Shameless Plug for my TpT Store!
It has been 3 years since I attended the CMEA Conference. I was excited to read the list of clinicians and knew I had to get back. And it just so happened that if fell on two days where I wouldn't need to make sub plans. Today at school was a half day so I wouldn't be teaching, and tomorrow is a data day for staff so it worked out perfectly.
As always the first person I run into is my cooperating teacher from my student teaching days. When he asks, as he always does about where I'm at, it only then dawns on me how much I've done in 10 years. 4 different charter schools, 4 different music programs developed, ELL certification, Professional Licensures, WMD, and Orff training; it's a lot, and most of it in the last 5 years.
I also ran into my other cooperating teacher (the drama that was my student teaching experience does not need to be explained) asked me the same questions about where I was and what I was doing. Both were genuinely shocked that I was not an elementary teacher when I had worked with them as a band student teacher. and so was I when I came to the realization that I enjoyed it more.
Both of them asked me the same question "are you happy?" Had I come to CMEA last year my answer would have been no. I probably would have said yes, but with hesitation, but this year I was able to confidently say yes without any doubt. I keep saying it: the kids are happy, they are making leaps and bounds in their academic growth, my workload is less, everyone is happy with what I'm doing. While I loved my old school the middle schoolers were wearing me down on top of the hormonal swings I had experienced since my two stillbirths and subsequent surgery, I was shocked to want to make the change to elementary. But Orff is magical and I can't get enough of it.
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