Keeping My Name

I am so excited to begin my new teaching job in a few weeks... and FYI (if this is even interesting to anyone, LOL!), I'm going to be teaching 7th grade for the first time this school year. Hmmm... no longer "Teacher of 4th"... but I WILL be keeping my spark name. Seems like it would be a lot of trouble to change it after three years on this amazing site.

At the end of this school year my school district closed the school I'd been teaching at for eight years. We were a high-achieving urban school in a challenging neighborhood, but the district determined we were not "cost effective." It was a tough year emotionally for staff and students alike, but we all landed in good places. Students will begin their new school year at close-by neighborhood schools, and staff were all given choices about where they would like to be transferred to. I decided I was very ready for a change, and I've always wanted to teach middle school. So here goes... in a few weeks I'll be teaching 7th grade math and science at a middle school in our district. I'm excited for the challenge of beginning in a new grade level.

So I'm technically no longer a "teacher of 4th", but I will always have a special place in my heart for that grade level and for the students who passed through my heart during those years.

PS... I welcome any advice from middle school teachers out there!