I'm official

As of today, I am officially employed by New Song Mission. I got my key, my new e-mail address (RAlspaugh@newsongmission.org). And I unpacked what I didn't sell or give away from my nineteen years of teaching at Bullock Elementary.
I may have more school-related things tucked into other boxes, but I brought over five boxes/bins from storage and did what I could to start to organize it. Here I have a box of bilingual resources to use for teaching Spanish. I found a few posters for teaching about leadership and character traits of a good leader. 
I only kept a few book sets to bring here and donate, mostly books that teach character.  I got everything else out of the boxes and organized it into Science materials, Social Studies materials/artifacts, hands-on manipulatives, puzzles (lots and lots of puzzles), posters, and a few miscellaneous things.
I stuffed the empty boxes under the table, and there it will wait until we come up with a system together for the classroom.
I organized this little rolling cart, left a bunch of files in the big box, and quit unpacking for the day. 
Then I spent the rest of the day taking down all the old decorations (Super Mario) so that when my new teaching partner starts next week, we can come up with ideas together on how to redecorate. Personally, I'm leaning toward finding a lot of posters that teach/remind the kids about good leadership traits since the school is transitioning to it's new name, New Song Leadership Academy. But my new partner, Julie, may have some great (or better) ideas. I am really looking forward to working with her.

My new friend, Sonya, who led New Song Adventure Camp this summer, stopped by to pick up some things she left on Saturday, and she ended up staying and helping me tear down a bunch of the Mario decorations. What a nice surprise. :) She and I really connected last week, and I firmly believe that God purposed for me to be at New Song for the last week of camp specifically for us to meet. So thankful she's only about 20 minutes away so we can stay in touch and continue to get to know each other. :)