#5 million, things I wish I had known:
Online banking and even the bank itself never have up-to-date information about bank account balances. It's always a day behind, apparently. I did not know that and I lost $200 in overdraft charges. Don't let it happen to you:)

Being a teacher is not exactly what I thought it would be. First, the most important characteristic of any teacher is organization. I can't emphasize that enough: do not go into teaching if you aren't willing to put in hours and hours just organizing random information!!! For example, I went through so many hard-copy versions of my teaching schedule today that I started dating the editions with the time I printed them as well, so I could keep the different drafts in order. Honestly- there is soooo much to organize. Second, I have 8 classes to plan for each day. Yikes! Is it really affective to teach a child English in 25 minutes a day? And I'm co-teaching with two mainstream teachers during two of those periods, neither of who has any plan or suggestions for what I can do to assist.

I've made a decision not to complain with colleagues. It's debilitating and griping tends to grow and build more problems. I wish more teachers would address problems on their own and adjust their own teaching before laying blame. Teachers have a bad image as complainers who aren't willing to work very hard (we even get our summers off). It's not true, for the most part. Maybe my job involves a little bit more organization than other -since I work with 6 teachers and about 40 students every day- but I see everyone putting forth so much effort.

Oh, another thing I wasn't expecting is so many meetings that are not completely productive. I have one hour meetings outside of school hours at least twice a week. Fourth, I am constantly surprised about how much teachers fight to be paid for every additional hour. Like being paid to attend evening school events. Honestly! Aren't there some aspects of this job that are just assumed? Like we should care about our students and want to help them any way we can (to a normal extent)? I've been at school until 5pm every day this week. It's a long day, since I have to leave home at 7:20am. But I got my first paycheck yesterday! Of course, my bank's outrageous overdraft charges that make me want to hit them with pies took some of it. I'm going to start saving for my summer starting with my next paycheck:) My plan is to teach at an English summer camp in Spain and visit my parents in Austria when they're there and my Dad in Oxford during his conference. Maybe I can ask my district to pay me for the Spanish I will learn in Spain?;)