A New Job!

God is so faithful!  After 5 interviews and 4 rejections, I have been offered a full-time teaching position!  I will be moving again, this time from the big city to a small town.  I'm okay with that.  Knowing that there is full-time employment - a job that I have been praying for for 2 years - at the other end makes it worth the stress and cost of moving. 

However, it's certainly not what I envisioned.  I love that it's a small school in a small district.  After teaching in a small school in Alaska, I have a passion for finding creative ways to meet the challenges inherent to small schools and districts.  The first part that I didn't envision was the fact that the school is almost 90% Hispanic.  Lots and lots of little Spanish-speakers running around.  I speak exactly zero Spanish.  That could get interesting. 

The other interesting part is that I will be teaching fifth-grade.  I'm admittedly nervous about that part.  My only experience with fifth-grade is from substitute teaching and those weren't necessarily pleasant experiences.  When I was first offered the job, my initial mental reaction was, "Not a chance."  However, the principal then spent 20 minutes convincing me that fifth-grade wasn't bad and that I wouldn't have a problem.  She said that there is a strong fifth-grade teaching team, and that most of their behavior issues are in K-1, not in the older grades.  That's my biggest concern - behavior.  However, if I'm there from the beginning of the year and respect is set as a non-negotiable expectation, it'll be different from coming in as a substitute who has to prove herself every time she steps into a new classroom.  And it's not as though I'm locked in for the next 10 years.  If, after a year or two, I absolutely cannot stand another day in fifth-grade, there are options for moving down to other grades.

My thinking now is that this whole job search has been under so much prayer for so long, that if this is the call that came first, then obviously that's where God wants me next year.  We can talk about the grade level later.