Spring = Stress

In my years of teaching, I have quickly come to the conclusion that along with Spring comes a great deal of stress.  As the year winds down and people begin making career decisions for the next year, things inevitably change and always seem to cause some tension.  I think it is just normal for it to be this way no matter what type of school you teach in or where you teach, but it’s just one of those things that comes with the change of seasons.

In the school where I teach, there are three sections of each grade in the elementary school.  When I was hired on a few years ago I was given a mentor teacher, and our two rooms are connected by a door.  Over the years, Robin and I have nearly worn out the carpet connecting our rooms!  We get along great and always seem to be on the same page.  We don’t necessarily teach alike or agree on everything, but we have the utmost respect for each other as teachers.  Although she has taught for over 25 years, she has never made me feel inferior or questioned what I was doing with my students.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with her.  A few weeks ago our principal approached her to move up to 5th grade, and she finally decided she’s going to make the move.  As much as it tears me up knowing that I won’t teach with her next year, I told her to do what she needed to do for herself because I don’t know where the next few years will take me.  I know that she’ll be great in 5th grade and will enjoy it, but I still have butterflies about her leaving and us losing the close friendship that we have created.

The Catholic elementary school here in town called me the other night, too, and said that they are going to probably have a 5th grade opening for next year.  So that has put a whole spin on things for me.  I know that it would probably be less stress or at least a different kind of pressure and stress that I feel at the public school with assessments and everything else, but then I would add the stress of money.  I would make significantly less money, but they do have some extra benefits.  I would lose the money I’ve put into retirement the past 3 years because I would no longer be considered a state employee, and I do question job security at a private school here because we are a smaller community where the school is solely supported by the parishioners of our church.  I have really been praying about this decision, but I still feel kind of empty.  I don’t really have strong urges one way or another, but all that I can do is continue to pray and be willing to listen to what I am being called to do. 

Friday we took our field trip to the circus with the kids.  They did fairly well and really enjoyed the circus, so that always makes the trip lots of fun!  They did get restless on the 3-hour bus ride, but I guess that’s not unusual.  I had the typical arguments between students and things like that, but it was nice to get a day out of the school and away from the regular schedule of teaching.  A few of us teachers got together for a while after we got back Friday night for a drink and socializing, which was really nice.  I love it when I can go out with the teachers and talk "off the clock."  That really helps my overall feelings about my job and the people I work with when I can do that. 

Trent and I booked our trip to Disney World last night — yay!!!  I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to deal with truly knowing how much money we were going to spend for this trip, but we finally decided it was getting a little too close to keep putting off.  We are going June 13th-20th since those are the earliest dates in June that we could book to stay at Pop Century.  We are just staying at a Value resort to save money on the trip, and we figure we will spend very little time at the hotel room anyway.  When there for our honeymoon two years ago, there’s so much we didn’t get to see since we were only there four days and it rained a great deal of that time.  This time we’ll have an entire week to go to the parks and hopefully also go to one of their Water Parks as well as Wide World of Sports.  It will be so nice to get away, just the two of us, and get to act like kids again!  We know it’s a lot of money to spend, but it is really important that we take this trip together before we start a family.  Once kids are on the way, we know we’ll not take the time or the money for a vacation for just the two of us.  Now I have to be patient as we wait for the trip to come!!  🙂 

Well, we have youth group things to do this afternoon, so I best get going.  I had to create a Catholic Pictionary game, which was very difficult.  Hopefully it’s not too hard for the kids.  At least I don’t have to play since I created it, so I guess it doesn’t matter how hard it is.  Right?!?  hehehe 

I hope you all had a great weekend, and have a wonderful week ahead!