Teacher Pea Check-in

We are done 6/2 with a work day 6/3.

I am moving from 22 years in the same room teaching 6-8 (various grades each year) math and science to continuation high school math and science. It is not a change I asked for. I do not like high school but I hold single subject credentials so I must move. District politics and admin change has caused this to happen. I am the only teacher in our district this change affected so I can’t help but feel targeted. I’ve been assured it was nothing against me but, yeah, it sure seems like it is. BUT The more I hear about what is coming to the elementary sites, the better I am feeling about my change of sites/grades. I am leaving my teacher crew of 5 team mates behind and joining a school with 2 teachers of which I am one. My elementary site has over half the staff leaving/retiring as well as getting a new principal who is transferring from another site, maybe. They might find a job in another district they want rather than my site. They actually told the staff this. Really makes y’a feel loved.. My own children (both very high achieving in all subjects) attend the school I work at. We are ALL leaving. I’m bringing them to our home district and my DH will once again need to be a SAHD. Big changes for us.

So, I need to pack my classroom to move to a site that is also moving sites. I do not currently have a new classroom to move into so I will bring my crap home and store it in the garage until my room is ready. I’m hoping to get in there before August 1. Kids come August 5.

I need to hang in for 12-17 more years.  We’ll see if I can.

I have 13 teaching days left, plus a work day. I will be using two personal days, so I am down to 11 days with kids. In a couple years we will be moving into a new school and our administration has been encouraging everyone to get rid of anything that they are not using, so everyone has been taking that seriously and all sorts of things are getting tossed. This environment has been very helpful to me because I plan to retire next year. I am getting rid of all sorts of things knowing that no one else is going to want them.

I will retire with 34 years of teaching - most of them in fourth grade. I am the only person I know that has taught as long as I have in the same classroom. It's just crazy to me to know that I have 194 days left in my career. I'm super happy about it. I can easily get through one more year of teaching.

My biggest reward was seeing my kids get caught up in reading. Disruptions in their education the previous years meant that several of them were severely behind. I had one kid who had pretty much been out of the education loop for almost a full year. She is now reading at a mid 4th grade level. She came in at a low 2nd grade level and it took a while, but I consider her to be the biggest success of my year. She loves to read. 

We have three and a half weeks left. Students' last day is June 7 with teacher workday on June 8.

I had posted here previously that I intended to retire from teaching at the end of this year. Then my principal came back with a good offer for me to work part-time in a flexible way. I'm pretty excited about it. I get to design the job and decide when and how much I want to work. No more early morning carpool duty! Haha. Just making music with kids and doing programs with kindergarten and third grade. I'll also be starting a guitar program with 5th grade and continuing ukulele with 4th. If I get very motivated, I might do an after-school choir.

Anyway. Less money overall, but the hourly rate is decent and I can keep my district benefits, which are cheaper than DH's. And I'll have the flexibility to take a week off here and there to travel with DH without having to find a sub and leave plans for six grade levels. And I'll have more time for non-school stuff that normally suffers during the school year - exercise, dogs, house.

I was looking around my building last week and I realized that there isn't a single full-time teacher in the building over the age of 50 - the age I'll be next year. The older teachers are all part-time interventionists, curriculum specialists, etc. - the job I'll be moving into.

Last day is May 26th. Students have a half day in the morning. We need to get all our stuff done by the afternoon. Then we are free. Grading at the end of the year is always tough!

I will mostly be doing the same thing. I had to teach Academic Seminar this year. I had 4 preps every day. I also floated one period. Floaters are in the hall monitoring or have to cover classes when we are short subs. I won't have to float next year. Next year I will get structured study in place of floating, and get my 8th grade classes back. I teach middle school computer science. 

I am just happy I will be getting most of my program back. I hated this year. I really wanted to quit.

Our last day with students is May 26th. Next Wednesday and Thursday are early release days, and Friday is teacher work day, but we also have our district luncheon at noon.

I am staying in my current position of special education resource teacher. This my eighth year in this position and I really like it for the most part. I have 4 more years until I can retire, so not wanting to switch jobs.

This year has been very challenging personally, but my students are amazing. I have seen some amazing growth in my students' reading this year. I had one 3rd grade girl who came to me as non reader, but is now reading at the end of kindergarten level. She is amazing!

That is fanTAStic! Health insurance for me and my kids is the thing I most fear losing. Luckily, I love my job... I am looking forward to summer, though!

We finish the 15th, with teacher work days through the 17th. Like monklady123, we start in September.

I'll be doing the same thing next year - I was worried about losing my space, but I found out it's secure at least through next year. Whew!

I confess that I'm counting the days - for some classes, that's with tears in my eyes. For other classes, I'm ready to let them move on.

See, you get out only a week after me but go back a month later. Not sure how that works. Lol

TBH the health benefits are my primary reason for staying with the district and not seeking part time work elsewhere. They’re not great, but they’re fairly reasonable and will keep me and the kids covered.

Only 3 days left to go then school picnic on Friday. I’ll probably have to go in a morning or two next week to finish up some administrator stuff. This was my first year at the PreK level so I’m happy that next year I won’t have as much curriculum prep to deal with. My new 3/4 preschool teacher from this year is phenomenal and staying on so no new hires to deal with.

Today was like invasion of the body snatchers. The class that has given me hell all year and was the most challenging class I’ve ever taught were actually quiet and pleasant. First time in months that my throat hasn’t been sore from raising my voice for three straight hours. So stressed with all the things left to be done I really needed the win today.

So excited for you. I’m glad you found something that works better.

Last day with students is May 26. Teacher work day on May 27 (half day if you work graduation). Though really, I will work through the end of June. We host a summer camp for elementary school kids the second week of June and then DH & I take a group of students to compete at International Thespian Festival in Indiana the last week of June.

We will take July off and then get back at it with officer camp and planning at the beginning of August.

I'll be back next year for year five at my school and year 15 in education.

This year has been one of the absolute hardest - both personally and professionally. The return to normal school expectations have been killer. I have written more discipline referrals this year than in my entire career. I very rarely write them, but these have been for things I couldn't address in class - skipping, academic dishonesty, vaping.

But this is the first year since 2020, we were able to do a full season of theatre - a musical, mainstage shows plus impov shows, contests and social events and it looks like we have enough support (and volunteeers) to ressurect the booster club that was put on hold in 2020 due to lack of participation. We had some great successes on the competitive side of things (because why shouldn't the arts be competitive...) and overall just a really good year for our extracurricular program.

Personally, it's been a struggle. We lost my FIL last May and walking with DH & our kids through their grief has been tough. Add to that a bout of Covid in October, the additional stressors at work and 2 middle schoolers - let's just say it's been alot. I'm hopeful that things are turning a corner on both fronts but I have never been so ready for a school year to end.