the training wheels FINALLY came off!!

    I would like to start by saying how happy I was when Friday afternoon came around. An 8-3 5 day week of training was complete. This is my story.
   This past week I was in Shenandoah attending a training in Maryville, Missouri for the Literacy Curriculum (Pathways To Reading) the school district uses. In other words,  the PTR is what I will be using in my classroom, because I am going to be a teacher!! Maryville Missouri is about an hour from Shenandoah. Might I add I drove a 2008 suburban to and from everyday...ballin'. Oh wait, not so much. Because I had the district sticker plastered on the driver door...kill joy. The week of training was packed full of information; beneficial yes, but extremely overwhelming. Although I wanted to bolt from my chair on Friday afternoon; I gained a whole lot of insight from the training. Though I feel overwhelmed, I am on better terms as to how to implement the curriculum into the classroom and use it effectively (something I otherwise would not have been able to do. So a good thing I took this training, cause I was hired to teach). Hopefully when I attempt to explain this Curriculum (Pathways to Reading) to ever so eager ears, it will put to rest all the comments of how K is mainly painting, playing, and resting. Not. So. Much.
  You might be thinking, who Amy stayed with while she wasn't in Maryville from 8-3 training. Well, I stayed with the Literacy Coach, Ann, who was part of my interview panel and her husband. Her husband informed me I was their daughter for the week; what entertaining people they are. Ann and her husband were so wonderful to me. They took me out to dinner every night either in town to a local restaurant or to the surrounding town’s local restaurants. I was lovin' it! 3 miles out of town in the country, their house is nestled on a hill overlooking miles and miles of crops. GORGEOUS; both the view and the house. I had my own 'quarters' in their basement; the house was just built last year...so it had that 'new house' smell. For those of you who are unaware, I like scents.
  By the end of the week Shenandoah started looking familiar to me, and I wasn't feeling too much of an outsider. That was until I ran a stop sign and got lost in one of the neighborhoods. Needless to say, as I drove away on N59 Friday afternoon, I checked the review mirror and smiled; "see you soon Shen!"