This is where I work. For me, it is the best job ever! I only work 4 1/2 hours a day, I get weekends, summers, and days off when my kids have off. I have minimal prep and the classes I have to take online to keep me current and up-to-date as a certified preschool teacher are easy and paid for by my employer. They train me to renew my CPR and First Aid certificate each year, so I'm always current, which makes me feel good knowing I could help someone in an emergency.
I have worked here for 8 years now and I am not tired of it. I love going in each morning to the smiling faces of children who love me as their teacher. I get excited to teach them new concepts and skills. Best of all, I love that I can put behind me all my worries over my personal life (life's full of worries when you have kids, especially teens!). It really is helpful to know that part of my job is putting on a good face for these kids and showing them love, no matter what else may be occurring outside of Red Bell.
This year I have had some bigger "challenges" at school. Such as at the beginning of the year when we had to handle the situation with a student telling his friends about the gun at his house. That was a little disconcerting. His parents chose to remove him from our school after all the conversations with Red Bell's owner and the police. Also, this year I have had to be more proactive in setting boundaries over the kids' conversations about bodily functions and body parts that aren't appropriate for 4-year-olds to be discussing so many times! It had been getting out of hand, so I've had to tell them that they can save those conversations for their homes. Some of them get out of control with laughter about it. My mom side thinks it's kind of funny and wants to just roll my eyes and move on, but my teacher side knows that if they can't learn about things that are appropriate to say and not to say now, then they might have a problem with it later.
Then there's the issue of showing body parts. Yes, one kid mooned his friends in the reading loft. I had to call his parents and send notes home to the parents of the kids who witnessed it. The same kid showed his front side to a friend under the table at lunch. We took a bit stronger action on this one. I have met with his parents in person now, and things are looking up.
The thing is for me, these kids who act up like this are no more or less my favorites. I love them all and know I need to word things differently or change things up to help with the kids who are acting up.
The biggest blow this year was that my assistant, who I have had since the fall of 2020, has left. She took off for the month of November to help her elderly family members in Canada. My bosses don't usually do that, but she assured them that she was coming back. She did come back for December and January, but then she wanted to put her 2 weeks' notice in at the end of January. She told me that she was having a hard time putting on a good face for the students and then being overwhelmed with her life when she was off work. I get it, but I was sad to see her go. However, the main boss wasn't happy with that because she had promised to return, which she did, but the end of the school year would have been better. At any rate, he told her she would have one more day and not two weeks. So it was kind of abrupt.
On Monday, my new assistant, who happens to be my good friend Karyn Kish and was the sub who was in my class in November, jumped right in. I was a little nervous about the flow of things just because Adriana and I had worked for so long together and she has her Early Childhood Associates Degree. I was also nervous because I was supposed to go to Jury Duty on Tuesday, after only one day of having Karyn there. The last stressor was that it was the first week of Parent/ Teacher conferences and I had some things to gather for that. Needless to say, it was the most stressed I have ever been with this job!
By some miracle, I didn't have to go in for Jury Duty, which was even more of a miracle because we had a couple of sick teachers at the beginning of the week and we now have no subs. When I found out I didn't have to go to Jury Duty on Tuesday, it took a major load off me!
The rest of the week went very smoothly. Karyn learned a lot in 5 days. When she subbed in November, I didn't teach her all the ropes, but she knows them now! She was even able to manage the class during choice time while I slipped out for some Parent/Teacher conferences.
While I definitely miss Adriana, I'm happy my friend Karyn can work with me now. And I still love my job!
