Changes in the works...

Well, there is a change in where I'll be working next year.  For those of you who don't know what I was going through last year at this time, I was searching for a new teaching position.  My old school district decided to cut several teaching positions, which included me.  For obvious reasons I wasn't happy, in fact it was a difficult time in my life.  It was almost as difficult as when I learned my ex-husband was cheating on me and that my marriage was ending 17 years ago.  I did get hired by a new district by the end of June, and experienced a year teaching students in 3rd grade, as opposed to the 7th and 8th graders that I had been teaching for the past six years. It was a year of learning, not just for my students, but definitely for me as well.  My students were wonderful and so adorable.  It makes only a couple of days we're finished school, and I already miss them.  

About a month ago, I learned that I wasn't going to be teaching 3rd grade next year, however, I still had a job.  A couple of weeks ago I learned that I'll be teaching grade 4 next year, but at a different school in our district.  Fortunately, the new school won't be much further than where I've been driving already.  By the end of my last full week of school all of my things were already packed.  We finished our school year with the students Tuesday, and had a workshop yesterday.  As of noon today, all of my things are moved to my new building.  I met the staff there, and saw my new classroom.  I'm excited and looking forward to the new year already, and we're just finished school!  I'm very thankful that my oldest stepson has his license and a pickup, because with 2 trips with my car, and 1 with his pickup, the physical move is complete.

I'm thinking that one of the things that I find encouraging, is that I already have a firm idea of what is expected for 4th grade.  I know what they should have learned last year, and I'm familiar with how an elementary classroom is run, rather than the block scheduling I had been accustomed to before.  I know and understand the measurements that I must do as the year progresses, how to perform them, track them, and use them to adjust my teaching and their learning.

New beginnings.....

New Beginnings

New  beginnings are great.  Who doesn't enjoy a fresh start?  As a society, we welcome a new year with resolutions to make positive changes in our lives.  New relationships bring us new opportunities and perhaps even new love.  New high school graduates look forward to not only their freedom from parental restrictions, but also for a new start at a new place.

I had a classmate, and a good friend at the time, who you could easily forget was in the room because she was so quiet and shy.  After her first semester at a college just a little over an hour away, she was a totally new person.  Gone was the quiet teenager with little self confidence and now she was full of exciting stories to tell of her experiences.

As a kid, I always looked forward to a new quarter or semester in school, basically because I had a chance to do better.  I wasn't the best student, not because I couldn't do the work, but because I just couldn't bother myself to do it, as far as my memory goes.  When I began going back to school to become a teacher in 1998, that was my fresh start.  I surprised myself on how great a student I could be.  I made the Dean's list every semester, and received the Presidential Award, graduating suma cum laud.  This was one fresh start that showed me what I could really do.  Gone was the girl who didn't finish what she started.  Gone was the girl who couldn't stay focused.  Gone was the girl who didn't have an ambition or goal to look forward to.  Now I was the woman who had a dream to be a teacher, who gained the confidence that she could do anything she attempted.

Now my latest fresh start is my new teaching position.  I won't lie to you all, it was, and still is at some point, a huge change for me.  I went from teaching 7th and 8th grade students to now teaching 3rd graders.  I also have to adjust from teaching different groups of students for 80 minutes at a time to teaching the same students for the entire day.  Also, I taught language arts, now I also have to teach social studies, science, and math.  There are also different components that I have to focus on that was never a concern for me in middle school.  If a middle school student struggled with reading, then at that point they were probably in special ed for language arts.  However, 3rd graders are still working on their reading, so I have to continuously measure their progress with fluency checks. I had to learn how to do that.

Now that we're 7 weeks in to the new school year, I'm now thinking like a 3rd grade teacher.  This fresh start has come with challenges, but I've proven to myself that I'm more than capable of meeting any challenge that comes my way.  I know that I'll never feel like I know it all, but I don't believe that I'll ever know it all.  No matter how long I teach I'll always view myself as a learner and a work in progress.