Transitions

So I know that I've hinted at this a few times, but finally next week I will be starting a new job! Don't worry... this isn't a bad thing, I'm not leaving because I hate it or because I've had enough, I just only signed an 11 month contract and believe it or not but we've almost lived here in Nashville for a whole year! As much as I've griped about the craziness of my job this past year it will be extremely bittersweet to step away, and not see my students everyday. I knew this day would eventually come, but thankfully my new job doesn't require me to pull away from them completely.

So what is this new exciting job? Well, it's almost exactly like the job that I had in Florida before we ever moved to Philadelphia, which means it's as close to my dream job as I've ever been. Let me explain... the non-profit community center that I work at does tutoring after school at our site but also at many other schools throughout east Nashville. There is a whole troupe of tutors, in an entire department that I've had no contact with throughout my year of employment. A couple months ago I saw a posting online that the center was looking to hire an art teacher after school and was immediately upset to think that the people I worked with knew that this was what I wanted to do, but never mentioned it before posting. Anyway, I sent in my resume and got a phone call within hours for me to go to the Director of Educations office. We had always been cordial with each other, but didn't work in the same department, so we hadn't ever had a conversation that went past casual small talk... meaning she didn't know I was an art teacher! She explained that the job they had posted was for a teacher to work at a few of their tutoring sites doing art enrichment to offset some of the academics and she hired me on the spot. I've known since then that I had solid employment lined up after my Americorps term expired and have just been WAITTTTIINNNGGGG for the moment they would let me start. I'm not technically done with my term until October 14th, but by some miracle (and way too much miscommunication) it has been confirmed that I will be starting this coming Monday. I will travel between 4 different sites, Monday through Thursday. 2 Elementary school groups and 2 Middle school groups and I could not be more excited! I finally get to teach art again! I've kinda been nerding out and have about 2 months worth of lesson plans ready and waiting haha. The best part about this job though, is that I will be making the same amount of money that I made this year working 40 hours a week by only working 8 hours at this new job AND I'll still be working for the same center so I can come back to visit whenever I want even if I won't see them everyday! Best of both worlds and I am so grateful that this all just fell into my lap.

In all the confusion about my start date, I kind of forgot to mention to my students that I would be leaving them soon. This school year has been a little different for them since my replacement was hired in August and has been primarily working with them since. I have definitely stepped out of a leadership role in our room in order to make her transition easier, but they are definitely still used to coming to me to talk about their problems or when they're looking for hugs or help. I casually brought it up in our class today and was SO surprised when I had more than one student laying in my lap in tears. I guess I never gave myself enough credit, or thought they cared as much as they did. When my supervisor announced it to them again later I thought they were going to bring me down when they all tried to hug me at once haha. I'm going to miss these little ones so much, but it has truly been an amazing year watching them grow up, and I hope that I can be consistent with checking in on them throughout the rest of the year.

So many changes! I feel like our lives have constantly been in flux since our wedding last August, but it's all been so good that it's hard to complain. I'm still waiting to discover what my next BIG step will be since this new job is just 2 hours after school, but in the meantime I'll be substitute teaching and waiting on whatever may come my way :)

Some of the notes I got tonight.

What our guest room looks like currently as I try to sort all of my supplies to travel to all my different schools.