Game Changer

I have just started following several teaching blogs and it seems as if lots of people are having to change  jobs or even schools.  I've been there, three years in a row and I know it's stressful!

While I'm actually safe this year from change (whew), we do have some big changes coming for us as well and I'm trying not to get to worried or bunched up over them...

1.  We are moving from 4 teachers to three.  A four person team was great!  It nicely divided us into two teams, one of us would teach Language Arts and Social Studies and the other would teach Math and Science.  Our schedule was great and the load of grading and children wasn't bad.

This year we're moving down to three teachers.  This means two things for me.  One, I'll be only teaching Language Arts.  I'm kind of bummed about this as I really enjoyed the Social Studies content.  The other thing it means is that we all have ALL the students which brings my student count to 75 or so.  It's a trade off, but I want to make sure I'm really reaching all my kids and with less time each day, it will be more difficult.  Plus, there will be no "flex" time from another subject where I could occasionally gain some time if needed.  We'll see how it goes.

2.  I found out yesterday, one of our teammates has gotten another job.  I'm really happy for her as she's wanted to be in admin for a while and she's getting to do some great things for our district.  I think it's a good move, but of course that means our dynamic will change too.

3.  Last year we got a new first year principal.  It was a learning year for everyone and I know this year will be even better.  However, our AP was the one who kept us together.  We found out last week that our AP has been transferred!  It wasn't something she had requested but it's done.  She's actually trading schools with another AP.  So, brand new admin team will be something we all are going to get used to. Not bad at all, but learning each other can sometimes be stressful.

Should be an interesting year, have you been through change lately?