First day!

Today was my first day of my new job. It went remarkably well! Maybe third time is a charm? (It's my third contract). I think it has been so good for me to be a traveler because I have been in both ends of the spectrum as far as OT departments go, where first I was in a kinda large department that was pretty well off, and last year I was the OT dept, and it was chaos! This district is more like the first, but from first glance, it appears that everyone gets along a little better, a more cohesive team environment. Not to say there won't be bumps, but you really can tell a lot from first meetings with people.

1. The first wonderful thing is that there are a ton of COTA's! (That's me!) My first contract there was only one other, and for some reason I tend to let myself be intimidtaed by OTR's (supervising therapists), although I am getting much better with that with more experience. I am just happy to feel like more of an equal with people than beneath people, although again, I am the only one making me feel that way, the OTR's I've worked with have always been great. Sometimes I feel like I am always apologizing for being just a COTA...when there's no need for it, and so it is nice to be amongh COTA's. And last year there was only me & an OTR, so it's just nice to be among people period!
2. These people are oragnized! This is similar to my first contract, but MUCH different than last year. I walked into a mess last year, and thank God for my first year's experience to get me through it. But anyway, there was an agenda for the meeting with all the occupational & physical therapy staff (called the motor team). They already had OTR's paired with COTA's, and the schools divided up among those smaller teams.
3. My team of myself, my OTR, and another COTA, get along great. There are 5 schools, and it worked out that the other COTA requested two schools close to her home, the other 2 are the closest to me, and the last school for the OTR is the one she wanted anyway!
4. My schools are close to me and super close to each other. No more than about 3 miles from my house, and probably a mile apart from each other. Also, the district office is probably less than a mile from me too. The schools are NEW & NICE! My district last year was old...and kinda poor. You just feel better when you're among nice things ya know? So on top of that, each school has a room for the O.T to work in! You may not know that this is quite a big deal, as typically I would be in a hallway or cafeteria or something like that. Nope, I have rooms with supplies in them already. Sweet. Oh, and only having 2 schools is awesome! My first year at one point I had 17 schools spread over like 5 different cities, last year I had about 8 schools although they were close together. It's just so nice to think I won't have to travel much and will be able to stay at one school for an entire day?!??! So exciting.
5. Hmmm what else...everyone is super friendly. Oh yeah, about the schools again, they are indoors with hallways & everything. In California when you walk out of a classroom you walk outside, because the temperatures tend not to get too unbearable either way & stuff it's all outdoors. I'm sorry though, it does get hot! So here it's wonderful to just be inside all the time. And good thing I won't have to get in my car all the time because it's a freakin' oven when you do. Whew. It was around 110 today...yeah.

So anyway, that's all my excitement. I think it will be good. Let's hope it stays on a positive note for awhile :)