I didn't know how best to make this semi-public to the blogging community, but I figured I had to say it, for clarity's sake, before the new school year starts. Those of you who follow my posts here with any regularity are probably at least dimly aware that I taught middle school. Well, if you start reading posts from me referring to Regents exams and credit accumulation, it's because I'm making the big jump to high school this fall. Yes, Miss Eyre is leaving the Morton School, but, really, the Morton School is more like a state of mind, so my blogging address and name will remain the same.This probably comes as no surprise to regular readers, who know that the principal at the Morton School and I did not exactly see eye to eye. I went back and forth with myself for quite a while about transferring as I went on a number of interviews. Some days I was ready to take the first job offered. Other days I was ready to give up on the transfer process. But when the right school came calling, they found me in the right state of mind, and I accepted the offer.
I've always been uncomfortable with trash-the-boss (I mean immediate supervisors, not Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee--trash away, friends!) posts on teacher blogs, and though I've certainly written a few less-than-complimentary posts about my now-former supervisor, I think I've also tried to be a generous critic in acknowledging the challenges of being a principal and admit that I'd never want the job myself. With the comfortable distance of summer vacation and a new job on the horizon, I'm ready to let bygones be bygones, I suppose. PX, as this person came to be known, couldn't take away the actual joy I get from teaching actual children, and the relationships I developed with my past year's students reminded me, in the end, that the kids couldn't care less about the b.s. that keeps us up at night and foaming at the mouth on blog posts. And they, as I like to say, are our real bosses. They are the people to whom we are ultimately--I mean in the really grand scheme of things, the very long run--"accountable." And I can look at the progress my students made last year and, gasp, yes, even at their test scores, and feel like I did pretty darn right by them. This might be more like an early-July than a mid-August post, but so be it. Anyway, that's me, being perhaps a bit more personal than I usually am here at NYC Educator, really putting my posts from 2009-10 to bed.
Where am I going? As usual, to protect my own anonymity and that of my students and colleagues, I won't identify that any further than to say it's a high school, it's not a charter, and it's still here in NYC. And I'll say that I'm pretty excited. I was talking to a teacher friend this past weekend, and I said that I felt like I needed one more week of solid vacation and then I'd be ready to think about going back. But I'm already feeling good about my fresh start for the fall. I hope you're looking forward to more posts about misadventures in teaching English in the city schools, just from a slightly different perspective.
Oh, and if anyone has any advice specific to starting over in a new school, that would be great.
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