Changing my Fate

Thought the title was appropriate for the new movie coming out soon (which I am very excited to see by the way) and for the news I am about to share.

For the past year, I have been working as a special education teacher and, while I love my kids with all my heart and love teaching them, the school and politics within caused several problems for me. The environment became uncomfortable and I did not feel like I was able to give my all to what I was doing. So I began searching for somewhere that might allow me to grow and learn, to challenge me and work to my full potential.

After lots of work and searching and a lot of help from some great friends, I am happy to announce that, after my WDW trip with my sister this week, I will be starting a brand new adventure in Florida. In the next several weeks, I will be moving into my new apartment in Kissimmee, FL.

That is not all though; As of the first week in July, I will begin my training for a new position...working in Hollywood Studios! I am excited to be within this park, not because it is my favorite park-actually the opposite-I do not know much about the Studios and hope to learn more and get a better appreciation for it.  It is an attractions position, but I look at it as a starting point on a huge opportunity to grow within the company. I had always hoped that this would become a reality and now it finally has!

I will still be working for Celebrations (though, over the next few weeks, please be patient with me as far as answering emails and interacting via Social Media) and I still hope to blog and interact, hopefully more now that I will be close to the magic. I want to make Twitterscursions a regular thing that I do hopefully a couple times a month so that I can bring the magic more to those of you who live farther away.

I will be at least tweeting along on my moving journey, so please follow along! I am naturally nervous, but am looking forward to sharing this new adventure with you! :)

Why I am Not Applying for Mom's Panel

Yes, you read that right, I am not applying for the Mom's Panel this year. I enjoyed the application experience for the most part last year, outside of the waiting period and anxiety associated with it, but I have decided to skip it for this year.  No, I am not being a quitter, and I am not scared of not being accepted. I am not applying this year because I am focusing on applying to Disney in another way....a more permanent way. 

My ultimate dream is to work in the parks, to be a cast member, and I realized that if I applied for the Mom's Panel, I really wouldn't be able to focus on my ultimate goal as much. Where would I like to work in the parks? Well, I would be happy just about anywhere really, but what I am working to apply for is the Disney Youth Programs.  I feel that my Education degree will really shine working with one of these programs (plus, it won't make my family feel as bad for paying for me to get a degree for me to "just work at Disney").

This process of applying could take a while, but I am willing to stick it out because I know it is what I want to do and every day of experience I get will get me closer to that dream job. Just thought I would head off any questions by answering it in the blog post now. I would like to wish a BIG Good Luck and send some pixie dust to anyone who is applying for Mom's Panel, Disney would benefit from all of your input and wisdom!

Student Teaching Shenanigans: The Next Step

Couldn't write one of these for the last few weeks because all of my stories that I could write about would be too descriptive of my students.  My last placement was in a Autism and Severe Disabilities classroom and there are not words for how much I enjoyed my time there! I learned so much not just from the teacher but from the students as well! One thing I learned was patience; seeing what these students go through every day and what they have to deal with makes you thankful for what you have and give you the patience to put up with them through their trials.

The 7 weeks I spent in that classroom was not close to enough time to learn everything that I could and want to learn from them.  This is why I am staying!! No, I am not just going to just live in the classroom, I am happy to announce that I have a job!! My last day in the classroom, my co-op found out that she would be getting a new student who was severe enough that he would need a one-on-one aide. Because I am not certified yet (only because of paperwork that takes five years to fill out), I am able to become a paraprofessional, or aide.  So, before my last day was even over, I called and made an interview with the school district's substitute service.  They had to hire the aide through this service because they are not able to hire outright this far into the school year.

I went for an interview the Monday after Easter, then went in for a training and did the background check stuff that was necessary.  This past Tuesday, I had my final training and am officially considered a substitute teacher! Not even an hour after my final training was finished, my co-op called the job in for me and I was booked until the end of the year! I had my first day yesterday and WOW was it awesome! I have worked in classrooms for years because it is what I love to do,  I didn't really care if I got paid for it or not because it was fun. To actually work and get paid for it though is beyond cool!!

I cannot believe that I already have a job and I have not even graduated yet!! It is very exciting!  I know that at the beginning of student teaching, knowing that the end was coming near, I was very worried about what would happen.  I should have known that everything would fall into place. I have learned one more thing from all of these experiences; don't worry too much about the future, just live each day and everything will work out.

See ya out in the "Real World"!