AHHHHH! Finished

Well, as of yesterday I am finished teaching and off for the summer.  Now don't get me wrong, I love my job, but this was a particularly painful year and I am incredibly happy to be finished.  I am looking forward to a long summer filled with relaxation.  For the blog this summer, I intend to read and review a couple of books, and start chronicling a little more spell work (since I will actually have TIME to do more spellwork).  I am also off to the PEI Pagan Gathering later this month.  This year promises to be bigger than ever!  To all the teacher's out there, I wish you health and happiness on the road to relaxation!

Success!!

I want to thank everyone who sent energy or lit a candle to help me get a job.  It was a long and harrowing experience but I managed to get my old job back for another year.  This SHOULD set me up to get a contract next spring so I either won't have to go through job fair again, or I will have a much earlier appt time and, as such, less to stress about. Thank you again for all of your help, I truly feel that it has made a difference.

Energy Request: For a Great Job

I don't normally ask others for assistance in my own life but this is a particularly stressful time of year.  I have to go through Job Fair again (Fair, sounds fun doesn't it? It isn't).  My appointment time pretty much sucks (there are appx 270 people ahead of me and very few jobs).  So, I need some help here.  I am putting out energy for "The job that is best for me, that will make me happy and will further my career"

I need as much help as I can get before Saturday afternoon.  So light a candle, some incense, meditate or just plain pray, I'll take anything!!!

P.S: I am definitely working the mojo for myself, I just feel like I could use an extra boost this year...

Light at the End of the Tunnel

With the coming of the Easter weekend I am, quite literally, leaving the cold of winter behind and entering the beauty of spring.  In teaching, January thru March is an incredibly difficult time of year.  As with everyone, we have to deal with getting up in the dark, being stuck inside a poorly lit, concrete building all day and then emerging in the dark.  The kids are cranky and more disruptive and we have less patience to deal with it.  There are no holidays here after the Christmas break and before the March break.  This time of year often feels like a marathon where we are just striving to reach the finish line without falling flat on our faces.  I did get to have a lovely March break, my mother came to visit and then my fiance returned from Haiti amid much fanfare.  However, once I returned to school I had to settle in for the two week ordeal that is report card season.  I finished those on Thursday but, because of the system that this school uses, I expect I will spend the next week and a half changing things until I am ready to vomit at the thought of opening that program one more time! 

Now comes the home stretch for the year.  This is also theatre season and, since I direct the school's musical, things will not be any less busy between now and June.  But, it is my intention to make more of an effort to reconnect with the spiritual side of life as well as with the friends that I have neglected during these dark and dreary months.  It is time to open the door and let in the light.

A Return and A Rant

I aplogize for my absence this last week.  I do most of my blogging on the weekend but with my surprise engagement last week I was swept into a whirlwind of dinners, visits and congratulations that left me with little time to keep up with the online world.  But now I am back and better than ever!

I am very excited to have purchased a HP Mini Netbook and am now able to blog from the couch! Oh the marvels of technology!! 

In all seriousness, the real purpose for buying a netbook was to eliminate my frustration with the computers at my school.  Having used my home computer, the one at my old school and the one at my new school to create documents meant that the dinosaur I am forced to use at work would not open 3/4 of my files!!! It is incredibly frustrating to get inspired to work on a project only to discover your processor refuses to acknowledge anything created after the invention of the internet!  So now, I have a machine that can travel with me and actually open all of my files.  I also purchased a printer so that I won't have to deal with the antiquated piece of crap that the school board seems to think qualifies as a printer. 

Times like these always make me think about the parents who write into the paper or call the radio stations complaining about teachers being lazy and unconcerned with their child's education (these are particularly prevalent after a snow day - which, I must note, is simply for the safety of your child and is not a decision made by any teacher, but the board in the area).  I would love to provide those same parents with charts displaying the time I spend after my allotted hours, prepping for my classes, correcting student work, discussing issues with parents and staff, creating the school yearbook and directing the school musical (a task that takes at least 5 months).  I would also love to show them the receipts for each teacher in my school and calculate how much each person spends (out of our own pocket!) on supplies to try and better our teaching.  Perhaps I have lofty ideas about the respect that teachers deserve but I come from a small town where teachers were not seen as the enemy, and were appreciated for the extra time that they provide in order to give their students wonderful opportunities and life experiences.  What has happened in our world that we no longer acknowledge the valuable role of educators in the lives of our children? 

The First Day of School Approaches

The first day of school is fast approaching and a day that usually fills me with excited anticipation is now filling me with dread.  I have been teaching at the same school for the last two years, it was a lovely new building with sweet (relatively) well behaving children.  I was happy there, but more than that, I was comfortable there.  This year, I will be moving to a new school.  It is NOT a new building and by reputation the children are NOT well behaved and I am incredibly nervous.   Please don't get me wrong, it has been a very hard year on young teachers and I am thrilled and grateful to have a job, any job.  But I spent a great deal of time at my old school entrenching myself in the community and making myself a vital member of the faculty.  Now I have to start all over and the thought of that is just exhausting.  I hate having to re-build my reputation with staff, parents and most importantly, students.  I hate that sussing out period of time where students push boundaries in order to find out what you are made of.  Perhaps this is simply my Taurus nature coming out.  I have always hated change, I like the known, the secure.  I hate walking into a place and not knowing my way around, and I am terrible at meeting new people.  I can't remember names, I forget details of what people have told me and I either come on too strong or appear completely aloof.  I am a complete mess!  Any suggestions (either magickal or mundane) on how to deal with this whole situation?