Who will meet THIS teacher?

This year is full of change.  New job. New principal. New classroom.New team. New technology.

...HAPPY 10th YEAR TEACHING TO ME!

 The classroom teachers are frantically getting ready for meet the teacher... placing the student name tags on the desks and ironing out last minute planning details for the first week... I am met with an array of emotions.

I will be honest, part of me feels freedom and relief. This summer was not full of team planning, binder prep, first week schedule, duty schedules, and team building. It was spent with my family. We traveled, we cuddled, we laughed, and we made memories.

Then there is the other part of me that stops to gaze into my old classroom and I am flooded with extreme emotions. This room, where I have taught for the last 6 years has been transformed into a superhero filled environment that I myself do not recognize. Classroom A in pod B120 no longer reads Ms. Ransom. It has been replaced by foreign signs and decor. Stepping into the room, a million memories hit me like a ton of bricks. Laughter, learning, funny mishaps... both personal and professional moments of the past 6 years.  When I first stepped into that room in August of 2008, I was starting over. The room offered new beginnings and an amazing journey that I could not foresee. The people have become my second family. Teachers have moved away, students have grown and left Christie...yet I have remained. In that room I got married, bought my first house, and became a mother. (yes, in that order) I think about the kids that have made me laugh and cry. Being a teacher in pod B120, classroom A, has been an amazing experience. One that has helped me grow both personally and as an educator. Stepping off of that blue carpet and back onto the cold white tile I am pulled back into the present reality. Tonight, meet the teacher. I wonder... will anyone be coming to meet ME?

I am now a Reading Specialist. I am going to be part of the 2nd grade team. (Which seems fitting since my first 3 years teaching were in 2nd grade.) I have been assigned to 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade. Some of the students will be new faces while a few others are students I have taught in the past. With the passing of each day my excitement over my new role grows. I will have the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from so many more teachers in our building. While I have mixed feelings over not having a class to call my own, I am realizing the possibilities present within the school as a whole.

"Who can say if I have changed for the better? ...But because I knew you... I have been changed for good." ~Wicked