My new job

So I accepted a job at.... drumroll please.... a charter school in Chicago as a kindergarten teacher! Yippee! The application process is very extensive for the charter schools. The steps were phone interview, teaching demonstration, essay, person interview, and final person interview. By the time I made it to the end I felt pretty accomplished. And I really respected the hiring process because it showed me how seriously they take it. They don't let just anyone in that place. :) It made a difference in my decision making because I had another offer by different charter school that skipped those steps and only conducted two informal conversations with me. I much rather preferred the professionals who did not cut corners. It's going to be different and challenging in lots of ways. For one, I really enjoyed teaching my kiddos with autism and I know I will miss that. However they are giving me one student with autism along with a few others with IEPs which makes me happy. That also makes it more challenging having 25 five-year-olds in a classroom with a large handful of ones with special needs. But I love a good challenge. In addition to that, did I mention the charter school is in south Chicago? Yes, the school is in an area that are on some lists as the most dangerous and/or economically challenged neighborhoods in the country. So this adds more challenge and more of a new cultural experience for me. My previous schools served individuals of low economic status for sure but this will be more of a deficit than my previous experiences. I find it very rewarding to work with those less fortunate than me and I feel like I can make a better impact in these situations as opposed to others.

There were several other opportunities for me in sped resource positions and other elementary positions but I felt like this job was the best fit for me. After all, I LOVED teaching kinders when I was in Alabama so I'm looking forward to doing it again and improving my skills. I really bonded well with the women who interviewed me - my department chair and the academic dean. I felt like all of our priorities were the same and we could collaborate well together. That was the biggest factor in my decision making. This week I will be moving into my classroom and next week will be filled with orientation, trainings, and meetings. My kiddos start school Aug 18th so I have a little more time to  prepare for them. I've been tossing and turning the past two weeks full of excitement thinking about teaching kinders again and I've been going through files and things trying to refresh my memory of all my resources. Johnny has teased me and told me that I'm crazy for doing this during my summer break and that I should be relaxing - but I told him even though he doesn't understand he must know that I LOVE organizing and I cant help myself because I'm excited! As long as I'm not stressed then it shouldn't be a bad thing -- so what if I choose my spare time to laminate and make new games and centers while I watch movies in my pjs?? It's fun. :-)