Apologies.

It turns out I was wrong. The boys are 2nd graders. Whatever, my students will never know!

1st day of school

that, right there folks, is the face of defeat. holy moly, 1st graders have energy beyond belief! I had one puker, one gushing nose and lots of boogers eaten... but all in all, a good day. Thank God for my amazing para, Lynne. She's a game changer, for sure.

My mind was boggled. I had a fairly "fun" day planned. We walked around the school, practiced getting on the bus and did some other practice runs. We had fun activities, and I read some great books. The students asked me, "teacher! when are we going to do centers?!" Wow! What a moment. Turns out those little buggers LOVE centers. They were so eager to get off of that carpet and to doing work, unfortunately I had nothing like that planned. It looks as though I'll be spending my evening re-planning so that the kids will be able to dive into their centers tomorrow! I'm excited, because maybe that'll mean I'll get to drink some water or take a bathroom break... doubtful :) these kids will be worth it though.

I shared a powerpoint with them that was "All About Miss. Smidt". I had various slides with photos of mom, dad, rijah and matt, but the slide they were most interested in was the one about my 24 cousins. I shared the fact that 2 of them were in the 1st grade this year... they thought that was SO COOL! I was excited to see how interested they were. I had to point my two little cousins out in the photo for them to see who I was talking about. It was a moment, for sure. 

tour of mi casa

you can double click on each photo to enlarge. take note that my bedroom is not shown-- it is a royal pit with children's books and worksheet ideas scattered everywhere. 

My bathroom

the spare room and classroom storage space

the living area, i have 3 huge windows! 

dining area-- i had some friends over the other night, working on that killer holo-glow puzzle.

the kitchen--where the magic happens!

awkward storage space off of the dining area.

view from my kitchen window: on the far left, you can see a red gate and a flight of steps-- that is where i walk every morning to go to my classroom/building which is the brick red building on the far right of the photo. quite the commute.

grandma's crocheted dolls.

outside of house

this was taken the first day i saw my house. my old roommates, alison and jamie, helped me unload the bravada. they surprised me with a celebratory bottle of wine. we each had a glass then headed back to mission. since i moved in, the bushes have been completely removed and the grass cut, but i still don't have a complete gutter.

first blog!

so, i have no idea how to run this at all. but i figure, everything else in my life is a slight challenge right now—so why not add another?!

i have been thinking about sending out a weekly e-mail to let all of my family and close friends know that i am, in fact, living and doing well. somehow, between the hours in my classroom, and not having access to facebook, gmail and/or my college email account i have managed to leave most of those who matter a lot to me fall short of knowing the wonderfulness that is my life. 

i am not interested in broadcasting my thoughts and feelings for anyone and everyone to read. instead, i will be giving this link to those who are near and dear to me (believe me, it won’t be interesting for anyone who does not know or understand me) in hopes of keeping you all updated without having to (no offense) make numerous phone calls and respond to text messages. i mean, really, we’re all busy and have better things to do with our lives… all of us besides me… hmm.

okay, so here’s my tale:

after mom, dad, matt and i packed up our stuff in july of 1995 and headed east for verm i felt a giant hole in my heart and a lingering tap to my toe. although i took to verm quite well, my second love has always been the rez (first love being minnesota, of course). i love the culture out here, the art, the music (like i said, my toe taps constantly and i blame my early days of shawl dancing), the love for family, etc. etc. etc! 

so, when it came time to declare a major (okay, okay, my 4th major) at school i opted for elementary education. i like kids and there’ll always be a position in education for me (not the case, thanks denny daugaard for the 10% cut). during my first summer after declaring my eled major i took the required Indian Education Studies course. i was appalled. i couldn’t believe what i heard my peers saying, not only about reservations but about native americans in general. all of the terrible things i was hearing them say did not align with the memories from my childhood. when it came time to sign up for student teaching placements, i listed only one—todd county school district on the rosebud reservation. after many hoops, phone calls, e-mails and strings pulled by great life-long friends i was placed at the middle school, student teaching in an 8th grade language arts classroom (forgive the lack of capitalization—i don’t have time for it).

i packed the bravada up, and headed west. i moved in with two girls who were in their first year of teaching through Teach For America. after a great semester and graduation i received a letter asking for an interview for a teaching position within the district. i interviewed. i waited. and waited. and waited. and waited some more. a couple of days before heading home to minnesota for the 4th i received a phone call offering me a position as a 1st grade teacher in the town of rosebud. after a lot of consideration and discussion with my two closest amigos (mom and dad) i accepted.

so here i sit. in my house. in rosebud. loving life.