Return to Teaching

Though I've been back at school for a few weeks now, yesterday was my first day of teaching.  Since this is the first time I've taught as a "teaching assistant" rather than as a sole instructor, I was both nervous and excited to meet my students.  I was pleased with how many of them attended discussion, and they seemed like a generally interested bunch of kids.  I think the strangest thing for me will be how little time I actually spend with these kids; as a high school teacher, I saw my students for 45 minutes a day, but as a TA, I only spend 50 minutes with them a week.  I've made myself flashcards and am hoping to have learned most of their names by next week.

While I was at school, Nora was enjoying her longest day yet at her grandparents'.  Patti took some pictures while she was there, so I wanted to share those.  When I showed them to Nora, I told her she should take notice of how happy people are to be holding her because not all babies are lucky enough to be welcomed so warmly by every single relative.

Patti also sent along this photo of me holding Nora during the Ravens' last playoff game.  The year Billy was born, the Orioles won the World Series, so we were hoping Nora might bring the same kind of luck to one of Baltimore's teams... but a trip to the Super Bowl was not in the cards, apparently.  She looks skeptical, so maybe she knew things wouldn't turn out too well.

I'm almost always behind the camera at our house, so it's fun for me to see pictures of Nora taken from another person's perspective!  And it's nice to see that she's surrounded by so much love and affection when I have to be away from her.  I had a hard time being apart from her for so long yesterday, but she was well rested and in such a good mood when I got home that we were able to play for a while before she was ready for bed.