Slice of Life Day 4- New Directions

Around Christmas, my school district decided to change directions with literacy instruction in our six elementary buildings.  Currently, we really have nothing.  We have maps, but I think they are often ignored.  Starting next year, we will be going to Literacy Collaborative, start Reading Recovery, and some teachers will be trained in Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI).  We will have two literacy coaches per building: one primary, the other intermediate.  Right now we have an instructional coach in each building.  Currently I am one of those instructional coaches.

I am thrilled to be switching over to Literacy Collaborative!  Having classroom experience in 5th grade, I applied for one of the intermediate coaching positions and was offered one.  Our primary coaches started their training with the Ohio State University in January.  They are on a fast track so they can begin coaching next year.  The program requires you to go through a year of training before you can begin to coach teachers.

The intermediate coaches will begin their training next school-year. I just received my schedule and Wow!  I can't believe the amount of professional development I will receive!  I have four 5-day weeks of face-to-face PD starting in August and spread out until May.  Then there are 13 days of online PD.  When I interviewed for this position I was told 12 days of training.  This new schedule is a little bit different than what I was told.

At first, I was shocked at the difference.  I immediately thought of how much time away from my family this would entail and how much evening time would be consumed.  My husband is the varsity girls' basketball coach in the district where he teaches and I also thought of what juggling a family would be like during basketball season with all this training.  Thank goodness I have wonderful in-laws in town who will be more than happy to help.

While I can't wait for all this new learning, I am not looking forward to spending time away from my family.  I do hope that I am being a role model for my son on what being a professional entails: you can never know too much, look for opportunities to improve yourself, deal with stress in a positive manner, and learn how to balance family and work.