I can *finally* announce that I have accepted a new position and will be leaving my current role as an Elementary School Counselor. I will be moving to a nearby district to begin working as a Counselor Coordinator for the ESSCP Grant. I am so excited to be able to work with 9 counselors at 4 different schools. The role is still being defined, but I am thinking that my role will be similar to a literacy coach.
I will work with my schools to make sure that they are fulfilling grant requirements, help to gather and interpret data, collect materials and resources for the counselors and generally try to support their role and take the load off a bit. This will be a fun new adventure for me!
Never fear, I will still be updating the blog and my Teachers Pay Teachers store with all of the wonderful things that we are learning and discovering in the process!
In the meantime, I have begun the difficult task of wrapping up my role here at my school and saying goodbye to the kiddos. I know I'm not the only person in the world to get a new job so I thought it would be helpful to share the process here.
Of course, the very first thing I did was to let my principal know that I had a job opportunity and when I got the job (yay!). We made a plan for transition and notifying the staff. My principal made an announcement at a staff meeting. I made sure to pull a few people aside and tell them before hand so that they wouldn't be caught off guard.
In my state, we are required to give one month's notice. Because of winter break, I will have known I had the new job for 7 weeks before I leave but only 5 weeks of active school time. Even though it has seemed to stretch and stretch, there's been a lot to do!
I will work with my schools to make sure that they are fulfilling grant requirements, help to gather and interpret data, collect materials and resources for the counselors and generally try to support their role and take the load off a bit. This will be a fun new adventure for me!
Never fear, I will still be updating the blog and my Teachers Pay Teachers store with all of the wonderful things that we are learning and discovering in the process!
In the meantime, I have begun the difficult task of wrapping up my role here at my school and saying goodbye to the kiddos. I know I'm not the only person in the world to get a new job so I thought it would be helpful to share the process here.
Of course, the very first thing I did was to let my principal know that I had a job opportunity and when I got the job (yay!). We made a plan for transition and notifying the staff. My principal made an announcement at a staff meeting. I made sure to pull a few people aside and tell them before hand so that they wouldn't be caught off guard.
In my state, we are required to give one month's notice. Because of winter break, I will have known I had the new job for 7 weeks before I leave but only 5 weeks of active school time. Even though it has seemed to stretch and stretch, there's been a lot to do!
Saying Goodbye to the Kids
To say goodbye to the kids, I created a class lesson schedule so I could get into all classrooms one last time before I left. My intern and I taught all the lessons together so we could both say goodbye. In K-2, we taught a lesson using the book Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem and created confidence flowers with all the kids. In 3-5 we read the book "When I Grow Up" by Al Yankovich and did a Myers-Briggs type quiz to match personalities to job interests. I left about 5 minutes to let students know that I had a new job and answer any questions that they might have. The first few lessons, the kids were shocked but word spread fast!
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In addition to the farewell tour of classes, I allowed students to sign up to have lunch with me. I put sign up sheets outside my door and picked up 5 kids per day to have lunch. It was nice to get to see kids in a smaller group and just chat and have fun. Saying goodbye is important!
Saying Goodbye to the Staff
If you're lucky, your staff has become a group of friends that you appreciate and admire and whom you will miss! This is certainly true for me, I have been making sure to stop by rooms and chat with my fellow staff members. On my last day, a friend is planning a dinner at a nearby pizza place. The counselors from my district have gotten together to say goodbye. I have also taken the time to send emails and notes to teachers and counselors letting them know how much I have appreciate their time while I've been here.
Preparing for the Transition
If you've been visiting for a while, you know that I am a little compulsive (obsessive) about organization. To help prepare for the next counselor, I have made a notebook with valuable information and a spreadsheet with all of my job opportunities. Even though my last day in two weeks, we don't know if there will be a gap between me and the next person. I have farmed all of my "fair share" responsibilities to others in the school and many of these will transfer back to the person after me. I'm trying to keep as much continuity as possible!
Leaving in the middle of the year is hard, but sometimes new opportunities don't follow the academic calendar. The best thing I can do for me and my students is to honor the difficulty of change and prepare the school for the transition. Have you ever changed schools/jobs in the middle of the year? What was your game plan?
Leaving in the middle of the year is hard, but sometimes new opportunities don't follow the academic calendar. The best thing I can do for me and my students is to honor the difficulty of change and prepare the school for the transition. Have you ever changed schools/jobs in the middle of the year? What was your game plan?
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