I am practically peeing my pants here

... with glee, that is. GLEE.

My new campus is a whole slew of adjectives that boil down to awesomeness. I haven't seen a single rat! Or cockroach!

Okay, y'all. I am really excited about the new school year. Yesterday, two things happened. I will call them Happy Event A and Happy Event B.

Happy Event A: I saw my new classroom. I had to struggle not to bounce up and down while anyone was looking. Our grade levels are organized into clusters. So to get to 4th grade you open a door and enter a large common area. It has big benches, a TV, nice bulletin boards, etc. The classroom doors all open to the grade level common area. It's bright, spacious, and just really friendly looking. The classes all have reading lofts! Big ones! They also have counter space with an industrial double sink. Anyone who has ever taught kiddos will understand the GLEE factor here. GLEE. And my bulletin boards have already been covered with fabric and borders and stuff. That saves me hours of being annoyed! GLEE!

Happy Event B: I went through training with a woman I like very much. She has the same intellectual capacity and many of the same leanings as I do, but is completely different in personality. This, of course, means I really, really like talking to her. She went through a terrible year last year as she is an immigrant and, like most immigrants in the certification program, could not get a fucking work visa. A process that should have taken a couple weeks took an entire year for her. But she persevered and went through the program courses, even though she couldn't teach. She got her visa a couple weeks ago, finally, and has been feeling kind of frantic about finding a position so late in the summer. A position opened suddenly and unexpectedly in my cluster when the person I was to be teaming with decided not to return this year. I gave the administration her name, she interviewed, and she's in. She's going to be teaching math and science, and I'll be doing reading, writing, and social studies, while we rotate between two groups of kiddos. I am now extra super happy.

This school differs fundamentally from my campus last year in that it is a magnet school. That means students have to apply to get in, and are selected via lottery. They are there because they want to be there. From what one of my co-workers says, some of these kids and their families resort to staggering measures to get to school every day. So, while it's still a school that serves high poverty students, it's a school for kids who really, really want to be there.

Did I mention that the building is beautiful?