Today is not only my mother's birthday, but my last day working at my current school. Monday I start at a different school. I'll lay out the pros and the cons in a moment. I will mention an interesting fact first. On this day, February 22nd, exactly 6 years ago I quit my first job. That job was at Savers. I remember the day vividly, I had put in my two weeks notice after working there nearly 3 years. It was my mom's birthday and at the time I was not speaking to her much. It was an emotional day because I did like my coworkers, it was my first professional/work family. Today, I'm leaving another job, it is my mom's birthday and I am in a much better place with her. Today was a whirlwind of a day, chaotic, a little emotional, but now that it's over I can get down to being excited about my new school.
Where I'll be working is closer to me, 4-5 less miles to drive one way each day. It is literally right down the street from one of my other jobs, which cuts down additional driving on top of that. I will be getting an extra 30 minutes more each day of work, so my paycheck will be a bit more than it already is. The teacher is incredible, a very lovely woman. The other workers are very nice and just plain comfortable to be around in the short time that I was around them. The students seem far less behavioral than my current students. The overall atmosphere and mood of the classroom is pleasant and calm. The teacher took time out of her personal schedule to meet me, practically gave me the job without an official interview. She cares about my happiness and is very considerate about my hearing condition [always a plus!]. I will be working at an elementary school with students ranging from kindergarten to third grade that have autism. This will be very different from my current class. Before I was with 6th-8th graders that are in a Life Skills class, meaning that they are low functioning, with variable conditions between each student [Mentally Retarded, Down's, Austism, etc.]. Autism requires a lot of structure, which is what I am looking for. My classroom was declining in structure mostly due to the fact that my teacher is leaving at the end of the year and he seems to be caring less and less. On top of that the number of our students was growing, it has become very difficult to manage. Nonetheless, I'm really glad to be leaving.
The only con I can think of at this point is that the school gets out an hour later than my current school. This disrupts one of my other jobs because that client gets out of school and is at home earlier. So I will be getting less hours with him. His mom and I have to work something out soon.
I've been especially stressed out the last three weeks since officially seeking a different school. It's been up and down. I hope that this weekend, I can break away from that, start relaxing and really getting excited about a fresh promising start. Hopefully after my first week to month I can document my feelings so I can look back on them and make sure that I am truly in a different state.
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