Congrats littlek, just saw this.
Don't worry about the germs, alcohol kills germs.
Classrooms are like giant petri dishes.
yep - kids are sure a health hazard!
Congratulations, LittleK. That's a profession that can be intrinsically rewarding--unlike most. You'll make enough to survive, and you'll like going to work: you'll feel that you are doing something worthwhile (that's what I mean by its intrinsic value). My late wife taught third grade for 20 years and loved every minute of it.
You build up immunity... and you've already had a lot of exposure in your last several years of nannying.
Lash, yep, non-profit. Much easier to get grants that way.
Did you hire a grant writer, soz, or did you do it?
I think that's a marvellous idea, btw. Much kudos to you. Awe.
I did it. That was the "stats and stories" bit -- have a solid, factual, graphs-n-stats-n-numbers base, then layer it with inspirational, feel-good stories. Make the donors WANT to give you the money, and feel personally invested in the outcome. (I.e. send them updates, invite them to graduations, etc.)
It was a great experience, learned a ton, looking forward to utilizing all that again sometime.
Was that the first time you wrote a grant? Did you take in a seminar...? That is no small feat in the least.
I mean, wouldn't even someone with a BS find that quite daunting?
LittleK, in my twenty four years of teaching I don't recall ever being sick. I know I never missed a class. But, then, I worked with adults, not children. Nevertheless, I've always been a compulsive hand washer. That's the best protection.
The first grants I wrote I just went for it. My degrees are English (B.A., emphasis on creative writing) and Education (Master's) and I got a lot of useful stuff out of both of 'em. After I'd already been doing it for a while, I did take a grant-writing seminar that was really good. But it's mostly been just jumping in and seeing what happens.
Definitely on washing hands. Anecdotally, I'd say the younger the students, the higher the risk of getting sick, hand-washing or no. But most teachers of little kids I know build up immunity after a while. (I only taught little kids [2nd graders] while student teaching, and got sick PLENTY then.)
And what about kindergarten teachers who have to deal with fecal matter (do they change diapers in pre-school programs?)? I'm thinking about hepatitis A.
I think kids are required to be potty trained before they can enter kindergarten.
But 5-year-olds are still messy, germy little creatures.
Oh, "pre-school" -- the one sozlet goes to requires potty training, too, but I think there are some that don't.
Yeah, that wouldn't be fun. :-?
littlek,
I recently finished my BS in Education, and just started classes pursuing a MA in Counseling. I will either try to be a school counselor, or get my LPC and do family/marriage stuff, or both. I'm actually pretty sickeningly pleased with myself about the whole thing...
And I sickengly congratulate you on your achievement, Snood.
Snood! Good on ya!
As for germies. I already call the younguns things like little sacks of pathogens and such. I have finally built up my immunities to a decent level. I haven't been seriously sick this winter. I think I was getting sick when I should have had immunity because I'd had a lingering sinus infection from one nasty flu. I neti potted my way out of that and all is well now. I get the sick, but it's usually just a bit of a runny nose.
I already obsessively wash my hands. I am the poop queen these days. I have a peridoically loose-bowelled dog, I have a cat box to scoop, I have a 2 year old charge still in diapers, the kids' dog eats poop and then tries to lick us, and they just got a new puppy (2 months old). I 'deal with poop' 6-8 times a day, during the week. Elem school HAS to be better'n that!
Class starts in one week and I still haven't gotten much reading done. I am baaaaad.
I am in trouble. I have 1 text chapter to read, 2 to review and an extra 10 pages to go over. I still haven't finished the other book and class starts friday.......
you'll be fine. nights are long. we got wine. it's all good.
You have obviously not spent 9 hours caring for children and poopy little puppies after long nights.
<I can't believe we're typing this conversation while we are sitting at the same table>
