Where the Wild Things Are

This was an all-around perfect weekend. The weather was beautiful -- we woke up to rain on Friday morning which helped with sleeping in on my last lazy weekday for a while. The rains were followed by wonderfully cool weather, clear blue skies, and a strong and lovely wind. We walked into Ybor on Saturday afternoon to see Where the Wild Things Are. This is one of my favorite children's books, and therefore I would normally not be that excited to see the movie because movies based on children's books tend to disappoint me. But something was telling me that I should see this one. And it was definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It is an amazing take on a seemingly simple book, and whoever wrote this screenplay completely *got* this book in the same way I did. It also brought a lot of clarity to some of my biggest questions about life. I know, right?!! So yeah, I recommend it and I highly suggest seeing it! Let me know what you think..

In other news, I took the girls to my new school today, just to let them run around while no one was there, and so that they could see where I would be teaching :). Well, we were able to walk right up to my classroom windows, and I saw a message on the whiteboard: "Welcome Ms. Cook!"...boy did that really get the message home that this is really happening! So after yet another awesome day, I just had a hearty warm meal and am planning on taking a bath and closing my eyes by 9pm. Tomorrow is Day One of the rest of my life as a teacher!!

Much love,

Pea

Annnnnnd

I got the job!!!!! This is just about the best news of my entire life! This means many things:

1) I will be teaching.

2) I will be teaching Kindergarten.

3) I will be a permanent employee for Hillsborough County.

4) I will be co-teaching only 21 students.

Well, teaching is what I was born to do. Teaching kindergarten is what I always dreamed of doing. And being a permanent employee (instead of temporary like last year), no one can ever take my job away from me again. Talk about job security.

The co-teaching thing means that another teacher and I are both in one classroom with one class (21 students is VERY small for a traditional co-teach classroom). The other teacher, Erin, and I can pretty much design our own co-teach model, whether we take turns teaching each day/week or split up subjects, etc. The beauty of it is that every single struggling student can have the extra attention they need, at the very start of their school experience. And ME as one of those two teachers? What lucky ducks my students are!

It is so hard to leave my nannying family -- I've grown to truly love all of them including the other nanny. And while they are pretty upset that I have to leave, they are nothing but supportive and celebratory of this opportunity I've been given. Tomorrow is my last day :( But I will be teaching again -- and forevermore -- starting this Friday!

Prayers are answered at every moment. Life is beautiful. I have so much and I make it my mission to give it all back tenfold. These students are the start.

Much love,
Jamie Pea