I'm pretty excited to get started with school again, because it means I'm one step closer to the Education program, which means I'm one step closer to graduating and teaching. If someone had asked me a year ago if I thought I would go into teaching, I would have been hesitant to answer. I thought teaching was what my mom did and, great as she is, I didn't want to feel like I was just joining the "family business."
Then I decided to take some time off of school despite everyone telling me it was a horrible idea and that it would be so hard to go back and that most people don't go back. I applied for a bunch of crappy jobs that I was overqualified for (the first one that springs to mind was Petco) and I got maybe 2 interviews and no job offers.
I became a substitute para in the process and went from school to school, grade to grade, disability to disability. I found that not only did I love teaching kids, but I enjoyed middle schoolers, who have always made me uncomfortable because they reminded me of my own awkward youth.
So I subbed for a semester and then was offered a full-time position for the 2011-2012 year, which is where I'm currently at. I'm not a typical para though. Since I want to go into education, I am constantly making things, creating lessons and talking to my special ed supervisor to see what else I can do. I want to suck up as much as possible because unlike many of my co-workers, being a para is not where I see myself in ten years. I am a teacher, despite the para label.
So off of that rant. I'm going back to school. I'm loving all of my jobs. And I'm addicted to Pinterest.
Wait, what? How does Pinterest come into play? First of all, Pinterest is this extremely addictive website that lets you "pin" pictures of clothes, teaching ideas, home decor, recipes, you name it, to virtual "pinboards." I'm on it far more than can possibly be considered healthy.
Anyway, I found this lady's blog because of Pinterest. For her 38th birthday, she decided to do 38 random acts of kindness. She really inspired both my mom and myself. My birthday is in about two weeks and I thought, hey, I can do 23 random acts of kindness.
But then I realized something. I'm 23. I still like to go out for my birthday and I want to be able to be fairly lazy on my birthday, so that's probably not going to work. Instead, I decided to take the idea and tweek it a bit.
I'm going to do a Season of Giving. What I'm hoping will come out of the project is roughly one act of kindness a day. They may be little things that people thank me for but don't expect, or little things that strangers can never repay, or bigger things.
Some of my ideas include:
- Pay for the person's breakfast or coffee behind me in the drive through.
- Make treats for my kids at school.
- Serve a meal at the homeless shelter.
- Volunteer at the Humane Society (not only loving on the dogs, but making sure they get out to use the restroom).
- Shoveling a neighbors sidewalk.
- Two of my kiddos at school have their own room, I'm hoping to secretly decorate it on a Friday, so they come in surprised on Monday.
- Bring in either baked goods or donuts to the school lounge.
- Bring in treats to work at the Buckle.
- Donate some of the clothes that I don't really need to the kids at the group home.
- Knit a scarf or two for the Special Olympics.
- Help someone bring their groceries or bags to their car.
This is just a rough list of ideas. I'm hoping that most days will just have a "holiday spirit giving" idea that jumps out at me.
Another one of my goals is to take some pictures to share with you guys. I'm thinking if I take pictures of certain things, like the scarves, or making treats for my kids, it'll keep me motivated and perhaps make me a better (read: more consistent) blogger.
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