Leap Day!

I'm leaping along in my new job, and I managed to stay up till 9 pm last night!
I was on the phone for a long time in the evening with my former coworker/volunteer who did puzzles and games. She said the new person I chose to take over Book's is doing well--yay. I called that right.

She told me about some drama after I'd left—unrelated to me – –and it made me so glad that I wasn’t there.
She also said that Manageress ranted at her about how angry I'd made her by not staying for a going-away party. Manageress had told me the same thing on my last day. Curious, because I haven’t heard a word from her since I left, or anyone except a couple volunteers. Nor have I contacted them.
That's how it went at the thrift store--caring communication was rare.

Meanwhile at my new workplace, a couple other people besides me have birthdays next week, so on their weekly outing with the students, everybody’s going to walk down to a nearby ice cream shoppe. It’s during two periods when I have other classes, but they said, “We’ll sign you out—come with us!”

Now, I'm not romanticizing the place: I can already see little tension fractures there.
But I also feel I’m among my own, with teachers – people who care about education and were probably attracted to the job in the first place because it’s a caring service? 

I don’t know why I’m surprised I feel at home with these people – – my father was an educator, I worked in libraries and educational publishing, and even my thrift store job was all about WORDS – – it’s kind of a no-brainer, right?
Maybe it’s just that I’ve been away for so long? I forgot these people existed?

It’s such a relief to be with people who care about and practice communication skills. Literally teaching the skills: yesterday a class practiced how to start a conversation. 

I happened to have brought a girlette to show a student who had showed me their stuffed animal – – and spontaneously the stuffed animal and the doll started a conversation, which worked well. They talked about pizza!
I've stumbled onto a teaching method.

Kirsten had commented about the films of Romeo & Juliet, and in another class, we watched Act I of the 1968 Zeffirelli version, which I have never seen.
It's pretty good, but I felt bad for the young actors, knowing actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting are sueing for abuse.

Funny I'd worried about being away from books every day--besides reading Shakespeare in class, I can check things out of the school library.
A library! Of course there's a library. I'd forgotten there would be. It carries lots of YA books, but not only. There's the daily newspaper, for instance, that I could read on break... I've already chatted up the librarian, who gave me all sorts of useful tips and info.
And of course there are books all over the classrooms--and a teacher I met at lunch said there are extra copies I can borrow.

SHARING INFO with coworkers! omg. It's been a long time since that happened.
I have to say, though, there's a LOT OF LAYERS of bureaucracy, and it's kind of cumbersome. Coming from a place with NONE, I rather appreciate it.

I also appreciate that I get a moderate amount of exercise at work--I go up and down four flights of stairs, change classes every hour, get up and down during every class, and I even attend a gym class a couple times a week. We played running-around games, like Red Light, Green Light--it was fun.

AND... happy news, I'd said I like art, so now I go to a drawing class every day. (The way it works is, there are special ed classes, and also some sp-ed students are integrated into gen-ed classes, and aides go with them, if needed.)

Time to go to work!