There are some changes in life that feel like a big jump with a soft landing.
This is one of them.
After more than a decade of teaching middle school, primarily 6th grade resource room science and social studies, I’m starting something completely new. New building. New grade. New curriculum. New routines. New everything.
I’m officially a 3rd grade teacher, primarily teaching ELA.
And if I’m being super duper honest, I’m scared out of my mind.
I spent more than ten years becoming comfortable in my old role. I knew my curriculum. I was the veteran 6th grade science teacher, knowing the curriculum inside and out. I could teach 6th grade social studies with my eyes closed. I knew my classroom. I knew what to expect from 6th graders. I knew what worked, what didn’t, where the day was going to go from the pulse of morning arrival, and how to handle just about anything that could walk through my door.
I was the master of my realm.
And now I’m the new girl again. Except…I’m not really the new girl. Because this building isn’t really new to me. In fact, it’s where my whole academic career started.
I first walked through these doors as a student Latch Key worker. Then I became a substitute. Then a full-time paraprofessional in a brand new classroom I completed my student teaching. I had some of my first long-term teaching positions here. This building built me as an educator.
This building was part of the beginning of my career before I ever really knew what that career would become. Because back then, it most certainly did not involve middle school.
And now, all these years later, I’m walking back through those same doors as a teacher again.
It feels strange. I’m scared and excited. But there’s something a little comforting about coming back to a place that knew me before I really knew me as a teacher.
Before I had years of experience. Before I had mastered a curriculum, a grade, an age group. Before I had figured out my own teaching style. Before I had spent more than a decade building a life and a career at another school.
I’m coming back with all of that experience behind me. But I’m also coming back ready to learn again. And that’s the part that feels both incredibly terrifying and extremely exciting.
I know 6th grade. Third grade? I think I might be flying that plane while I’m reading the directions on how to put it together.
I’m going to have to learn a new curriculum. I’m going to have to rethink some of the things I’ve done for years. I’m going to have to ask questions, make mistakes, pivot, and probably spend a lot of evenings wondering if I’m doing any of this right and if I made the right decision in switching positions.
But I also know something now that I didn’t know when I first started.
The grade level might be different. The content might be different. The building might be different than the one I’ve called home for so long. But the heart of it is still the same. Kids who need someone to believe in them. Kids who need someone to make learning feel possible. Kids who need patience, encouragement, structure, laughter, and someone willing to meet them exactly where they are. I know how to be a darn good teacher.
So yes, I’m nervous. So nervous that I might end up with a fever blister in the morning.
But I’m excited. I’m definitely not the same person who first walked through those doors all those years ago as a 16 year old kid, then again as a community college student, and as a college student working on a combined BA and MA, student teaching during the day and working as a full time assistant manager at a local dollar store on nights and weekends.
I’m coming home with a whole lot more experience, a whole lot more confidence, and a whole lot more stories. I think it’s the stories that will save me…lol
I’m so excited that I get the chance to start a brand new chapter in a place where my very first chapter began.
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