Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

Without patting myself on the back, I have to say it takes a lot of courage to start a new career at my age. I don't know how people do it. I was so nervous I hardly slept last night. And this morning I had the "first day of school" jitters.

I got past the first wave of panic, though, and I think it's going to be OK.

Of course, the new job does have its perks. Got to sleep in until 7 a.m. and look at my trip odometer! A mere 5.4 miles from home instead of nearly 50! That was nice!

Overall, it was a good first day. They served me lunch so I would have energy for maximum brain power. They threw a lot at me but have my training stretched out several weeks so they won't throw me to the dogs.

My new title is "proposal writer" – not wedding proposals but writing convincing proposals for schools, etc, to implement our learning and testing programs into their classrooms. I will not be doing any writing for probably a month. That's OK. There a lot of tricks for this old dog to learn!

All new acronyms, computer servers, workflow and, of course, workplace. I did manage to successfully navigate my way to the two most important things in the building: the restrooms and ice cream machine.

Guess what I am eyeing in my cup? Oh yes, it's FREE ice cream!! Just another perk of the job. Not kidding. Good thing I am an ice cream snob (hard ice cream rules!) so I won't be delving into second-rate soft-serve every day. But probably often enough! If I start to take my own toppings to work, stop me!!!

Another perk is knowing a handful of people who work at Renaissance Learning as well. I have two former newspaper people in my department. One worked with me in Iola, too, so that's exciting. I also ran into two different people who have kids in Carter's class at Assumption. Small world.

Actually, large world there but I am just becoming a small part of it. Will be an interesting journey, but I am ready for it.