Teacher Tuesday: New Role

I mentioned on instagram a couple of times that last Spring and earlier on in the summer that I stepped into a new role on campus for this school year and have had THE HARDEST time writing this post! 

I think it's because I have absolutely LOVED teaching math for the past 20 years (yes... 20 years!) and so stepping out of that and into something new (technically new-ish), while exciting, has had me a little bit nervous and in my feels. It's not that I was burnt out and DYING to get out of the classroom - I absolutely loved teaching Math - so this is all feeling new and completely different so I've been busy kind of figuring things out and finding my groove a bit ;) 

So here's the deal - when I started teaching 20 years ago I was also tasked with running our "Upper School" student government. The school was MUCH smaller than it is now and this included student activities (homecoming, dances, etc.) for grades 7-12. About 15 years ago our school split from "lower" and "upper" to lower, middle and upper and I was put in charge of middle school and then did the "social/student life" portion of high school while another teacher took over the chapel program. Fast forward a few more years and I had three babies and opted to give up the high school portion of my position and focus just on middle school. 

Then, about 3 years ago my principal asked me to start a House system in the middle school with about 2 weeks notice. Apparently he had a lot of faith in me ;) and I've spent the last 3 years building that program while continuing to plan our regular middle school dances and doing this all alongside teaching 6 math classes. 

As our campus grew even more I was approached about the possibility of stepping into a leadership role that would encompass Student Life for both our middle and high school campuses. Allowing me to continue to build the House program and middle school culture to more of it's potential and then breathing some new life into our high school through enhancing our current programming and bringing in some new events, traditions, and fun things.... while not teaching 6 classes. 

I prayed about it A LOT and really felt like God was calling me to step a bit out of my comfort zone and into this new position as Luke wraps up his time at MCA and I'm about to have two kids in high school. So I'm now the Director of Student Life (and am teaching one elective class that's a half block - but more on that later! hahaha).

 I'm not going to lie... I miss the stickers ;) and I miss the structure of having my day focused around a class schedule but overall I am SO EXCITED to use my experience to create a vibrant student life culture and have so many fun things up my sleeve for the year. 

THANK YOU so much for all of the kind messages over the summer as I casually mentioned the job change - they were super encouraging and meant a lot to me!

HAPPY Tuesday, y'all!

First week of school in 2006 and yesterday ;)