Errands w/ Jack & Open House
Yesterday Jack and I went out to do a lot of little errands. We went to Giant, Costco, Post Office, and Exxon Gas Station. As we went through Giant, I decided, out of love for my little guy, to ask an employee there if I could just fill a bag of corn husks - the part of the corn that customers usually throw out. The man said sure and asked me what I planned to do with them, just out of curiosity. I admittedly then told him they were for my guinea pig who likes corn husks. He smiled and said he has two himself and maybe he'll give it a go after he gets off of work. I felt rather pleased with myself, but avoided all eye contact with the customers that surrounded me. I'm sure they thought I was being a bit weird.
The other errands didn't come until later that evening. We went to Costco with my mom and that was fun and all. But the real fun was when we went to the Post Office. After hours there is usually practically no one in sight. So I sneaked Jack into the building and for amusement and my own curiosity I put him on the scale. He weighed in at 2 pounds and 7.5 ounces! Which is interesting because he looks quite trim and fit. Maybe it's all muscle? :P Hehe. Either way, I know I feed him well. He has three small fresh food meals a day, which may be cut down to two, depending on our circumstances when I start actually teaching next year. To think I'm going to have my own students next year is exciting! Maybe I'm too enthusiastic? Nah, I'm working hard for that moment! :P
Today was Open House day at SES. My cooperating teacher and I didn't really get a chance to meet our students and their parents. We merely walked around the building and she introduced me to a lot of other special educators. I even got to meet one of the paraeducators we are going to work with in our classroom. Many of them seem so friendly. CS has been especially pleasant with me. As she introduced me to her colleagues, she explicitly indicated how excited she is that I am here and how much our philosophies align with each others, and that we are going to work fabulously together. I love her enthusiasm. That makes me feel a lot better with things already. Before Open House, I came in early and showed her my rough list of things I want to observe, learn more about, and do while I'm interning. At first I thought it was a bold move on my part, but she claimed that my list was a great one. Needless to say, I was pleased :)
As she looked it over, she started getting some stuff together to loan me over the next few days. I expressed interest in learning more about the Baldrige program and almost immediately she presents to me a binder with a CD-ROM about the program and what it essentially is in a nutshell. She also gave me a binder filled of frameworks and ideas of how I can plan instruction and manage a classroom, a book about the "Frazzled Teacher's Wellness" and a handbook for how teachers can use total quality management (I googled the acronym TQM because I didn't know what it meant) to help kids learn. Even though I left my internship materials binder probably in her classroom, I think I have enough stuff to cover and look over before I return to the school, which will probably be before Thursday next week - when she suggested I come over so I can meet the fifth graders and start planning with her. Woohoo!