training and etc.

in the world of jordyn, i am tired. i guess that's what a full-time job does to you.

today was my first day attending my georgia pre-k training sessions. i have four days of class this year and the first two are today and tomorrow. training is from 8:30 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. i was bored just reading that. i sighed. i huffed. i refused to even blow-dry my hair. i was prepared for a long boring day.

i was in for a surprise. it was actually really good. it wasn't a reiteration of all my tfc classes. it wasn't a bunch of people that had no idea what a preschool class is like. i never even had to sit for long periods of time. it was so fun! i learned a lot of cute new songs. i saw some really clever puppets. i got some really good ideas for math activities. i got some great insights on behavior management -- which is a big deal if you know how strict georgia pre-k is about behavior management practices (no public positive or negative discipline chart, no time out, no negative class rules, no rotating students at centers, no limiting the number of students at centers, etc.). and i get to do it all again tomorrow. except tomorrow i learn about: assessment, science, and language arts.

i think ben has enjoyed all of the new songs and dances and rhymes as well. :)

preschool: day one.

these are my reflections on my first day of preschool:
ben graciously took me to breakfast this morning (i have to add that it was at 6:45, that is love people). it was a delicious and filling breakfast at subway, which i know sounds disgusting but apparently its not.

i arrived at school ready with all my whatnots and papers and whatnots. i read a great story about a monster that went to school and was bad, so we made rules for the monster and our class. we colored our own monsters and added google-y eyes. we learned about a couple of centers. we learned how to make a choo-choo train (aka: a line), we went outside. we ate lunch. some napped. some just squirmed for an hour and a half (their choice, and in fifteen or so short years they will see the ignorance in that decision. seriously, who doesn't like nap time?) we snacked. we music'd and movement'd. we read the kissing hand and made our own kissing hands. we went outside again. and i sent them with their mommy's and daddy's. of course, it didn't all flow quite this smoothly but hey it is the first day. we had fun.


i am exhausted.

i'm a real teacher.

as i write this, i am sitting here with my peppermint latte, my biscotti & my benjamin. this is all things good. except that ben just took a bite of my biscotti. i don't know how i feel about that.

tonight we are celebrating my first open house as a teacher. a real teacher.

my first offical learning moment of my teaching career happened tonight. i learned that i need to study the names of the students on my roster before meeting them. a four year old can tell you their name but that doesn't mean you'll be able to decipher the mumbles coming out of their mouth. i needed a cheat sheet tonight. i needed to be able to hear the mumble and haphazardly match it to a name on the list. it's good to learn things. even at the ripe, old age of 22.

all that being said, four year olds are fun. i love how they just run into the world wide open and make up stuff as they go along. at what age do you stop doing that? i asked a girl on the playground that was "driving a truck" where she was going. she looked at me for a few seconds. then said, "walmart!" (of course, this is toccoa...). none of that i-don't-know crap. four year olds always know. even if they make it up on the spot. i love it.

this is going to be good.

sick-ish

today i am sick. well, i like to refer to it as sick-ish. yeah. that sounds better. and "sick-ish" means that ben doesn't keep a ten foot radius away from me, which he would if i was "sick."

i'm going to break this down for you.

symptoms:
sore throat yesterday, not today
runny, drippy nose, just today, not yesterday
congestion (aka: deep, man voice)

here's my plan:

drink. drink. drink. specifically hot drinks. not coffee. so far i've had four cups of tea today.
rest. rest. rest. this is somewhat difficult as i had to get up early and drippy nose makes napping impossible. but yesterday i rested a lot, so i'm not doing too bad.
saline solution. apparently it cleans out the bad stuff from your nose.
soft tissues. duh.

my plan is, after doing much online research (because as we all know people who write things on the interwebs are geniuses), to not take any medications yet. i have a healthy body. low stress, exercise regularly, and with the exception of yesterday's big mac, i eat healthy stuff.

goals:
clean off ben's computer after i write this.
feel good enough to go to yoga on wednesday.
no man-voice for the first day of school.

let's see how this goes.

this is what i do.

as of lately, i am planning, planning, planning. it's kind of weird to be in a stage of constant planning. planning lessons, planning classroom management, planning wedding stuff, planning budget stuff, planning honeymoon stuff, planning moving. etc. today i am planning lessons and classroom stuff. i try to do one thing at a time.

quite frankly, i think i'm an excellent planner. i make great lists, just ask my mom -- it drives her crazy.

school starts in six days and i can't decide whether i'm nervous or excited. i guess i'm a mixture of a lot of both. no, i think i'm more excited. this is what i'm supposed to do, so why be all nervous about it? anxiety is just not in my nature, i think its how i was raised.

here is my planning spread. i'm a floor worker.

happy weekend!

taco.

today, i had the best taco ever. from the flea market. even if it did come from a bus-kitchen. perfect, authentic deliciousness. good company too.

planning with a side of planning.

today was my first day at work. "pre-planning" they call it, should be called "learning how to function amongst georgia pre-k paperwork." i'm still really excited.

now as for the wedding planning aspect of my life, i am proud to report that trent (the trent nickens) has made us the most beautiful wedding invitation words. well, i made the words but he made the typefaces, the spacing, the 'dot matrices', the italics, the etc. the overall prettiness of the words. tomorrow, we make these words into a rubber stamp. the next day, we stamp our little hearts out on 132ish pieces of paper. i love wedding-making.

happy, happy. day.

hummus & hyperness

hear ye! year he!
i have a blog and with this post i am officially a blogger (bloggie? blugger? booger?).

today, i made hummus. i did zumba. i also had coffee with my man, but he got too hyper and had to go home. he'll be back. he is back. singing. loudly. this is love.

yes, that is a day in the life of jordyn.
peace out, sour kraut.