Kindergarten!!!

Yes...you heard me.....I'm a going to teach Kindergarten next year!!!!! My Principal announced some very exciting staff changes today and one of them is ME! I am beyond excited about this for several reasons. #1: I LOVE change, and am the first to offer to move to a new grade when the opportunity comes. I am committed to hopping around for the first 10 years of my career so I am jam packed with experience. This gives me a great advantge as a teacher: flexibility and experience. #2 Kindergarten is what I have always wanted. I am the first to tell you all about my problems...but insanely secretive about my hopes and dreams. Teaching Kindergarten is something I LOVED and have missed since I left 3 years ago. It combines everything I love about teaching (the kids, the fun projects, the celebrations, the excitement, the newness, the love, the hugs, the cuteness) and eliminates everything I don't like about teaching (the grading papers, the stress of the BIG TEST, the jam packed curriculum). #3 Jack is entering Kindergarten so I will be on the same hall as him!!!!

I am so excited I can't stand it...but sad to leave the team of teachers I have come to know and love. The positive side of switching grades every year is getting to know new people and forming new relationships. The negative side is leaving them and not interacting with them as much. I am going to stay positive though. Yes, it will be hard to start all over in a new grade, on a new hall, with new teachers, a new classroom, new rules, new standards, new files, new EVERYTHING, AGAIN....but I think I will be happy there. I will be working with some really great people and you can't beat those little tiny great people I will get to spend my days with. I plan to stay in Kindergarten for a while so I can get my Masters and be comfortable in a grade while doing so. But life is not about planning...it's about being happy with what is already planned for you. I did request that I move to K....but you never know if what you request is possible. I feel blessed.

SO.....Mr. Jack and I will be on the same hall next year. I will have a 5th grader and a Kindergartener in one building (my building) and I'll be snuggling into my 4th year of teaching. GOOD STUFF!