a new job?

I've attempted to start this post at least 3 times already...and actually, I hear the baby crying right now though just a moment ago he was napping peacefully. It's as if he senses when I've made my mind up to write and wakes up! haha :) Well, I'll have to postpone this yet again....flexibility, thy name is motherhood!

ABOUT 7 HOURS LATER...
Anyway...I was about to write about how I have a new job next year. Though it's not something I was planning to do, I will be the high school Spanish teacher next year at our district. I'm not going to go into a lot of details, but due to the uncertainty of the state budget (and thus, uncertainty in the funding to the school districts in PA), school districts are looking at ways to cut spending in any way that they can since the proposed budget leaves most (if not all) districts in the red (to the tune of millions). One way that my school district has come up with to make up for our proposed deficit is to "reassign" teachers who have multiple certification areas...yep, like me. :/ They have moved me to the high school to teach Spanish and moved another teacher from kindergarten to my classroom to teach second grade. This is not the only switcheroo that has occurred at our little district, as many teachers are being moved to a different grade next year and many are having to move their classrooms. There is still talk of furloughing staff who have not achieved tenure yet due to budgetary shortcomings, and I don't know when we'll know for sure what's going on because the state budget needs to be passed before anything is certain. In general, there's a lot of change afoot at our school and, I'm sure, across the state. I know that the administration and school board are just doing what they need to to be able to keep the school running and that they're making hard decisions, but it's such a difficult time for all of us because of the uncertainty and the way everything is constantly changing.

While I'm definitely grateful and relieved that I still have a job at our district, I'm heartsick that I have to leave the elementary school for so many reasons. I love my coworkers there, and I'm nervous about making new friends at the high school...I know it'll come in time, but I've just never been that good at getting to know people quickly, and I will miss my second grade team a lot. :( I will also miss the kids so much; when I started teaching second grade I wasn't sure I'd like it or that I'd be good at it, but now that I have four years of teaching under my belt, I feel competent and satisfied with it...I love seeing how much the kids grow personally and academically throughout the year. When I student taught, I really liked my high school placement, but it's been years and I am going to have to adjust to the different age group...what a change to go from leading eight-year-olds through the halls in two lines to teaching teenagers who might be texting during class. It's a little scary to be starting out fresh again, especially since I'll have a four-month-old baby to deal with along with figuring out a new curriculum. That's going to be tough. Perhaps the biggest issue that I've had with this is related to my stubborn personality (lol)...it has been very hard for me to accept this because I didn't choose to make this change, and I hate it when I have no choice in the matter at hand. It's kind of like I've always had this little kid inside of me screaming, "But I don't wanna!" when someone tells me what to do. Gotta work on that.

Obviously I have mixed feelings about this, but I'm trying to look on the bright side whenever I can. For example, there will be many things about teaching in the elementary that I won't miss, such as: the stress of parent-teacher conferences at Thanksgiving time; teaching cursive handwriting; giving spelling tests; taking the class on restroom breaks and dealing with silly bathroom issues that come up; and many other things that I can't think of right now since I'm feeling brain-dead after a long day following many nights of broken-up sleep from taking care of Jackson. Maybe I'll get to lead a trip abroad to Europe or to Latin America! I love Spanish so I think that will go a long way in helping me to accept and enjoy this new position in which I find myself.