Mrs. Bligh's Classroom

Friday afternoon I recieved an email officially offering me a position at JLU!! This morning I went in and filled out all the paperwork to be the Lead Teacher for the Preschool Classroom!!!

I am currently the only teacher for the preschool rooms and I have six children pre-enrolled. They are still looking for a second teacher in my room, which may take a while to find a qualified candidate.

My mind is filled with ideas and plans for my room and my students. Since I have a brand new room, I get to have a say in what furniture and which toys and supplies I would like to have, how many bulletin boards will be available and where they will be placed, and how the room is arranged. I also get to plan most of the lessons for September ahead of time since I currently do not have a co-teacher to plan with.

The center is open to staff starting the 16th of August and from that point on I will be able to go in and arrange my room and get ready for the first day. I am very excited and thankful for this position and look forward to all it will offer!

Weekend Adventures

Phil and I split up this weekend. Now, before you all start freaking out and try to figure out what's wrong, let me explain :) We only went separate ways geographically, not maritally.

Friday morning Phil dropped me off in Seneca Falls where I met up with my Mom and one of her good friends, Lori. From there, Phil went back to Appalachian and I spent the weekend in Ithaca.

Since the wedding Phil has had little opportunity to go home and spend time with his friends and family, with the exception of holidays. Phil was able to go spend time with his brother, brother-in-law, and Scott, one of our groomsmen and Phil's oldest friends.

Friday was supposed to be girls day at Sonnenburg Gardens in Canandaigua, but the rain and humidity changed our plans. Instead, we enjoyed shopping at the outlet mall in Waterloo; trying on clothes, shoes, and finding purses and sun dresses.

Saturday morning my grandfather took me to the mall on his motorcycle!! (I have a not-so-secret love for motorcycles. My mother had one when I was in high school and I took every opportunity to ride. When we have a garage Phil says I can get one of my own!)

I met up with my friend Christy and we enjoyed a long overdue date. Chirsty and I have been friends since 8th grade, but since our sophomore year in college we have been able to spend less and less time together. We ate lunch, drank coffee, and played with toys at Target while discussing life, marriage, and her upcoming wedding. We ended our afternoon sitting on the stage in the Boarders kids department reading children's books and watching adorable Italian and Asian children play with the toys and books. (this is a favorite pastime of ours)

After church on Sunday my parents and I headed to Whitney Point to my Aunt and Uncle's house, where Phil rejoined me that afternoon. Dan and Dar Thorp celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and her mom and their daughter Katie threw a party for them. Family and friends gathered together to celebrate over food, cake, and games. It was a wonderful afternoon. Perhaps the best part was the combining of families.

My dad's parents got divorced when he and his brother and one of his sisters were kids and the two sides of his family have rarely done anything together outside of my parent's invitations. Growing up we either got together with the "Thorps" or the "Wards" but rarely were both sets of families together except at graduation parties or my wedding. Through wedding related activities Auntie Dar and Aunt Mindy, each from a different side of the family, became acquainted and facebook friends. The Wards were invited to the anniversary party and it was great to see both sides together and making memories.

All in all it was a great weekend and full of memories.

Welcome to Mrs. Bligh's Classroom?

Whenever I hear the words, "Mrs. Bligh...." it is usually in a classroom. While student teaching last Fall my students called me Mrs. Bligh, or Mrs. B, day in and day out. Since going back to school however, I have not been referred to by my last name, just Sharon. This may be changing in the very near future...

If you've been following me at all on Facebook in the last few weeks you may have read some posts about a potential teaching job that I have been interviewing for. Let me take a moment to fill you all in:

There is a new, Christian-based childcare center opening about 6 houses down the block from where we live that is hiring new teachers. The undergrad Teacher Education secretary emailed me a few weeks ago about the center and that they were looking for teachers for the preschool classroom starting in September. Now, I wasn't originally going to apply for a teaching position anywhere while working on my masters, but hey, this place is literally right down the road, it's Preschool, it's daycare, so why not check it out, right?? So I did.

The center is still being built (the dry wall just went in at the end of last week), but it will have 2 infant rooms, 2 toddler rooms, 2 preschool rooms, and one school-aged room (for before and after school care). It has a kitchen, play yard, and main office. Pretty much a mini-school minus the gymnasium. And did I mention it's within walking distance? yeah...just saying it would be crazy NOT to apply at this point, right?

So I did. I filled out the application, updated the resume, and wrote a cover letter. Two days later I got an email from Leslie, the owner, asking for a phone interview the following week. So last Wednesday I went to Tim Hortons, ordered a cup of hazelnut coffee with two sugars (my regular, in case anyone wants to order me coffee in the future), and sat down at a table. A few moments later Leslie calls and we talk about the center, the position they are considering me for, and my educational/childcare background. The interview went really well and after 15 minutes they scheduled a face-to-face with me for the following week.

Today was the face-to-face interview. I drove to a church in Hilton, about 15 minutes away, where they are conducting their interviews until the center is available to use (hopefully next week). I stopped for a cup of Tim Horton's coffee-hazelnut with two sugars (in case you missed it last time), waited in line at the lift-bridge over the canal which is under construction (why didn't I know they were doing construction today? there weren't any signs anywhere...grrr), and still arrived early. Quickly checking my hair in the rear view mirror, I chewed a breath mint (to counteract the coffee), grabbed my portfolio off the passenger seat, and walked inside. After introducing myself to Leslie, the owner, and Nancy, the director of education, I set my portfolio down on the table, sat down, and the interview started. Almost immediately Nancy starts flipping through my portfolio and seemed very impressed. Inwardly I'm thinking to myself "So glad I spent all that time keeping that thing up to date and organized." (Note: My portfolio barely fits into a 3"binder, is looks like it was organized by someone who is anal-retentive, and is full of pictures, school papers relating to education, lesson plans, observations, etc. etc. It's been a work in progress for almost 6 years, so I'm very proud of it and most places don't even look through them anymore.) The three of us discussed the job, planning lessons, childcare values, working with co-teachers, etc. I got to ask a number of questions about the room I will be in, the center security system (which is very cool--everyone gets in the building via a touch screen computer system with personalized ID numbers and a thumb scanner), the curriculum, and state policy changes since the last time I worked in a day care 2 years ago.

All in all, this interview went even better than the phone interview, if that was even possible. I will return to Hilton tomorrow morning to do a working interview with two other candidates in the other classrooms. We will have time to plan out a week-long unit and then teach mini-lessons to 4 children. This will be the last step in the interview process and then they will check my references and hopefully give me the job. Oh yeah, did I tell you what I officially am being considered for? The Lead Teacher for the first Preschool room!!! Perfect, right??

While my heart's desire is still to work in a self-contained or inclusive preschool for children with special needs, this daycare is a close second when it comes to dream jobs. I love the daycare setting, the age of my students, and having my own classroom. If I get the position, which I am fairly confident that I will, I will be co-teaching with one other person in a classroom of 14-16 three and four year olds.

I'm very excited and am glad that I didn't overlook this great opportunity. Stay tuned for how tomorrow's working interview goes!!

For more information on the center, check out: www.jluchildcare.com

And if you live in the Spencerport area, they are still taking applications child care!!

...and the ring is found!

This morning Phil found his wedding ring...inside the pocket of his shorts. Thing is he checked the shorts a few times in the store when he thought he had lost the ring....but at least we found it! Now if we could just work on that memory and pocket-searching skills....haha.

Triple Dates and Lost Wedding Rings

Last night Phil and I went out for a triple date night with two of my college roommates and their boyfriends. Samantha, Cherish, and I lived together at Roberts two years ago during my senior year and we have been great friends ever since. (ok, so we were friends before then too, but even closer afterward :-D ) The six of us met up at Movies 10 in Henrietta to watch Robin Hood. (If you haven't seen it, we all recommend it! It was very well done, not too gory for being an action film, and was fairly historically accurate.) Afterward we went to Tim Hortons/Cold Stone for ice cream and coffees. It was a great evening of catching up and laughing together. Hopefully it won't be 4 months before we all get together again. Although it very well may be that long since Samantha and Dan are both leaving the area in a month.

After being out late last night and sleeping in this morning, Phil and I relaxed around home for the first part of the day. While I was curled up on the bed listening to the music from GLEE and reading a book for class, Phil comes in and decides we are going to the mall.

For the past week he has been talking about finally buying the latest expansion for one of his MMO's, Ever Quest II. It has been out for a while but we have been contentedly playing World of Warcraft so he hadn't yet bought it. For the past few days I have tuned him out as he repeatedly changed his mind about buying the expansion or not. Today he finally decided it was worth buying it, so we went to the mall.

After he bought his game I made him go with me to Michaels to look at scrapbooking supplies. This was a personal achievement for me, as he HATES craft stores and has sworn to never set foot in JoAnne Fabrics again. (Perhaps this is because he waited in line at the fabric counter with me for 2 hours the weekend before halloween a few years ago. I think he's scared for life.)

After dragging him around the store for half an hour we were finally checking out when he looks down at his hand and exclaims, "My ring is gone!"

"What?" I asked, distractedly sliding my card through the machine.

"My wedding ring. It's gone."

"Are you sure? Did it fall off in your pocket?"

"No. I've checked. And it wasn't even loose." (Which it wasn't. He has to lather it up with soap to take it off anytime we get it cleaned.)

Racking our brains for where he might have lost it, we retraced our steps around the store with the cashier on her walkie talkie asking if any employees have seen it. No luck. It wasn't anywhere. We left our number with the cashier in case it shows up later.

We went back through the mall, retracing all our steps and leaving our numbers in the different stores we had stopped at. We also went to security. So far no one has called us back. Hopefully it will show up soon and we will get it back. If not, I think I will make him get a tattoo ring so he can't loose it again.

Welcome!

It's hard to believe that Phil and I got married over a year ago!
We celebrated our first anniversary the week of May 23rd by going camping at Lakeside Beach State Campground. Although it was cold and we had a some rain, we enjoyed spending quality time together in the outdoors. We spent most of the time fishing, which has become our new summer hobby this year.
We are happy to note that our 'one month' anniversary on June 23rd passed without incident this year. For those of you who don't know, last year we woke up late, got locked INSIDE our apartment (thanks to a faulty dead bolt and lock system), and ended up at work two hours late. After working for about an hour I went down the hall to warm up my lunch which resulted in second degree burns between my fingers and on the palm of my left hand. We are thankful that this year passed by without further incident.
Summer is under way and we are enjoying the nicer weather. Phil is working part time for the school still and working on developing a phone application. He has one more class to take in the fall and will then be officially done!
I graduated in December from Roberts Wesleyan and returned again in January to start my Masters in Special Education. I've spent the summer taking classes, one of which is over, the other just starting, and a third almost over. I started working on my thesis project which has consumed most of my energy the past weeks and I will be glad to take a break soon!!
Keep checking in for updates on our lives! We hope to hear from many of you soon,
Sharon and Phil