On Leaving... and Starting Somewhere New
At my school, a job change doesn't mean getting shuffled down the hallway, or getting a section of a course that you're unfamiliar with. It means going to work in a new building, with a different set of colleagues, a different work culture, and students with a different profile. The rhythm of your life changes. You don't see the same people every day or take the same way to work. The students -- they're different, but not so different. In fact, they're probably the easiest part of the transition, because students are students, no matter where they are. I think all of this change is what makes a significant portion of the staff at our school a little bit nervous come staffing time. We know that teams can be split up, and our day-to-day can look very different, regardless of the fact that we're still teaching the same English course, or whatever. In my teaching career, there's been a bit of a rhythm to these changes. I haven't been in one spot for longer ...