Renewal

This looks to be a year of renewal for me. For the last 17 years I have taught various subjects to the MR population. When school started this past year I knew that I needed a change. I no longer felt the excitement that I used to feel. Thus started my year of self questioning. Thoughts went through my head that made me question whether or not I should stay in the field at all. I have some serious concerns about special education. But that will be for another discussion. After considering a few options I decided that medical transcription might be something I would like. I checked out the online communities for that field and determined which schools are the best choices. My plan was to finish the school year and start transcription school in June. In February I told my principal and director of SpEd that I would not be coming back for the 07-08 school year. I gave them a brief explanation of why. It never occured to me that they would offer me other options to stay. The next week my principal asked me if I would consider staying if he could move me from MR to LD. I took a couple of weeks to think about this. My considerations included salary. I am a single mother of a 13 year old who will be going to college in a few short years. A new medical transcriptionist does not make as much money as I make. And I couldn't ignore the fact that I would be giving up my summer. I told my principal that I would stay if he moved me to LD.

Later in the semester I found out that we would be offering digital photography as a new class next year. The teacher that was going to teach it was not very happy about having it added to her schedule. She is an art teacher and does not know anything about digital photography other than how to point the camera and push the button. Let me throw in to this mix that I have a 30 plus year love for photography. I own a lot of fairly expensive equipment and have a passion for all aspects of photography. I talked to my principal about this and the wheels started turning. To make a long story short, I now will be teaching one section of digital photography next year! I can't wait! We are on a four period block at my school. In addition to the digi photo class I will have one plan period and teach two classes of Educational Enhancement to LD students.

This change has put the excitement back in my outlook. I'm even excited about the LD classes. The first four years of my career were teaching LD. That was a long time ago! It is nice to have creative juices flowing again!