Tuesday, August 7 - CHANGES

My second day was NOT spent at Tatum Primary-

It was spent in LONGVIEW, of all places-

Our Principal, Mrs. Fite had a surprise for all of us when we got to work this morning.

We were going on a SCAVENGER HUNT!

So it was off to parts known to 1. Build a pyramid, 2. Find something just for kids, 3. Find something that has to do with summer fun, and 4. Smell the flowers.

We all rode in four vans and basically raced to reach our final destination: the Reserve, outside of north Longview.

There we met our principal, Mrs. Tamara Fite, and we commenced to having our first workday/workshop with her presiding. The main question she asked was, Do our beliefs align with that of our district/campus and why? (My answer was that I feel that not only is every child capable of learning, but each child learns in different ways. So I feel I am here to help each child learn and grow in a positive way.)

Of course, I had to get up and introduced myself- "My name is Cedric Edwards...I worked at LHS for the last 14 years in Inclusion and Lifeskills...I attended Stephen F. Austin State University...I graduated with a BBA in General Business...my minor was Information Technology...I received a Computer Applications Technology certificate in 2015...I have twins...I have twin grandchildren..etc...etc.." I would say that never gets old, but I'd be lying. :-)

We had another small scavenger hunt, where we got to kind of know one another better (I was still trying to figure out who everyone was), then we talked about schedules, duties, tardies, dress code, and other school-related things.

Mrs. Fite is going to be a great principal I believe because she CARES about the kids, her teachers, her school, her family, her beliefs, and she isn't fake at all about any of it. She's easy to talk to and she listens. I got the impression that many of the teachers were happy to see the former principal leave/retire/whatever and many of them (if not all of them) feel like this is like a breath of fresh air. I am totally digging this atmosphere and it's like night and day from whence I came from. 

I am still a little homesick (if you want to call it that) though because I left a lot of friends at LHS, some I've worked with for the whole 14 years, and I truly miss them. And of course, I'm going to miss my kids, especially the seniors this year, because I've had them all their three years in Social Studies (9th- World Geography, 10th- World History, and 11th- U.S. History).

Anyway, we had a very fun and interactive workshop- the highlight of the workshop was a dance the principal and some of the teachers did to a song I can't remember right now, but which kind of made me think, Okaaay- They wanted all of us to do it but I politely declined seeing how I was the only man there anyway. The food which I think came from Bodacious was nice and tasted good, and everything was wonderfully set up. We did an exercise with a bag of balloons that was fun, and everything was positive all the way around.

We each had to pick a keyword to describe our upcoming year- I picked the word: CHANGE.

I think it's going to be a GREAT YEAR.