A Change Is Gonna Come

Soon I will leave my position as District Instructional Technologist to return to a 4th classroom teaching reading, language arts, and social studies. Most people are astounded when I tell them this and wonder why I would ever return to a classroom. I honestly never thought I'd be anywhere but the classroom; although, this position has been a nice change of pace - I have grown in my leadership capacity; had opportunities to see education from a different perspective; and made/helped make decisions that would affect teaching and learning in our district. Despite all of this, I am headed back to the classroom.

The reason for the change has nothing to do with discontent with my current role. I quite enjoyed the challenge; but, over a year ago, I moved out of state (112 miles from my current district) creating a 4-hour, round-trip commute. Most wondered how long I could sustain in that fashion. I lasted a full school year, plus a couple of months at the end of one and the beginning of this one. Commuting proved to be expensive and physically taxing. So after much prayer and consideration, I began to look for positions closer to home. Ironically, the new school is 66 miles away from home - exactly half of my current commute. It's not as close as I wanted to be, but hopefully, this will be a good fit and an easy transition.

I am not without anxieties. The shifts in content (CCSS and new state frameworks) and grade level will be huge for me. I will also be entering nearly two months after the beginning of the school year which presents its own set of challenges.

During the 2005-2006 school year, I taught in a self-contained 4th grade classroom; however, the standards I used were our old benchmarks. In school year 2006-2007, I taught reading only - still under the old state benchmarks. Since then, the standards for reading and language arts were merged and repackaged as a combined ELA framework. The social studies standards have also changed. Now the Common Core State Standards have been implemented. I spent the following years teaching 6th and 7th grade math and pre-AP pre-algebra and then as District Instructional Technologist since May 2011.

Pray for me as I return to the classroom and continue my travels on a shorter (thankfully) commuting!