Academic Aesthetic

Things I will miss:

• The students. Sure, there will be students at the new building, But I feel this way every time I lose a building. This doesn’t get easier through repetition.
• The staff. With some exceptions, the staff (and not just the teachers!) in all of my buildings were joys to work with.
• Getting my hands dirty. There’s nothing like a good ceramics project. Or painting project. Or any media that requires a sink.
• The local community. The town surrounding my base school is on my top 10 list of places to live.
• The mobility. As an itinerant teacher I got to visit 60+ classrooms a year. For all its drawbacks, that was a great opportunity to observe vastly different learning styles and take the best from each. I am certain it has made me a better teacher.

Things I won’t miss:

• Waking up in the morning and wondering, in my state of “not quite awake”-ness if I’m at the 7 AM building today, and therefore late, or the 8 AM building, and therefore will get there on time. (Then usually I would look at my clock and realize it was 2 AM and I should really go back to sleep.)
• Being required to make other teachers complete certain tasks without the authority to make them complete those tasks. I will not go into details here.
• Only seeing my students four or five times a year.
• Having my office / storage area consist of half the conference room, separated by a temporary wall that blocked no sound whatsoever. (I wore headphones for multiple reasons.)

What I did not do:

• Spend lots of time blogging.
• Go to technology conferences.
• Spend lots of time with my PLN.

What I did do:

• Unplugged and spent quality time with the wife.
• Plugged back in to play video games … with the wife.
• Got a job offer for an art/tech position where I will have my own computer lab and see my students much more often than once or twice a quarter. It’s in a new K-8 school opening this year in the county.
• Had an interview the next day.
• Offered the job on the same day.
• Asked what the administration’s take was on blogging.
• Convinced administration that I could teach blogging to students in a responsible way.
• Accepted the job.
• Missed my exit on the way home from the interview.  Twice.

Those that know me will understand this was a decision that I was ready to make, but it still won’t be easy.  There are a lot of staff and students in my previous buildings (dang, it’s still feels odd typing that) that I’m really going to miss.  Most of them I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to.

I think I’m going to let this sink in for a day or two.