Moving (at school).

This weekend was the big moving weekend at school! I talked about switching classrooms first in this post. This weekend we (my coworker, Lauren, and I) switched from the two-year-old room to the three-year-old room. I have mixed feelings, but mostly good. It's just very strange- I've worked in that room for two years!

1. I'm thankful I had two weeks to train the new teacher who will replace me. It makes me feel a lot better about leaving when there is a full time teacher in there instead of a different sub everyday.
2. At the same time, it's hard for me to watch someone do something differently than you. Change is hard for me. But, it's fine (or at least I have to keep telling myself that) because the new teacher has every right to change anything and do whatever she wants now- it's her room! And that's hypocritical of me, because I am changing things in my new classroom too.
3. MY FAVORITE THING: This transition shouldn't be too difficult because I already know all the three-year-olds! I had most of them in my room before, and even the few new ones I have seen enough for them to know me. It will be so great to have them again- it's like we aren't really starting over since we've been together already.
4. It's hard to leave things unfinished. There were a few issues that weren't fully resolved in my last room. But, I just have to stop thinking about it and trust that it will be fine. The new teacher will have to deal with it. I can't control what happens there anymore.
5. It's hard to leave sweet kids and parents!
6. But it's also awesome to go back to sweet kids and parents!
7. Kley was talking last night about how weird it is to not go to work today (with the new 10 hour day schedules, our day off is Monday). It definitely is weird, and it took awhile for me to get used to. Overall, though, I love it. I remember a teacher talking to me back in college about how we cannot take the place of God in their lives. It's something I struggled with. As a teacher, you can get burnt out fast working really hard all day, coming early and staying late to get things ready, always thinking about the kids. It's especially hard when you have kids who have a rough home life. (Thankfully I don't worry about that as much at my current job.) I still am working on it, but I'm getting better. There are times where I just have to stop. I am not God and I shouldn't be. No matter what happens, I will not always be there for my kids. I can help them, but I can't save them from everything. Only God can be there always. This move is a helpful reminder in that for me. I can go to work, in whatever room I'm supposed to be in, work really hard and do all that I can while I'm there, and when it's over it's over. That's all I can do.

I'm sure I could say more, but I'll stop. It was really nice of my boss to let us go in on Saturday- we got overtime pay and it was so great to have some time kid-free to set up! Here's to a great week in my new room!