We are home now, back from two trips in a row.  I have a list of blog posts I want to write, and the kids are at camp next week so hopefully I’ll get them written. :)  I have a few minutes right now though, so I thought I’d start off with a quick one.

I got a job!  Yay!  I interviewed at a local Montessori school last Friday, then got an offer on the phone, while standing in the grocery store parking lot in Oneonta, and accepted.  I signed the papers when we got back in town.  I am super excited to be employed and no longer worrying about what my fall will bring.  However, I’ve had mixed emotions about the whole thing as well.  (Because that seems to be how I live my life, debating, second-guessing, and wondering.)

The position is an assistant teacher job, not a full teacher.  This is awesome because it means next year will be so much easier than this year was.  I’ll be home when the kids get home from school each day, no more daycare and long bus rides for them, and I won’t have any extra work to do in the evenings and weekends.  Teachers do a lot after school hours!  However, I’m also a little sad that so much of what I learned and prepared for this year will be irrelevant next year.  All the lesson planning, differentiation, classroom management, etc… maybe.  I don’t know a ton about the Montessori methodology so there may be more of that than I realize.  I will also be in someone else’s classroom, so again I’ll be following someone else’s expectations.  That was fine last year for my internships, but I was definitely having a lot of “in my classroom…” thoughts by the end of the year.  I guess I’ll have to put them on hold for awhile.  The pay is paltry and if I max out my retirement account (of which I have none at the moment) I will pretty much be bringing home nothing.  Sigh.  Good thing Alan is solidly employed!

I had this vision in my head of what it would feel like when I got a job.  I would start planning my classroom, going through the kids’ things here to see what I can bring in, studying up on the CCSS for that grade, learning the curriculum, etc.  Basically work, work, work – but everything I’ve been preparing for this past year.  Instead it will be none of that, but I’ll have a quiet summer and I’ll be home with the kids after school in the fall, which will be great based on the year we just had, and I’ll be in a beautiful classroom with super friendly colleagues.  And working with kids, which is why I started this whole thing!  When I focus on the positive I am super excited about this job!  They are sending me to a Montessori conference so I can learn the Montessori curriculum and methodology, and they lent me a few Montessori books, so I have some reading to do… just as soon as I finish the Divergent series, probably totally anti-Montessori!  :)

So that’s that. New job.  Known future.  Beautiful school.  Friendly people.  Awesome hours.  Happy family.  Life is good.