I'm back with news x2!

Okay, so I know that a seven-month hiatus is a bit unexcusable, but I hope you'll forgive me all the same! I don't really have a good excuse, just that, after the wedding life resettled and I didn't feel like I had a lot to talk about that would be interesting to the outside world. Now, I think a little differently so I'm back with a fresh commitment to this blog.

And I have news! (But not *that* news...there are still just two of us.)

News #1
As of 10:30am yesterday, Brian and I are now the proud owners of this:That's right! After making an offer in late March, the short sale is *finally* complete. The house is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom colonial in Crofton, MD - seven miles north of where we live now (2 miles from Brian's mom and only a half mile from Brian's sister). There is work to be done and I'm hoping to keep track of our progress via the blog, but we're pretty happy with the potential of the house and are very happy with the neighborhood. Once it's fixed up, we hope to have many visitors!

News #2
As of July 1st, I will no longer be a classroom teacher. Many of you might remember that I was struggling a lot with teaching last school year, but that I decided that I needed one more year without the burden of wedding planning and grad school to see if I was really done with teaching. Turns out, I totally am. I was more in love with my students than ever before this year and yet I was more disinterested in teaching than ever before. In early April, I told my principal that I was not planning to come back to the classroom and explained that I would love to stay at the school, but just in a different role. After a few meetings and some fortituous departures by others, I was offered a new position for the 11-12 school year - Director of High School Programming.

This position has never existed before, but the work I will be doing is not new. The school has eliminated the Asst. Principal position and created two new positions - Directors of Middle and High School Programming. The current AP will become my MS counterpart and her workload is split between us accordingly. I will also take on part of the work that is currently being done by someone not coming back next year - like most schools, mine is not in a financial position to create new f/t jobs, so my role is actually the renaming and reshuffling of an existing role. If that makes sense. In short, my job is to run the high school (my school is a 6-12 school), but, if you're interested, here's what I'll be doing with my time:

• supervising 15 f/t HS teachers and 3 p/t HS teachers
• administering the AP program
• serving as the 10th-12th grade team leader
• tracking and managing HS 504 plans
• tracking and managing HS graduation trajectories and transcipt audits
  
• streamlining and updating HS course catalog
• sitting on various leadership teams

I am really excited about this new opportunity, although I am also slightly overwhelmed by how my professional life is about to change. Still, I think it is a smart move for me and I look forward to seeing where it leads.

So, that's all for now. Brian and I are going to the house tonight to make a projects list - I'll try to remember to take photos to share with y'all.