Big Changes

I forgot to mention on here that this next school year will have some big changes. In May, I took a position for our special education cooperative. I'll still be teaching preschool but no longer for Head Start. I'll be teaching in a self-contained special education preschool classroom, which means I'll actually only be starting with 8 students. The other change is that I'll be going back to college again. I don't have special education as a part of my early childhood degree, so I need to add on what I have. It will be a total of 35 credit hours spread out over the next two and a half years, and I'll be teaching on a waiver while I do that.

I am so ridiculously excited for this change. I spent the last school year feeling like I was stuck and had no options for other employment because of my limited degree. Once I'm done with this added indorsement I'll be able to teach through 3rd grade if I should choose to do so ever. Odds are I won't go that route because my heart is really with younger children, but in our economy it's nice to have those options.

After 9 years of teaching Head Start this is going to be a big change. I'll be the case manager for all of my children's IEPs, which means I'll be writing all of them and responsible for making sure that they are implemented. But although I'll have that additional paperwork I will no longer have the triplicate of paperwork that Head Start always required. And fewer students will make a big difference too. I start off the year with 8 IEP students and will add four peer models to that. I have the potential to have as many as 12 children total in each class including the peer models. But last year at Head Start I had 32 children between both sessions so this will still be a lot less of a load.

I'll be the only preschool classroom in a local elementary school. I always thought I wouldn't want that seclusion. But after a lot of drama last year I'm really looking forward to be my own little island. :) I've heard that my classroom is pretty bare but that just means that I get to build it up the way I want it to be. It's going to be such a new adventure and I cannot wait!

Here are a few pictures of my new room. This is while they were still moving all the third grade supplies out so it really doesn't look preschool friendly yet. I'm really excited for the Promethean Board, something that I've never had a chance to use before. I don't use a lot of technology in my classroom, but I'll definitely figure out some appropriate uses for it. :)