Blessing #142: A new job

This week, I was offered and accepted a new job in the school district!  I'll be moving to a junior high closer to home.  I'm so excited!

• I now get to know what it's like to work at a traditional school.
• I can ride my bike to work.
• A few friends already work there, and they say it's full of wonderful people.

I'm also super grateful for the 4 years I've been at my current school, which was my first contractual teaching job.  Some of the gazillion insights I gleamed at my current position:

• I learned boundaries (thanks to students that don't have any) quickly.
• My teaching improved quickly.  Because students have no filter and just absolutely disengage when they aren't interested or don't get something, I tried new stuff a lot to help them learn.
• I learned that student behavior is generally not about me.  Their acting out almost never has anything to do with me.
• Students really do want to learn.
• Students really just want to please their teacher (sometimes way, way, WAY down deep).
• I can easily go to Costco every other day (school is right by it).
• Teenagers are people.
• Teenagers care about each other and the people in their lives.
• Some teenagers go through more by the age of 15 than some of us ever go through in our entire lives.
• I am a good teacher.
• I have more patients than I ever thought possible.
• To say no.  Then say no again.  Then keep saying no until they stop asking.
• People are more important than math.