From the bottom of the pool...

Who knew that 2nd graders could be so terrifying? Or so energetic? Or so loud?

Actually, I think I knew that last one...

In a bizarre and unexpected turn of events, I am now the Music Specialist at Westmore Elementary. That's right, I teach music to the 1st and 2nd graders for an hour every day. How did such a strange thing happen, you ask? Let me 'splain...

My wonderful sister-in-law Bekah teaches 4th grade at Westmore. Earlier this summer, she thought there might be some openings for teachers' aides for the new school year and I thought that sounded great, especially if I reached the end of the summer still job-less.

Bekah called me Monday to let me know there were indeed some aide openings and gave me the needed information. "Oh, and if you're interested, they also need a music teacher." The pay was good, the hours short, and I thought, why not? It's a job, after all. I'll just go in and interview and see what happens.

I went in to interview and ten minutes later, I had the job, more or less. There were some technicalities to work out, but if I wanted it, the job was mine. Did I want it? I said I did. I planned my first lesson, took notes from Bekah on how to run a class, and went early this morning to set up, prep, and wait.

And then the children came in...and every carefully prepared speech left my head, every structured and organized minute flew away, and in the hands of twenty-nine restless, talkative, easily distracted seven-year-olds and one particularly disruptive child, my first hour of teaching was not what I would term a success.

Granted, no one got hurt, no one threw up, no one cried (except possibly me much later), and I did get them to sing in more or less unison at one point, so perhaps I could give myself some credit. For my very first ever day teaching with a class that is known to be hard to handle, perhaps it wasn't so very bad.

Well...yeah, it was still that bad.

I have a new plan for tomorrow's class and I know that this teaching thing will get better and easier over time. But I can't help stopping and wondering, how the heck did I get here? From hired to teaching in two days, I jumped in with both feet and hit the bottom of the pool running. I am determined not to drown...and who knows? I may even learn to swim.