I haven’t been spending very much time here lately. My energy has been spent somewhere else…and it isn’t my kitchen.
I’ve been teaching way longer than I’ve been writing about food….really, longer than I’ve been very serious about cooking. I walked into my first classroom, a preschool CDC (self-contained) classroom, almost twelve years ago, a scared-to-death 22-year-old with not so much as a diploma in hand (don’t worry, I was just a week away from graduation!). One of my friends (who was my first supervisor at aforementioned job) took a picture of me on my second day on the job, when we took a field trip to Hamilton Place Mall to visit Santa. I have italicized the terms in the previous sentence because I need you to understand the weight of that situation. I was scared, people. Real scared. And you could see it in my face.
Anyway, I spent almost eight years (short a few months) at that job before moving on to my last job as an elementary exceptional education (i.e. special education) teacher. I spent four years at that job, although it didn’t take me four years to realize that preschool was my home. So, finally, I’m back “home”. I’m a preschool teacher, and the last week has been wonderful. I love my new job and it’s where I need to be right now.
The thing about preschool, though, is that 3- and 4-year-olds are exhausting. Fun, yes….but exhausting. I thought my life in elementary school wasn’t all that different from my life in preschool. I was incorrect. IncorrectaMUNDO. Teaching reading and math requires a lot of….sitting. We did a lot of sitting and a lot of writing. I definitely moved around more than the average desk jockey…but I am now finding out that I didn’t move around half as much as the average preschool teacher (it’s a lot more difficult to go from a lot of sitting to a lot of moving than it is to go from a lot of moving to a lot of sitting as I did four years ago).
I’ve spent a lot of time the last three weeks making forms, writing lesson plans, drawing pictures, painting, reading, singing, and laughing. I’m having a great time. And I am SO TIRED. I can’t remember the last time I was this tired, to be perfectly honest. We’ve eaten out a lot (hence the increased volume of restaurant reviews). I haven’t taken many pictures, and I nearly cried at the prospect of going to the grocery store tonight (I did manage to suck it up and get the job done). What I’m trying to say is….there have been other things on my mind lately. I’ve got to get my preschool groove back. It’ll come, but until then, there will be a little less of me to go around.
That said, if anyone has any suggestions for recipes, restaurants, Friday lists, or other topics, let me know. My brain is tired too!
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