Big changes coming up - I'm moving schools!

I've been wanting to post about this for a while, but was just waiting for the right time. Now that students and parents at my school know, I can finally share that I am moving schools!

Currently, I am a French Immersion teacher. In my province, students in grades 4-6 in French Immersion spend 60% of their day in their French homeroom (with me), and the other 40% of their day in English, learning English language arts and math. So essentially, for 3 out of 5 hours a day, I am with my homeroom class, where I teach language arts, science, social studies, gym, health, art, dance drama and music, all in French.

The other 40% of my day is where it gets tricky. 40 minutes a day of that time is my prep time, but the other hour and twenty minutes needs to be accounted for. As a result, I do art for all of the French immersion classes, from grades 1-5, as well as Kindergarten French for 20 minutes a day.

Since I began teaching, my passion has always been for older students. I've had a blast teaching kindergarten and grades 1-4 for the past few years, but I knew that I wouldn't do it forever. I have been hoping for a change up to intermediate (grades 7-8) for years, but the right job never came along. If I were to move to another school that was K-8, it was very likely that when I wasn't with my homeroom, I would be doing coverage with younger students again. My school unfortunately only goes up to grade 6, otherwise I would have planted myself in grade 7 and 8 and probably never left.

This year, a job came up at one of the only 6-8 schools in our board, and I jumped on it. In my new job, I'll be teaching a grade 7 homeroom, and then science, social studies, and visual arts to grade 6 (again, all in French.) It's honestly perfect for me. So many of my favorite art projects are ones that are integrated into science or social studies, so I will still be doing tons of art with my homeroom, and on top of that, I'll get to do additional art education with the grade 6s.

Accepting the new job was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I'm not joking when I say my past few years at my school have been a dream. I'm constantly inspired by the kids, from the Kindergartens to the sixth graders. I've learned so much about myself as a teacher, and how flexible I can actually be in the classroom. Plus, my admin and my coworkers are awesome - I've made tons of friends, and it's always hard to leave good friends.

It's going to be scary starting over from scratch, but I am really hoping it's going to be a great experience. I can't wait to share with everyone about how my transition from elementary to intermediate school goes!