In the words of a fellow teacher friend, "Anyone who thinks they are getting an easy 8-3 job (as a teacher) has got a BIG surprise coming." I didn't think this job would be easy, but I didn't even consider some of the challenges I have had to face already. I am unsure of how to condense the past week into a blog without rambling about information that matters to no one but me, but in sum, I feel like I am drowning. Thankfully, I have very few commitments outside of school because I come home and crash as early as possible every day. Parents are crazy, scheduling is a nightmare, general education teachers are not as understanding of my students as I thought they would be, sharing a room is less than ideal, and I have eaten lunch once since I have been at school. Word on the street is that I am supposed to be getting another aide for my classroom (Amanda Willis is actually a dear friend of mine!), which would be immensely helpful. This gives me hope that things will get better. To a small degree, they already have. A friend asked me if I was prepared for the fact that things might not get better , and I said I thought so. And then I said that I might "accidentally" get pregnant at the end of the year if that is the case. Just kidding.
There are some great things about my job, like my students. No matter how stressed I am, I laugh every day because of them.
"Johnny, you have to tell Mrs. Fenrick when you need to go to the bathroom so you don't wet your pants."
"But I'm sorry!" Can I have a gummy bear now?"
*Carl is practically yelling in the hall.*
"Carl, you have to turn your voice off when you are in the hallway."
"But I'm trying to tell you that I'll miss you when I get home!"
The teacher who shares my room is wonderful, and my aides are all very helpful and encouraging. The administrators are great. These are the things that help me get up in the morning.
And Andrew. That sweet man will be greatly rewarded in heaven! On my first day, he woke up early to make me breakfast. Yesterday, I came home to find all of the housework done and dinner ordered so that I didn't have to cook. It sure feels nice to come home.
Speaking of Andrew, I have never seen him so excited about school. He started his seminary classes on Monday and LOVED it. The workload is extensive, but his professors all seem to be kind and godly men. Andrew has never liked or (in his words) "been good at school", but he came home on Monday, excited about the semester ahead. He said, "I've never sat through a class and been engaged the whole time like I was today." As far as work goes, Andrew talked to the bus barn and will begin driving school buses again, most likely next week. This was originally his last resort as far as work goes, but all seems to have worked out this way for our good because the bus barn is right around the corner from us, it pays well, has a perfect schedule for Andrew, and we'll have the same holidays!
The next four years will probably be difficult for both of us in many ways that we haven't even begun to consider yet, but "the joy of the Lord is our strength."
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
New Beginnings
Earlier this summer, I said I would revisit the idea of this being the best summer ever. I have to conclude that this has been a great summer, but not the best summer ever. Last summer was better.
School started on Thursday. Wow. People tell you that your first year is crazy and busy and stressful, but I don't think I quite realized how crazy and busy and stressful it would be. I can't even really think of how to describe the past two days. I had this wonderful plan and felt organized and ready going into Thursday. And then the kids showed up and everything crashed and burned. The short version is that I simply do not have enough help to run my classroom. Currently, I have seven students and two aides, which probably sounds like a lot, but students with autism need extensive amounts of one-on-one time. My students are fairly high-functioning, which means that they are supposed to be going into their general education classrooms for part of the day. Which means that I have seven kiddos running about six different directions throughout the day. The aides that I do have are wonderful, but none of us can be everywhere at once. I was told by my assistant principal that I would be getting another aide, but because of budget cuts, the special education director for the district did not approve one for me. So somehow, we're going to made things work with what we have. I already do not have a planning period, but this probably means that I will also never eat lunch. I just have to keep reminding myself that this job is not about me, but about the kids. If I need to make sacrifices so that they will get a good education, so be it. I also have to remember that there are plenty of people who are just wishing that they had any job right now, and I get to do what I love (at least I think I'll love it when things calm down!). I'm sure that God is using this time to make me more like Himself, so I am very grateful for that.
Tim is back in Norman and stayed with us last week. I'm not sure how happy he is to be back, but we were definitely glad to have him here! I love Norman, but I really miss my family sometimes, and Tim is like having a piece of "home" here. Also, my best childhood friend (Carolyn) was in OKC for the past week and a half on business, so I got to see a lot of her. Here we are in Bricktown one night:
The Fenrick side of the family has had some exciting things happen in the past few weeks. Adam and Melissa (Andrew's brother and sister-in-law) are back in town after spending a year in Japan. And, Angie (Andrew's sister) is pregnant with their third kid. Happy news.
Andrew had his last day of work at Paycom yesterday and starts seminary on Monday! I am thrilled for him because he has never been excited about school before, and I know that he is really looking forward to this. I think we are only paying about $40 for all of his school this semester, which is such a blessing. The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma is paying for all of his classes and $100 of his books. Andrew will be taking ten hours of classes, which include Biblical Hermeneutics, Old Testament I, Applied Ministry, and Something Else ["I can't remember what the last one was called." -Andrew]. He is fairly sure that he will be driving school buses for a job while he goes to school. Several other job opportunities seemed promising, but none of them have worked out, so thankfully the bus barn is literally right around the corner from us, pays $11+/hour, ALWAYS needs bus drivers, and Andrew's license is still valid.
Life is crazy, but we are blessed.
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
School started on Thursday. Wow. People tell you that your first year is crazy and busy and stressful, but I don't think I quite realized how crazy and busy and stressful it would be. I can't even really think of how to describe the past two days. I had this wonderful plan and felt organized and ready going into Thursday. And then the kids showed up and everything crashed and burned. The short version is that I simply do not have enough help to run my classroom. Currently, I have seven students and two aides, which probably sounds like a lot, but students with autism need extensive amounts of one-on-one time. My students are fairly high-functioning, which means that they are supposed to be going into their general education classrooms for part of the day. Which means that I have seven kiddos running about six different directions throughout the day. The aides that I do have are wonderful, but none of us can be everywhere at once. I was told by my assistant principal that I would be getting another aide, but because of budget cuts, the special education director for the district did not approve one for me. So somehow, we're going to made things work with what we have. I already do not have a planning period, but this probably means that I will also never eat lunch. I just have to keep reminding myself that this job is not about me, but about the kids. If I need to make sacrifices so that they will get a good education, so be it. I also have to remember that there are plenty of people who are just wishing that they had any job right now, and I get to do what I love (at least I think I'll love it when things calm down!). I'm sure that God is using this time to make me more like Himself, so I am very grateful for that.
Tim is back in Norman and stayed with us last week. I'm not sure how happy he is to be back, but we were definitely glad to have him here! I love Norman, but I really miss my family sometimes, and Tim is like having a piece of "home" here. Also, my best childhood friend (Carolyn) was in OKC for the past week and a half on business, so I got to see a lot of her. Here we are in Bricktown one night:
The Fenrick side of the family has had some exciting things happen in the past few weeks. Adam and Melissa (Andrew's brother and sister-in-law) are back in town after spending a year in Japan. And, Angie (Andrew's sister) is pregnant with their third kid. Happy news.
Andrew had his last day of work at Paycom yesterday and starts seminary on Monday! I am thrilled for him because he has never been excited about school before, and I know that he is really looking forward to this. I think we are only paying about $40 for all of his school this semester, which is such a blessing. The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma is paying for all of his classes and $100 of his books. Andrew will be taking ten hours of classes, which include Biblical Hermeneutics, Old Testament I, Applied Ministry, and Something Else ["I can't remember what the last one was called." -Andrew]. He is fairly sure that he will be driving school buses for a job while he goes to school. Several other job opportunities seemed promising, but none of them have worked out, so thankfully the bus barn is literally right around the corner from us, pays $11+/hour, ALWAYS needs bus drivers, and Andrew's license is still valid.
Life is crazy, but we are blessed.
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
A Delicious Midlife Crisis
I am not quite sure I knew what overwhelmed meant until now. I can't remember a time in my life when I have had so many new things thrown at me all at once. Usually, I feel pretty on top of my life with my trusty little planner. I write down everything I need to do and then joyfully put a thick black line through each item as I accomplish it. Planners tend to become inefficient, though, when one's To-do List is about a page and a half long, as mine currently is. The fact that I have a lot to do is probably not the most overwhelming thing, though. I think the fact that I have so many things to remember is. For example, the person who gives me my keys to the building is not the same person who gives me the code to stop the alarm when I enter it. The lady who sets up my email address is not the same lady who changes my mailing address. My code to use the copy machine is different from my code to log onto the computer. Stephen comes to my room for 1.5 hours a day, but Jeremy is with me all BUT 1.5 hours a day. Oh, and I got two new students in the past 3 days. There are 12 different cables sitting with my computer, but I only actually use six of them and I don't know which six those are. These are not the things you write in your planner. These are things you just know. Well, I guess "you" means people other than myself because I certainly don't know all of the unwritten (and written!) rules yet. Somehow all of this is supposed to come together before next Thursday when my little students enter the classroom for the first time. I have never in my life been so nervous for a first day of school.
We have had professional development training over the past few days. Whenever I am not professionally developing, I am working in my classroom. Everything about setting up my room has taken far longer than I expected (Exhibit A: Computer Cables), and my plight has been especially interesting because the other autism teacher's room is not finished yet. Because of this, we will be sharing a room (17 students and 11 adults) for the first couple of weeks of school until her room is finished. Her things are basically piled in the middle of my room right now because they have nowhere else to go. I am getting stressed out just thinking about it. Lately, I have been coming home and crashing at the end of the day because my brain is just overloaded. Out of everything I have been learning, perhaps one of the most important is that I have a very patient and kind husband who is sweet to me even when I am at the end of my rope and tend to take things out on him at the end of the day. Poor guy.
All worries aside, I have not lost faith in public schools. This has been a topic which has arisen on several occasions lately, and all of my experiences with Roosevelt so far have led me to believe that great things are happening in public schools. I think this is especially true for kids with special needs because public schools provide resources they would not be able to obtain otherwise. (I do sometimes get nervous, though, in thinking about the fact that kids with autism move so that their neighborhood school will be Roosevelt and they can come to the autism program which I will be teaching. Ahh!) Will we send our kids to public school? I guess that's a question for a later date, but for now, I am so happy to be at Roosevelt and to be a part of all that is going on there.
On a different note, my best childhood friend, Carolyn, is in Oklahoma City this week! She is doing a project for work here during the next week and a half, so she will be in and out of our house during that time. We discovered tonight that this stretch of time will be the longest we've been in the same city since I was nine.
Also, my mom, Nana, and cousin (Shawna) came up this past weekend to visit. We enjoyed just sitting around and talking, but I would say that by far my favorite thing was playing games with Nana. She had us all almost in tears because we were laughing so hard as she acted out Mary Poppins and a taxi cab driver in Cranium. And "the delicious midlife crisis" in Apples to Apples was pretty hilarious, too.
Time for this girl to hit the hay. Have a great week. :-)
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
We have had professional development training over the past few days. Whenever I am not professionally developing, I am working in my classroom. Everything about setting up my room has taken far longer than I expected (Exhibit A: Computer Cables), and my plight has been especially interesting because the other autism teacher's room is not finished yet. Because of this, we will be sharing a room (17 students and 11 adults) for the first couple of weeks of school until her room is finished. Her things are basically piled in the middle of my room right now because they have nowhere else to go. I am getting stressed out just thinking about it. Lately, I have been coming home and crashing at the end of the day because my brain is just overloaded. Out of everything I have been learning, perhaps one of the most important is that I have a very patient and kind husband who is sweet to me even when I am at the end of my rope and tend to take things out on him at the end of the day. Poor guy.
All worries aside, I have not lost faith in public schools. This has been a topic which has arisen on several occasions lately, and all of my experiences with Roosevelt so far have led me to believe that great things are happening in public schools. I think this is especially true for kids with special needs because public schools provide resources they would not be able to obtain otherwise. (I do sometimes get nervous, though, in thinking about the fact that kids with autism move so that their neighborhood school will be Roosevelt and they can come to the autism program which I will be teaching. Ahh!) Will we send our kids to public school? I guess that's a question for a later date, but for now, I am so happy to be at Roosevelt and to be a part of all that is going on there.
On a different note, my best childhood friend, Carolyn, is in Oklahoma City this week! She is doing a project for work here during the next week and a half, so she will be in and out of our house during that time. We discovered tonight that this stretch of time will be the longest we've been in the same city since I was nine.
Also, my mom, Nana, and cousin (Shawna) came up this past weekend to visit. We enjoyed just sitting around and talking, but I would say that by far my favorite thing was playing games with Nana. She had us all almost in tears because we were laughing so hard as she acted out Mary Poppins and a taxi cab driver in Cranium. And "the delicious midlife crisis" in Apples to Apples was pretty hilarious, too.
Time for this girl to hit the hay. Have a great week. :-)
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
Monday, August 2, 2010
Rest
Since the end of swim lessons and summer school, I honestly have not had a ton to do. For those who know me very well, this is a rare occurrence. Last week, I had a little more time to myself than usual and was able to finish up a couple of books, as well as spend some much-needed time with friends without stressing about crossing items off on my list of things to do. I find it amazing how much more at peace the soul feels when the body has had rest. Whenever school starts, I want to have as few commitments as possible. I don't want to be lazy, but during my time off, I have noticed that I am a much better friend and wife whenever I am not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I want to be able to actually invest in my students and community in Norman, and to do that, I'm going to need to learn to say "no" to many things that I would normally commit to without a second thought. Yikes. I think it will feel good to breathe, though.
I am currently visiting at my parents' house. Unfortunately, Andrew could not take off work and come with me, but I have been needing this trip all summer. I miss living here. I miss my family and friends. We are obviously supposed to be in Norman right now, and we do know some truly wonderful people there. It would be a lie to say that I never get lonely, though. In the past day and a half, I have gotten to see several of my dear old friends and enjoy great conversations with my parents. I'm really looking forward to the rest of my time here before I head back to Norman for New Teacher Training. (Wow, is this really happening?!)
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
I am currently visiting at my parents' house. Unfortunately, Andrew could not take off work and come with me, but I have been needing this trip all summer. I miss living here. I miss my family and friends. We are obviously supposed to be in Norman right now, and we do know some truly wonderful people there. It would be a lie to say that I never get lonely, though. In the past day and a half, I have gotten to see several of my dear old friends and enjoy great conversations with my parents. I'm really looking forward to the rest of my time here before I head back to Norman for New Teacher Training. (Wow, is this really happening?!)
In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel
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