If You Believe, You Will Receive - It's Official!, ch.12

 The title of this post came to my mind because a coworker of mine always says to the kids around this time of year "If you don't believe, you won't receive." Every time I hear her say it, I laugh hysterically (on the inside of course, because I wouldn't want the kids to see). Every Time. She does it in the most fun loving, these are kids, lets preserve their innocence kind of way. I just love it. 

Well the other day when I was sharing some news with her I told her that I kind of new for a little bit but didn't want to say anything in case it didn't happen. And she said, but if you believe you will receive! We all laughed!

Okay, okay, so what's the news?! drumroll please.....I am an official employee for the remainder of the 2011-2012 school year. 

So for those of you catching up, you can read any or all of chapters 1-11 in the posts labeled "getting to know me." But, to summarize - I had a class last year. I taught first grade and I loved it! However because I was hired after the first day of school I did not have a contract for this school year. Since the end of August I have been substituting. I believe substituting is a humbling experience that most teachers should have to experience. Yet, I was also starting to lose my patience with the system by the end of November. I had been getting impatient. I knew my principal's plan had been to wait until the maternity leave I was covering was complete and then she would hire me in that position (because that teacher was not coming back for the rest of the year - not to mention the way our points worked out was a whole other story). People were asking me what I was going to do in January and what would happen to the 50 something kids I serve each day. I knew, but I couldn't say anything because I felt that was my principal's business. 

At our holiday party (we went bowling) as she was leaving my Principal leaned over in my ear and said "I'd like to offer you the position." I knew it was real them. I was sitting down and her hands were on my shoulder. I just leaned on her hand with a sigh of relief and said THANK YOU! I didn't know any other words. My official hire date was that following Monday on the 12th. I began to tell some of my 1st-grade coworkers whose kids I see, and then on that Friday right as we dismissed for break she announced it to the staff. I'll worry about next year in the summer when and if I have to. For now, this has been an even more celebratory vacation!