School Starts

While driving back to Utah from Maryland, and shortly after I unpacked, a few different school districts contacted me to set up interviews for teaching and assistant teaching assignments.  Since I'm new at this, and have only held one position, for half a year so far, 

I was delighted and surprised that anyone wanted to interview me.  

By Friday of last week, I signed on with this amazing charter school, as a "para professional."

While my background isn't in Special Ed, and of course, I wanted a full-time teaching position, working for Spectrum Academy was clearly a great opportunity.  It's a brand new campus in Pleasant Grove, Utah, the second of what I believe will be a chain of schools 

specifically designed for students with Autism.  The staff consists of some of the most dedicated, sincere, fun and loving people I've ever met.  

Steve Phelps will never be boring to any student, I'm certain, as he's teaching 

6-7th graders math.  I got some really fun ideas from him!

His class is next to Jackie Jeppson's, the amazing woman

I was privileged to work with all week.

We attended training meetings and put Jackie's class together.  

She's been teacher-of-the-year twice.  A combination of 

kind, driven and tolerant, she's put up repeatedly

with a malfunctioning elevator for most of the week 

and ongoing last minute construction and missing deliveries of supplies.

Classes begin for Spectrum on Tuesday.
Hopefully there will be chairs in the room!

Jackie's daughter, Sky, helped immensely as we created posters for the wall.  She's a runner and soccer player, as well as an artist and Honor's English student at her new school.  Jackie and her daughter moved here for this teaching opportunity.  A single mom, Jackie's 

teaching her children to be achievers just like she is!

Friday morning my cell phone rang, and I answered it in Spectrum Academy's parking lot.  When the principal of Box Elder High School offered me a full-time teaching assignment for 11th grade English Language Arts, I didn't know how to respond.  In my week of working with Spectrum's staff, I'd grown quite attached...and I was worried, having no desire to sever that connection irreparably.

On the other hand, secondary English is my certification subject, and English was my major at BYU.

Fortunately, the staff at Spectrum are as supportive of their staff's best interests
as they are of their students'.

So, starting tomorrow, exactly one week later, I begin a brand new adventure!

Tomorrow morning the sun will rise over a different horizon.  It's exciting.  And, it's terrifying.
Mostly, though, I'm looking forward to this new dawn!