Do What I Love and Love What I do !!!!

Howdy all!!!

Long time, no post! I must say that is has been a roller coaster of a ride these past few months. Since Christmas ended, I have been a busy bee, looking for work, getting a job for next year, and then landing a job till the end of this school year!!!!
I am now teaching fourth grade at Odyssey Charter Academy in American Fork, UT and I looooove it. This school is so awesome and amazing and I love my students and the faculty. Ben and Grant are going to be so lucky to be able to go there next year because of all the wonderful programs that it offers. The school is K-8 so they will be able to go there up through high school which makes me very happy. I always wanted to be able to have a profession that my kids can be a part of. They are excited that there mommy is a teacher and everytime they come into my classroom, they offer ideas and make suggestions as to what I should do. One of my favorite things is when I hear them make the comparisons to all the the things that I have that there teachers have too. I love it when they are with me. It makes me feel like I have been able to accomplish all the things that I have ever wanted to, but I don't have the guilt factor associated with wanting to have a career too.
Anway, I guess I should update everyone and let them know how this all came about. Back in January, I interviewed with Odyssey Charter School and was able to get offered a position for the next school year (2009-2010. Can you believe 2010? That seems surreal). I accepted, immediately without any hesitation because I had a a good feeling about the school. The curriculum is amazing. The school uses a program called "Core Knowledge." It is very progressive and stresses the importance of a well balanced background knowledge in History, Science, Art, Literature, Math, and Language Arts. It is truly like recieving a liberal arts education. The students all learn Latin starting in fourth grade and going up through 8th. Class sizes are small, which is very nice, and they are capped, meaning I won't ever have more then 27 students. Parental involvement is very strong and the kids all come very unique and diverse backgrounds. The school also hosts a lot of extra-curricular programs like chess club and drama club, choir... etc. I guess I could say that one of the things that I value the most is that the arts are valued quite highly and integrated all across the curricular board.Unfortunatly with NCLB you are seeing a rapid decline of the arts in public schools. The priamary focus is on Mathand Language Arts. Anyway, I could go on and on... but this is totaly not the point of my post.
I teach fourth grade. I love it. My students are awesome. They are a rowdy bunch;I am not going to lie,but they are so big hearted and really want to try their best. They call me Mrs. D. and some Fridays, when "Mr. D" is off work, he will come play football with them during P.E. The kids love Mr. D. and are always asking about him. It has been interesting because I am used to the sweet, litte, k-3 kids who are docile and teacher pleasers. Especially the little g irls. Something happens to kids when they go from third to fourth grade. My girls are such DRAMA Queens. It is actually quite funny sometimes to listen to them in the hallways and on the playground... My boys are rowdy and rambunctious but that I can handle. :) The girls, I am pretty clueless on. I finally understood why all my teachers sat student's boy, girl. My two most troublesome boys are seated right in the middle of the two most quitest, dainty, little girls. I think secretly, the boys love it. However, this is the age that Freud would called lattent. You don't see a lot of girl and boy interaction at this age. It is rather funny. This is the age of secret crushes and such. I think I had my first crush when I was in fourth grade, but I didn't dare tell the boy I liked. It is so funny how all that works.
Anyway, in taking over this class, I have enjoyed every second of it. I spend at least 15 hours a day in my room trying to organize, plan, and make it my own. Today, I will be up there inputting grades into the computer and adding some finishing touches. I will post some pictures of my progress. The boys will be up there to help me... so I will have company.
This weekend, we are having an Oscar pary at our house for the academy awards. Uncle Jake is coming (Tim's best friend, and football buddy since highschool). Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Sara ( Jakes brother and wife), and the Gross Family. (Mike Gross is another friend of Tim's from high school, who married a lovely girl named Heather. She has a little boy named Easton that my kids adore and he will be coming too.) All in all, it will be a busy weekend, so I better sign off. More later. :)