Meeting the Mentor

As a first year teacher in Colorado (and I assume other states), you are required to dedicate one year to what they call an Induction program. Your new school matches you up to another teacher from your department, and this person is your mentor. You and your mentor will meet once every other week in order to talk about classroom management, issues, good things, bad things, so so things, etc. You are also expected to reverse-design a unit, observe your mentor's classroom, go to group meetings once a month, and do a whole lotta other stuff that just adds on to the pile of things to do as a first year teacher.
My mentor is MK. She is one of the youngest teachers in the department, which is nice because I AM the youngest! She is a bit on the shy side, and I had met her a couple of times already. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from her as a mentor.
Thank Goodness she felt my nervous energy across I25, and called me up on Thursday to invite me to brunch today. We agreed to meet up at the egg and I after some SERIOUS phone tag. I woke up early (hah, it's going to feel like sleeping in once i start working!) -- at around 8-- and started doing some laundry (which I needed to do!! badly!) and then got ready to go. She was already there when I showed up 3 minutes before 10 (WHY AM I ALWAYS THE LAST ONE TO SHOW UP????? must fix this) and welcomed me with a hug. The restaurant was packed (??? monday at 10 am? wtf?) but we were lucky to find a table that had our name written alllll over it.
After discussing our love for french toast, and ordering drinks we proceeded to ask each other about our summers. She said she had a great one, and I told her all about my time off...
My worries about her being my mentor melted at the same rate as the butter over the DELICIOUS french toast sitting in front of me. She is warm, and kind; experienced in her own way, yet new at the whole "Teaching" thing, willing to help, tech-savvy, funny, uses the F-word (huge relief), doesn't believe in drama OR mice in the teacher's lounge.
All in all, I am very much looking forward to seeing her again and getting to know her some more. She warned me about the German teacher's love for baking, and how we will never run out of brownies or cookies in the department, explained advisory and why some levels of Foreign Language have "days off". We talked about dress code, the union, twitter, the school district, first year jitters, and how lame it is that I don't have a whole lotta time to get ready for school because we are busy looking over CSAP scores and sexual harrassment policies.
Oh well.
Tomorrow is my first day as an LPS teacher (officially). I have a luncheon, and then the induction meeting with all the new teachers @ the school. I am very much looking forward to it now, and given that MK answered so many of my questions -- my worries have diminished a bit.
More to come....



In other news, I managed to take BOTH of my parentals to the movies yesterday. My mom was dying to see Julie & Julia, so I told her we would go this weekend. She talked my dad into it and ---for the first time since The Day After Tomorrow was out--- they enjoyed popcorn and soda from the comfort of a movie theater instead of the comfort of home. After the movie, they both said how much the enjoyed it, and vowed to come back sooner rather than later. I am making sure they do.
XOXO,
Srta. Bee