It's official. I have been hired as an elementary science specialist, the dream job that I have been waiting for. I am so excited about it! It is a part-time position at a science magnet school in South Ogden, called Shadow Valley Elementary. I work half days every morning, teaching science to grades 3-6. I see each class of students for an hour every week. I also have about three hours of flex time built into my schedule to support science teaching in grades K-2 (as requested by the teachers). The school is five years old, and sits on the benches of the mountain looking out over the valley. Another bonus is that the school is only about seven minutes from my house. Here is the classroom as it is. I need to spruce it up a bit. (Let me know if you have any suggestions.)
I have a lab space in the back of the classroom. I also have an outdoor classroom. Notice the garden boxes and outdoor tables. The indoor classroom looks out onto the outdoor classroom, and the valley below us. (The photo below of the outdoor classroom was taken from my classroom window.) There is also a wetland behind the school that we can use for "field studies". How cool is that? It is pretty dry now, but I imagine in the spring it fills in with water. There are cattails and other wetland plants growing. The school made a sidewalk through the area to make it easy for us to study living things in "the pond" as they call it.
This is the amazing view from my classroom window of the Great Salt Lake and valley below. It's just so great! I can't wait to start!
