of them.

I am picking up more Italian words and can only slightly communicate to various people around town. I pretty much have the numbers, most of the colors, lots of fruits (because of gelato), and various greetings and common phrases. I wish I was learning more, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be.

Summer Plans

I was lucky enough to have lunch with my best college friend this weekend while he was in town. It was awesome to catch up as we are finding ourselves in similar life situations. At one point he said to me "It seems like all of our friends are either getting married and having kids or starting over." And all of a sudden it hit me, I am starting over, again. I started over when I graduated high school, I started over when I graduated college, I started over when my grandfather died, I started over when I moved to MA, I started over when my dad died, I started over when I moved to Texas, moved in with my ex and started a new career. And now I am starting over again. But here's the difference this time, I am only starting over for myself and because I want too. So when my relationship ended, and I moved out and moved on I sat down and thought about what I wanted to do next. But I couldn't think of anything. So I thought about all the things that I regretted not doing in my life. The one that stuck out the most was I reget not studying aboard. And I realized it wasn't necessarily too late for that. So I looked online and found an opportunity. After a short phone interview I was offered a position teaching at an English immersion summer camp in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Italy. It is a small coastal town on the Adriatic Sea.

I will be living here for about a month in an apartment provide by the camp along with 7 other counselors. We work Monday-Friday 9am-1pm and have the rest of the time free to ourselves. We have be provided with bikes to transport ourselves, a cleaning service for the apartment, groceries deliver to our door every other day, and a full kitchen to cook in. I also have booked a few extra days on each end of my trip to travel around Italy. My mom and sister are meeting me there in the last two weeks of my trip to travel themselves and meet up with me. I am actually excited about starting over here. I get to combine my two favorite things, traveling and working with kids.

It is going to be a challenge living in a foreign country where I don't really speak the language. It will be a challenge to teach English to students who don't know it at all. And it will a challenge to be away from everything familiar for 6 weeks. But I think it is just what I need. I need to do something for myself for a change. I have been trapped in someone else's life for way too long, walking on eggshells and only worrying about pleasing others and not taking care of myself.  So I am starting my own Eat, Pray, Love adventure. I want to cleanse my soul and remind myself of who I am.