for dad.

Hello, blogland. I've been MIA for a few weeks. I thought I'd save you the boring details about how I've lived on Mucinex and Robitussin for the last three weeks and wait for something real exciting to happen, but then I got an email from my father begging, no, pleading, me to update my blog. So, Dad, this one's for you.


It's official. I'm now employed by the Vancouver Public Schools as a substitute paraeducator. This was made official last Monday when I went to the district office and picked up my badge.

Tuesday was my first day on the job. VPS has 21 elementary buildings and I can choose to look for jobs in as many of them as I want. I'm not limiting my possibilities just yet because I want to get a feel for as many as possible. They have a sweet little system where jobs are posted and you can have the automated system call you, you call it, or do it all online. Best thing for subs ever. The first school I went to was a Spanish immersion school. It was humongous. There were at least 4-5 classes in each grade, K-5. My day went something like this: pick up a special ed student from the bus and take him to breakfast. Stay with him and make sure he eats. Take him to class. Go to a kinder room for 10 minutes. {There was a sub in there and she didn't speak Spanish which was a bit problematic seeing how I didn't either and the morning work they were supposed to do was written in Spanish. I knew enscribo meant 'write' and that's about as much as I remember from Spanish I and II with Senorita Bell at South Central High.} Back to the schedule - go to another kinder room for reading. Go to first grade for reading. Go to learning center for reading. Lunch duty. Recess duty. Lunch break. 4th-5th special ed for the rest of the afternoon. Get a glow in the dark vest and stop sign flag and walk kids across the street. It looked something like this (minus the dog).

For the record, school crossing guard is not on my list of favorite things to do.

Wednesday and Thursday I was back at Firm Foundation, just in time for Spirit Week. This is about as crazy as I could get for Crazy Hat and Hair Day. Clearly my hat needs shaping and my right ear still sticks out of my hair. If only my parents would've let me have that cosmetic ear surgery where they stitch your flappin' ears back to your head. . . I'm also losing my right eyebrow. It's disappearing. What is up with that? I should probably go buy an eyebrow pencil, but then I'll look like an old lady with fake eyebrows and zits on my chin. Getting old sucks.

Friday I was at another elementary building across town. I got to work with kindergarten. How 'bout one of the kinder teachers has a yellow lab that's a therapy dog named Flo and she brings her to school every day!  I also got to work with small groups in ELL (English Language Learners). Years ago, before Phil505 swept me off my feet, I started my Master's in Literacy in the hopes that I'd get a reading endorsement. I got 7 hours done, moved across the country, and never finished. But now I think that if I ever went back I'd go for something in teaching English as a second language. In just one day I worked with Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Vietnamese speaking students. There are so many different ethnic groups living in our area.

I worked four days last week and I'm booked solid every day this week. Hallelujah.

We also made a visit to the dog park. It's been a few months what with the rain and all, and I thought maybe Wilsy-poo here would forget what it was all about. Not so much. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot he started barking because he knew he was back at his happy place. Made happier on this particular day because there was one lone mud puddle that he happened to clearly enjoy. The one dog in the dog park that finds the one mud puddle, ya, that would be my dog. This picture doesn't even do him justice. Keep in mind that you can't see his feet or belly which were covered in mud. And yes, that is a line of drool across his nose. Gross.