Hello all Blog Readers! Well, Jeremiah and I have finished our first week teaching in Porterville! It went so well, and we both are really excited about the school year. I have lots and lots and lots of prep work to do every day because I have 3 different classes that I am teaching: 7th and 8th grade history and 9th grade Success 101... but the good news is that, if I do a good job this year, next year will be much easier because there won't be quite as much planning involved! So, that is motivation to work hard now, for sure. Also, our kids are fantastic, and that is a HUGE blessing! Jeremiah loves teaching his 8th grade english class - he is so lucky because he teaches only that class, and it is the same class he taught at Compton last year...same textbook too. (well, he also teaches a reteach/enrich class for those struggling in his classes, but I don't know if that's totally considered another entire class to plan for.... - we're competing on who has more work!) Overall, I think we can both agree that it is so much fun and so rewarding to be in charge of our very own classrooms. We both have really nice classrooms, and we both work with fantastic staff members who are kind, helpful and supportive. I think this year will fly by, but I also believe that we are going to enjoy ourselves so much. It is great to live within 5 minutes from our school campuses - we are spoiled for sure. Jeremiah has back to school night this week, so he gets to meet all of the parents of his kids, and mine will come up in a few weeks. For me, it is hard to believe that we're actually here, actually hired, actually teaching and working in the field that we prepared so much for!
Update on Jeremiah: This past weekend my parents came to town so that Jeremiah could go to a follow-up doctor appointment. Turns out that his tests weren't really positive, and that everything on the endocrinology side of things is functioning perfectly normal. So from here, we will be visiting with some local doctors in town who will perhaps do further testings and evaluations. The superintendant of our schools was so concerned about Jeremiah that he set us up with a doctor in town that he uses, and on top of that, he got this doctor to agree to not bill us for the appointments until our district health insurance kicks in! We were completely blown away by his kindness, but this goes to show you how amazing it is to live and work in this community.
It was wonderful to spend time with mom and dad Weinberg, and we had fun celebrating their wedding anniversary here at a yummy steak restaurant in town, the Oak Pit - they say they serve the best steaks in town...but I think they serve the ONLY steaks in town.. :) My principal had actually taken our entire staff to lunch there one afternoon, so that is how I knew about it. We also went for a nice drive yesterday and shared with them some of the beauty that we've gotten to experience since moving here. Thankfully, we were all completely healthy this time around!
By the way, the above pictures were taken at Sequoia National Park. We were supposed to go there with Mom Napper and Charlene, but Jeremiah had decided to spend that weekend in L.A. that weekend instead of the park (how dare he!) So, while we will definitely go back there again the way we had planned, the two of us spent last Saturday exploring the beauty of the park because there was no gate access fee last weekend! It was a wonderful place to visit before the craziness of school began!
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