Long overdue

I haven't posted recently, mostly because I really didn't have anything to say, but when has that ever stopped me from shooting off my mouth before. So, where to start?

I'm starting a new job in the fall. I'll now be a high school media specialist. I'm very excited and scared to death at the same time. As I may have mentioned before, my biggest fear in life if that everyone will realize I've been faking it all along and have no idea what the hell I'm doing. That's not totally true but it sure does feel that way sometimes.

I found out this job was a possibility back in October. Our school system has strange transfer process. If you are interested in a transfer you have to request it by January, even if a position is not open. If a position becomes available you get an interview. However, they can't interview until the position is available (current position holder announces retirement or resigns). This means you basically have to know a position is going to be available months before it is. Luckily for me, I happened to overhear that the current media specialist was retiring. I had really planned to wait a few year before jumping from elementary to high, but being as the school is right next to my house I had to jump on the opportunity. The kids will go to the elementary school beside the high school so logistically, the move is perfect.

I worked very hard getting my portfolio up to date, speaking to high school media specialists, and reading up to prepare for my interview. I also had the recommendation of my previous supervisor, my current supervisor, my previous principal, and my current principal.

My interview went really well and I really liked the principal there. I went in with thinking, if I get the job great, if not I'm happy where I am. I walked out thinking, man, I really want to work for him. The principal seems to put what's best for students first and trusts his staff as professionals. It seems more and more principals nowadays are only worried about making sure the school does well on high stakes tests and blindly follow, to the letter of the law, whatever mandate or program the county favors this month.

So, I waited a month or so and got a letter stating I had received the position. Wow. It's so strange thinking about going to a new school. Everything I've done in my career has been at the same elementary school. I went from being a classroom teacher to a media specialist, but I never left my building. I'm very excited at the potential the new position has. I can work with young adults and discuss real issues, I can do much more with technology, I can read and recommend young adult novels, and I can be more of a librarian than I could teaching 25 classes a week in elementary. At the same time, I have to learn how to teach, manage, and deal with the behaviors of high school students. I also have a lot more responsibility for running a larger library, spending a much larger budget, and doing a lot more cataloging than I currently do. The thought is a very overwhelming to me.

In addition, I have the added bonus of not being a the favorite coming in. When I took over at my current school, the media specialist was not well loved. My staff knew me and was very excited when I got the job, especially the tech who hated the previous media specialist (the tech is like the librarian's assistant, they do a lot of book check out, cataloging, and other mostly clerical jobs). The other person who had applied for the media specialist position at the high school was really good friends with the tech there. We've gotten along well so far but she's also let me know that she was really pushing for her friend to get the position. She felt that my previous boss had too much say in who got the position. So, although she's told me she doesn't hold it against me, it's still hard feeling like I have a strike against me before I even start.

So here I am, about to go into the complete unknown. My last experience with high school was when I went there. I'm hopeful that things will go well and I will love it. At the same time it's really hard to leave my comfort zone and go into a position where I need to do well, learn quick, and show that I'm in control of it all.