teaching + pregnant = exhausted

Dear pregnant teachers.....I have a new respect for you!

Many of you know that I taught second grade for three years at Taylors Elementary.  Those three years of teaching were wonderful and I never imagined that my life would change so much after three short years.  I was/am passionate about teaching and I know that it is a calling in my life.  I find so much joy in working with young children and making a difference in their life.  It truly energizes me to see them grow so much in a matter of months!  SO, when Ryan and I started dating and became engaged (in a matter of months) my world was turned upside down.  I knew that I would be moving from Greer to Fountain Inn.  I have to confess that I am not a morning person.  This is relevant because even after three years of waking up at the crack of dawn, I still didn't enjoy waking up really early to be at school.  FI is between 40 and 45 minutes from my old school and I immediately started to dread that daily commute.  Also, we knew that we would be trying to start a family in a year or so (didn't quite make it a year!)  and I didn't want to transfer to a new school and only be there for one year.  So, after much prayer and a lot of encouragement from Ryan, family, and friends I resigned.........I still pinch myself sometimes and ask, "After all that school you really just quit?"  But I did.

Some of you (katie baggott)  will laugh as you read this b/c it is turning into a novel!  The last paragraph was all to lead up to the fact that I have been substitute teaching this year.  I am have really enjoyed it over all.  I started the year off with a long term sub for about 8 weeks.  That really helped b/c I was sad about not having a class of my own to prepare for at that point.  But, as that job finished up I was very glad to have the flexibility of subbing!  I have worked a lot this year and have been able to be in numerous classrooms and gain lots of new ideas just from observation.  A week and a half ago I started another long term sub position in a first grade class.  I will be there for six weeks for sure.....it could be longer but I haven't been told that yet.  The class I am teaching is really fun!  I can tell that their teacher did a great job training them in classroom procedures and I am very thankful!

I am 11 weeks pregnant and I was nervous about the combination of teaching everyday and feeling sick.  But I really can't complain about how it is going so far.  My best part of the day is always in the morning when I feel more rested.  I just have to make sure that I eat a good breakfast and have good snacks to munch on throughout the day.  I feel my worst from about 5:00 onward.  Last week there was one night I went to bed at 7:30.  It felt so good!

The worst moment so far:  The second day of this long term sub we went on a field trip.  I sat in the front seat of the bus but that really didn't help.  I still felt sick as we made our way up to the top of Roper Mountain.  Then we went to the planetarium where we watched the most dizzying movie for an hour.  I had my eyes closed most of the time!  I couldn't handle it!  Yuck!

My best moment so far:  Last week the class worked on writing stories about an animal who had a problem and solved it.  At first they weren't really excited but after some fun brainstorming they came up with some really good stories!

I am not under the pressure that a regular classroom teacher is under.  I don't have to worry about being evaluated or end of the year testing.  So, I don't truly know what it would be like to be working the rest of the year pregnant, but I am definitely impressed by all the teachers that do it everyday.  I only have a matter of weeks were I will be teaching full time.  Having an end in sight (other than June) changes everything about my perspective.  I can definitely do it and do it well!  Hats off to all the teachers that spend their whole pregnancy teaching!