DONE WITH RISD

My old school:

I am sitting in my classroom in RISD for the last time. Today is a staff development and we can not start checking out until 11am. Even though I have everything done and nothing else to do. So I have decided to write on my blog about how I am feeling about this occasion.

First off I am crazy excited to be done with this awful school.
-I won't have to walk down the hallways and say hello to people without receiving anything back (not a smile, not a hello, nothing).
-I won't have to be scared that every time I talk to my principal he is going to begin yelling or shaking when he is talking because he is so angry.
-I won't have to deal with being yelled at by students or being hit (this hasn't happened the past month or so but for the rest of the year it happened).
-I won't have to deal with the craziest bitch I have ever met in my entire life (you know who I mean without even having to say her name).

The point is I won't have to deal with everything that has come from this school.

Although there are some things to be said about what I have accomplished this year through this experience.
-I have learned I can get through anything (and I mean anything).
-I am a lot stronger than I ever thought I could be.
-There will always be rays of sunshine in the dark clouds. There have been about a handful of people here who I could turn to in hard times and who would listen. I am VERY thankful for those people.
-I still love working with kids. I see this as the biggest accomplishment from this year. I still want to be a teacher and I still want to make a difference.

My new school:

I am EXTREMELY excited about my new school. I met with my department head, Hilary, yesterday and she is AMAZING. Everyone there was so nice and excited about me joining the team. Even the general education teachers were very nice and open. I have found out that I will be working with Kindergarten (YAY!!) and my caseload should be about 5-6 kids. I will also be helping with a few older kids for support from the more severe classroom. Another wonderful tidbit about the school is that it is an inclusive school. This means that the general education teachers are comfortable having special education teachers in their classroom and most importantly welcoming to the special education kids to their classrooms. This is a really big change from this year and I am very excited to see it. I will be sharing a room with another teacher. It's not really a big deal because I will be in the general education setting so often that I will only have the kids in my room for maybe two hours a day and even then all we need is a horseshoe table.

The first two months or so of school next year is going to be crazy again with all of the trainings I have to go to to learn the Plano curriculum but I am going to be positive about it because hey I have a job and it's at a place I am going to love. Plus I will be there for a long time so it's not like I will have to do all the new teacher training stuff again anytime soon. Also, the building was so nice! There was new stuff everywhere and they had built in desks and cabinets! Oh my goodness I just can't express how excited I am about this new school. I really feel like I am going to fit in there and that I am going to make some great friends. And of course make a difference in students lives, because if that's not what you are there for you might as well go home. :-)

I think that's all on the job front. :-) YAY for a new chapter in my life! :-)