One week down!

So we started school this year with an optional partial day called "Jumpstart Day".  Because our school district added a new high school and had a major reconfiguration changing the 8-9 buildings and the 6-7 buildings to 6-8 buildings and sending all the 9th graders to high school, they decided to offer an optional day to check the building out and meet the teachers.  After that, we hit the ground running!

The first few days were all about scheduling issues in the Guidance Office.  Our enrollment is too large and our schedule is too tight to accomodate the students' electives.  It has been one hot mess!  I am fortunate to work with two other counselors (one a School Counselor and the other an Outreach Counselor) and an amazing registrar.  I listened to how they handled the disgruntled parents and students and took my cue from them!  :)

I have been surprised that I am expected to help out with the 1.5 hours of lunch duty.  This isn't such a bad thing.  It is giving me a chance to meet the students and see how they interact.  Not my favorite thing, but I can definitely use this time to my advantage when working with kids!

I am still adjusting to so much freedom.  As a teacher, every minute of my day was planned.  Now, I have to make lists and decide how I am going to manage my day.  It is such a weird feeling!!

I don't know if I am dreaming or what, but right now I can actually come home and NOT have to write lesson plans or grade papers!  I can come home and enjoy my family.  This is so amazing!  I LOVE IT!

Another part of counseling that I love is that I DON'T HAVE TO WRITE SUB PLANS!  I don't even have to get a sub!  It is AWESOME!!!!!

So far, I love my new position!  :)

Settng up office! :)

I found this article today about success in middle school.  There are some great tips for students and parents alike.  Seven steps to succeeding in middle school

I am hoping to set up my office tomorrow, but we shall see if they will let me.  The offices were painted last week and floors were waxed on Friday so I could not get in when I wanted to last week.  Hopefully I will have access soon!  :)

My office is tiny.  The size of a large closet.  It does have a window.  In a way, it is good that it is small because it means that I will have less room to accumulate stuff.

I went shopping at Target and Kohl's last week and bought some decorations.  They have painted the room a sea green color.  My favorite colors are pinks and purples and I think they will look really good with the green.  I bought several decorations that will just stick on the wall.  They are supposed to be removable.  I bought purple butterflies that are 3 dimensional, a poster that says, "Keep it real", a poster with several different sayings that I plan to cut up and put all over the wall.  I also bought a stand lamp with 6 different arms and small shades in pinks and purples.  I might look for a fun rug.  We have a blue bean bag chair at home.  I am thinking that maybe my mom would like to sew a fun cover for it so it would match the rest of the office.

I've been thinking about books that I would like in my office.  Found a whole stack of them to bring in!