Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The times they are a-changin'

I knew I couldn't do it.

A couple of years ago I told my students that I planned to stay at the school until my first class of gr 1 (at that school) graduated from grade 8. They're finishing up gr 4 now. I won't be there when they start gr 5.

Last week an internal posting went out that included an opening for pretty much my ideal job - only gr 7 and 8, full time, still teaching French, at a K-8 school, and it's even closer to home than the school I'm at now (4.2 km to my current 6.6 km commute) It doesn't get much better than that, so even though I've been very happy at my current school, I took a deep breath and applied. The posting closed on Thurs, and I knew the principals had until Tues to let HR know if the posting was filled, so I figured I'd hear something on Fri and have an interview Mon. As it turns out, that's exactly how it went, except that during the course of the phone call the principal informed me that I was the only person to have applied! So I went in on Mon to meet with the principal. She told me about the school, about herself and her expectations, the community, etc. By the end of it she hadn't scared me off, but I needed some time to think it over, because I've been so happy at my current school. She was supposed to call by about 4 pm to get my answer, and by the time I took the girls to gymnastics at 5:45, she hadn't called. We got home a little after 7 and there was a message, saying she wanted to chat with me. My heart dropped. I was convinced that she was calling to say that upon reflection, she didn't think that I would be a good fit at the school and she wanted to keep looking. "Holy moly," I thought. "I'm glad I didn't tell too many people about this. I would feel like such a loser if I had to tell the whole staff that I was the only one to apply and I still didn't get the job!" And in those 15 or 20 minutes between hearing the message and calling the principal back, when I thought the job wasn't mine, I realized how much I wanted it. So when I called, and she asked if I had made a decision, I said if she still wanted me I wanted the job. She sounded surprised, but said yes, she definitely still wanted me, she would be thrilled to have me and thought I would be a great addition to the staff. Sooo...long story short(er), I am changing schools. I am very excited, but sad to be leaving a school with an incredibly caring and supportive staff, a school where I have been very happy.

In other news, I have been more literally nit-picky than usual lately. I received a call at work on Friday from the sitter saying she had found something in all three girls' hair that she was pretty sure was lice. Rylee had sat down in the sitter's lap and she noticed a bug, but thought it was something that had flown in there when we walked over that morning. When she found another one, though, she got suspicious and checked everyone's heads. All of my girls had it, but no other kids did. We think Hailey picked it up in Holland (my sister-in-law had it while Hailey was there, and one of the houses she visited was apparently infested) and passed it on to her sisters. Let me tell you, you haven't had fun until you've tried to go through the hair of a 20 month old looking for lice! We were finally able to check and remove them all when she fell asleep on my shoulder - I held her while Ryan picked. Thank goodness my parents were here - Ryan had been in Montreal most of the week, and didn't get back until about 7:30 Fri night. My mom started (and finished) my laundry while my dad vacuumed and I washed, combed and looked through the girls' hair. It has been a long haul, but I think we've got it all now.

Then I got sick on Sunday, and report cards were due Monday, and Ryan left Sunday night to go back to Montreal (he's home tomorrow) and, well, it's just been busy. I am SO grateful that it's almost summer holidays. Oh, and Rylee is officially off the bottle now, so she's been a real joy to get to bed each night (note heavy sarcasm). Hailey gets up pretty much every night now and tells me she can't sleep, so it's 10:00 sometimes before she falls asleep, and then it's rather difficult to wake her on time in the morning. We all need a break around here, I think. And yet here I am, posting at almost 11 pm because I have to stay up long enough to get my laundry into the dryer.

And with that, I think I'll check my email...

1 comment:

Daphne said...

Yay!! Congratulations!! Of course I wish you were moving a bit FURTHER from home (say... to California!!) but it sounds like you will be veryhappy.

Nice snow shot up there. :) More photos please!!