School!

When John first told me he was debating between Fredericksburg and Kerrville, I did some research online. I found that one of the Kerrville elementary schools had put on a student poetry reading.  I waited until I was actually here to call the school and was happily surprised when the principal called me back within a few hours.

Yesterday I had my appointment. I Googled the directions, which said it would take about 7 minutes. I allowed 15. Of course I got lost! Well, not lost exactly. The problem was I can’t print out directions (because my printer is still in Coarsegold) and I only wrote down the NAMES of the streets, not the highway NUMBERS. So I had no idea where I was. I stopped at a gas station, called school and found I was quite close and got there on time.

I’m having a hard time adapting to how Texas marks their roads. Instead of the huge green signs I’m used to at intersections, they’ll have small square white signs posted before the intersection, a whole cluster of them pointing every which way. Texas 16 North, Texas 16 South, 273 Loop. (What’s a loop?) Plus, many routes change names as they go. Highway 27 starts as

Main Highway

, becomes

Memorial Blvd.

, then Broadway, then

Main Street

then

Junction Hwy

! The main North-South thoroughfare is Sidney Baker which splits into

Medina Hwy

and

Bandera Hwy.

I need to find out who he was.

The other thing that’s confusing is how signal lights are stung on wires over the intersection.  It’s taking time to remember to look there!

How good it felt to be back at school! But how different to go inside a building with long highly-polished white, red and blue floors and white tiled walls. It was so spanking clean!  I have never seen a California School that well maintained.

The principal, a petite blonde wore a cute sleeveless black dress. She introduced me to another young woman who works with the four fourth grade classes (the K-5 school has 600 students!) and we all went into her office. I pulled, from my CPITS canvas bag, binders of kids’ chapbooks, examples of After School Writing Club flyers, a couple CPITS anthologies, my book of lessons, and leafed through some clippings – trying to give them an idea of what I’ve done.

They told me they were thrilled that I’d called and they will definitely use me. We talked about gifted programs, bi-lingual students, under achievers, how I could work with each of them.  The plan is that while they talk to teachers and decide how to use me, I should register at the temp agency who sends independent contractors into schools.  The pay is $25.00 per hour.  This is about what I made working for the Madera schools but Madera was a good 37 miles away!

I also met the woman who coordinated the poetry reading. Another will be taking place in November and I’ve been asked to be a guest speaker. I felt like I was meeting a rock star. This is the woman I’d Googled! Here I actually was, standing in her room, shaking her hand, being warmly greeted and chatting about the things that are most important to me!

I found the agency, located in a beautiful old house with polished wood floors and wainscoting. I filled out lots of papers, had to take a drug pee test. I’ll get fingerprinted next week.  The owner was so helpful when I told her I’m brand new here, recommended her vet and told me about First Friday Wine Share – bring a bottle of wine and your own glasses.  Sounds like fun to me!

Asking about poets/writers, a woman from the next room came in and told me about a friend of hers who is a poet and tai chi teacher. I got her name and sent her an email.

John kept telling me how friendly Texans are but experiencing it first hand has been wonderful, especially since he’s still hung up in California – slowly but surely getting things done – and not here to take me around.

By the time he gets here I’ll know more about Kerrville than he does!