in aswer to your questions

i'm writing while watching house, so this might or might not make sense, but i'm too tired to stay up later, and "inquiring minds want to know" so i'll give a brief update. i got up, once again, around 5:30am and began my teaching life again. the hot shower was effective at waking me up, and though we didn't have any milk for coffee, we had some of those grocery store frappuccinos from starbucks that gave me a bit of a caffine/sugar jolt. the drive to zebulon was actually beautiful as i saw the sun rise over the highway and light pink on the clouds. [blurry pictures do not even begin to show the beauty]
i got in to school to find that, though they told me i'd be "observing" my kids for 2 days, i was actually supposed to teach. so i freaked out a bit in my head, got furious a bit in my head, kicked myself a bit in my head, and then went and found the copy machine... for real.

the first day was ok. the kids are definitely different from my leap kids... i have no experience teaching "normal" 6th graders, but the parents at east wake are SOOOO much nicer than the ones at smith. they were excited for me to be joining them, and i've gotten nothing but smiles and good feedback so far instead of questioning glares and demands. that's nice.

east wake is just SO so different. the frustrating thing is that i have the same class of kids 3 times in a day. once in the beginning of the day for an unstructured, ungraded "homeroom", once for lunch, which they eat in the classroom since there's no cafeteria, and once at the end of the day for antoher unstructured, ungraded "6th grade elective" - fun.

i was tired and grumpy when i got home, but my lovely husband took me out to dinner at 518 West, where we enjoyed a fantastic dinner and 1/2 off bottle of wine!
the second day was a little better, the kids are adjusting to my more-strict-than-the-substitute attitude, so we shall see. i'm wary of teaching in general, but i do appreciate not feeling like i'm under the microscope anymore. i actually feel like a respected professional for the first time since i started teaching. like i said, we shall see.

now it's time for some planning and law&order. yay!