One of the reasons I LOVE being a teacher...

One of the reasons I love being a teacher is that we get long breaks during the year. Today was my last day of teaching until Jan. 7th, 2008. I love my job and working with my kids, but sometimes a break is needed so I can recharge my batteries. This time of year is especially busy with report cards and conferences. And if you're a special ed. teacher, you still have to keep up with the IEPs, Individualized Education Plans for each of the students. Any way, that boils down to a lot of paperwork and extra hours during this time of year. But it's all worth it to be able to work with these precious children. I am looking forward to resting, cleaning and organizing my house, and of course, spending some time organizing my classroom and curriculum. I can't seem to stay away from work.

I also just finished my student teaching for my Intern Specialist Credential. My teacher informed me that I got an A. I was supprised, as it seemed everytime she came in the lessons never went quite right. Oh well, I guess we are always harder on ourselves.

With the completion of the student teaching, I have finished the requirements for the Level I credential. I now need to do Level II. Both levels need to be completed in order to qualify for the credential. In order to meet the requirements for the Level II credential, I need to take some more classess and teach two years with my Level I credential. I will need to complete the requirements of the Level II credential within five years of receiving the Level I credential. I'm not sure how that will work since when Todd and I are blessed with children I will be staying home and not working. It would be nice to have in case something happened and I needed to go back to work. Since there is a great need for special education teachers, having this credential would give me more job security. I am a strong believer in education and in being prepared for whatever unseen circumstances might happen, so I will probably continue my education throughout my life. But of course, my family will always be first.

Today was fun. When the kids came into class there were presents under the tree from Santa. Each of them got a book. It's funny how honest kids are. Santa really tried to get each of them a book that they would enjoy. However, while most of the students seemed to enjoy their presents I still heard a few comments such as "I thought it was a toy." and " This is for babies." Oh well. Not even Santa can please everyone. My aid, who owns a pizza shop also brought pizza for everyone. It was a nice little party.