2008-09
The first real year at the new building was filled with joy and stress...as always. The joy came in the form of new technology and natural sunlight getting into my room. The stress came in the form of usual Tom Williams bullshit. New building, same shit, just with 2 floors now. The new computer lab was awesome, as was the new speaker/microphone system. The electronic whiteboard was neat for math, and the ELMO was pretty cool.
As the year began, actually even before the first day with kids, we got treated to a view of the old building being razed. I almost expected to see dead bodies being unearthed, for some reason. Also in the year's beginning, our friend Richard had a major heart attack and passed. The year was a bit marred by his loss.
Come day one, it was a full house in all 5th grade rooms. Come middle of September, a new teacher was added to alleviate the crowds. Overall I had a pretty good class, the usual set of personalities were in place. This was the first year I could remember that I had an attitude-filled female group.
Vickie and I were in the process of trying to see if she could get pregnant via in vitro. All that was missing was funding. Things looked bleak until we got a nice surprise from my dad: he and his wife would fund our effort. It was a success, and on my 36th birthday Vickie told me, "Happy birthday, daddy!" Talk about your proud moments in life!
The rest of the year in many ways was a blur. Many doctor appointments occurred because it was a high-risk pregnancy. I had to give Vickie shots to make sure everything was good. As concentration on Vickie and the joy inside her grew, my focus on work faded a bit. I did my job and all, but my focus on making learning interesting and fun was getting blurry. The class could tell, too. It was getting rough, but not nearly as rough as 4 years ago.
As Spring rolled into Summer, the doctor visits were getting more frequent to monitor the baby's progress and heartbeat. At home we had 3 cats, one of whom was a major safety risk for the baby. Sadly we had to give her to a new owner.
I missed the entire final week of school because of a little thing called our daughter's birth. Her name was Natalie and our lives changed forever....and so did mine the next year.
2009-10
If I could go back and change one thing about this year, it would be to take Family Medical Leave for the first few weeks. I was low on sleep and energy. New babies do that to parents.
During the first staff development days, we were learning the Kagan class management system. It is easy to practice activities with adults, another thing with kids. I was barely awake for any of this.
The year commenced with a good group of kids. Despite my lack of sleep, I really enjoyed this group. I also got to practice a lot of my graduate school activities and ideas with the group. The fall seemed to go pretty well.
Come winter, I was called into the office and the boss laid into me for not doing my job well. In one way I could see her point. Natalie occupied many of my thoughts and I was always ready to race home to see her and Vickie. On the other hand, Kagan and a new reading time system called the Daily 5 had become mandatory in February and it was a lot to handle on top of all the programs the school had.
The clincher came when the following year's assignments came down...I was going to be placed in Kindergarten. I knew it was designed to get me out and I took the hint. The next few months were fairly lame duck for me, although I still enjoyed teaching that group right to the end. The final 5th grade graduation was a sad one for me.
I think what stands out for me is the last day when I was ready to check out. Kristie checked me out on a clipboard and walked out, saying "Good luck at your new school." No handshake, no hug for 8 years of acquaintanceship....pretty cold. In fact, a lot of people had gotten cold in the final 4 months. Goes to show what the term "fair-weather" friends really means.
That being said, my year at the new school was going to show exactly what hell could be like.
