Best News Ever!!!!!

So, I have had some really good past couple of days and here's why:

1.  I passed my evals!  YES!  Here's some background...

Evals go like this in our district: 

Your first year is your induction year. Mine was from 08-09.  In an extremely challenging school.  I'm talking the second day of my first year teacher (ever) I had a kid swinging to yard sticks at me during dismissal because I wouldn't give him his MP3 player back (which he of course was not supposed to have at school).

Your second year you undergo formal evaluation.  During formal evaluation, you are evaluated by at least 2 people in your building.  You get no feedback about how you're doing.  During my formal evals. from 09-10, you did not have to fill out a reflection form (where you could address all of those things like the kid who was on the verge of having a breakdown in your room or WOW that lesson was terrible).  We also got a new principal halfway through the year.  I had been told I was doing a great job and I was still teaching 5th grade at the same extremely challenging school.  Come my final conference with the new principal, I was shocked to find out I had failed.  She said my room wasn't organized (which yeah, it wasn't, but I hadn't been told about that before...) and that I joked around/was too sarcastic with my kids.  I pride myself on having a great rapport with my kids, so that kind of came as a shock. 

I couldn't believe it.  I came home and cried and the only person I told was my hubby (and one of my team members who was just as shocked as I was).  Eventually a couple more people I worked with found out, and none of them could believe it either.  Not that I'm saying I should have passed, but a little heads up/warning would've been nice.  I'm not the type of person that if you tell me I'm doing something wrong I won't correct it.

Last year I switched schools because the school I was at had to be restructured.  Basically, if you wanted to go back and teach there you had to reapply for your job and be reinterviewed.  No thank you.  So last year was kind of like another induction year.  The principal said I was doing great.  Whew.

This year, I've had to undergo formal evals. again.  Not only did I have to have 2 people from my building observe me, but I also had to have someone from the district evaluate me.  That was even more nerve wracking because I'm still in a rough school and you never know what people on the outside will think.  I actually failed my preliminary evals all because I used the wrong template for two things I had to do. 

Friday morning at 7 was my final conference.  I kept checking with the people who evaluated me to make sure everything was okay because as it turns out, if I failed, I would lose my teaching certificate.  That's a big deal.  I kept reassuring myself that I was doing fine, I'm a good teacher.  But there's always doubt sneaking up in your head.  However, I figured they wouldn't make me meet at 7 (right before my kids come in) if it was bad news.  I passed!  And one of the people who observed me said she felt bad about what they did at my old school because I could've been done with this a long time ago.

This has been such a relief.  I've been pretty stressed over this the past year and I'm so glad I can kind of relax now!

2.  I found out we won't have extra days added to our school year next year!  Whoop whoop!  Although, we found out about it in the paper, not from anyone official in the district.  But it's in the paper, so it's gotta be true, right?!

3.  I am selling my Honda tomorrow and will be driving my new car starting Tuesday! I bought my mother in law's Mazda Tribute and I'm stoked to finally drive it!

4.  I've actually consistently ran this past week!  Go me :)  I ran a mile last Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, and yesterday.  Baby steps people, baby steps.

I'm off to get everything ready for another week of work.  Seriously, where did the weekend go?!