Somehow a whole week has gone by, and one of my favorite days of the week has returned. I am so enjoying my early morning Saturdays. Todays visit to the farmers market was fruitful as always, but I will spare you pictures this time around. I did buy some hot german dill pickles that are delicious! Not quite like Dad's but these could be a competitor.

This week was my first week of teacher workdays at school. My school is going through some extreme changes so the whole staff needs training until school starts to make sure that everyone is on board. We have a staff of about 90 people at our school, which is absolutely overwhelming to me considering that I graduated high school with less people than that. I will probably have about 90 students! Which is about 22-23 a class. We will see if that is the case.

Our days have been long but each day I feel inspired and relevant. I finally feel like I am going to be doing something that will make a difference in the world. For those of you who knew me in high school this was something that I was so passionate about and really focused on, but I think over my college years I kind of lost sight of this. On Thursday evening we had an open house and I got to meet about half of my students and their parents. I am on the team that is teaching the students with limited english proficiency so I have an extremely diverse mix of students! I did have a terrible moment though when I was trying to communicate with a parent and I couldn't because we did not speak the same language. She asked me through her son "how will I communicate with you during conferences." My only answer was "I will make it work, I promise." Luckily I found out that there are translators available in the school, and software on the computer that I can use to translate letters I send home to parents. I think I may also try to learn spanish on my commute to school via podcast.

My students were all so bright, nervous, and excited. I asked one boy to tell me how he learns best, and he looked at me and said "don't seat me near my friends." This was an 11-12 year old telling me this! What a smart boy I can't wait to have him in my class. The parents were so involved and eager to tell me about their kids as well, I think that they have just been waiting for someone to listen. From these conversations I have learned so much already.

I have a ton to do this weekend, as I finish up classroom decorating (I bought some hilarious animal posters from the dollar store), and I plan for my first few days, but meeting these students on Thursday really makes it all worth it. The staff at my school is incredible as well. I get chill bumps just thinking about how dedicated each person is, and how willing to teach and learn from each other we all are. My first day is Wednesday! I cannot wait to give you a full report. Look out for my classroom blog in the coming weeks as well, my students will be blogging about the life of a 6th grader.