Highlights of the week

-Establishing some connections with other staff members at Mahtomedi. Slowly but surely, I am feeling more and more comfortable being at the school. Friday was my first pepfest on the "teacher" side... Which was interesting but enjoyable.
>And on that note, Jana and I chaperoned the Silverbelle dance last night with a group of other teachers from the high school. Silverbelle is the equivalent of a Snodaze winter formal.... And that was also an interesting experience. I was very surprised by how well behaved the kids were. It was the crowd surrounding the dance that we had trouble with... The St. Paul Winter Carnival Vulcan crew was staying within the area that the kids were mingling before the dance(no idea what the significance behind the Vulcans is, but I concede it is an excuse to take a week off of work to party for five days in February as a Minnesota resident). Long story short, a bunch of rowdy, drunk middle aged couples harassing and being inappropriate toward our well behaved students. It was sort of an interesting parallel.

-Planning my first unit and getting the fine-tuned details all straightened out. I start tomorrow! This week will be an interesting week to "get my feet wet" so to speak and get a feel for what my teaching style is. I've learned a lot about positive classroom management over the last few days just from observing other teachers so this will hopefully come in handy as I take over things on my own.

-Church, both this Sunday and last. And not only that, but the devotional I've been reading has been phenomenal for me, especially in these last few days of change. I'm going to blog about it soon.

-Officially reaching the "less than a month" mark with Dusty moving back home! Can you believe it? I can't hardly myself.

-Homemade chicken nachos made by my friend Christie for me, Katie and Betsy on Thursday night.

-Spending Friday evening with my whole family, including the dog, but minus my sister, in downtown St. Paul to look at the ice sculptures and have dinner at Cosettas. It was a great way to end my week and get some time with the fam.

It's amazing how the peace of God worked into calming my nerves over the unknowns of the past week. We will see how this week goes since I am now taking over classes, but I am more confident in myself than I was last Sunday, that's for sure. I have even been getting sleep at night!

More to update on later I'm sure....