The New Job

This morning at 8:30 I'm going to the school so I can sign all the necessary paperwork for my new job. I wasn't nervous about the job interview but I'm a bit nervous about this, not sure why. Maybe because it's a contract and that means that I'm under an agreement to work there, which means that if a better opportunity comes along then things are more complicated (like I'm sure that's not going to happen but I suppose there's a slim chance) I now have to go into my online applications for the school districts and choose the "yes" option when it asks if I'm under contract at a school.

When the assistant principal called me and offered me the job I was so excited that I didn't have clear questions ready to ask. Looking back what I should have done was sit down and generate several questions "just in case." I didn't want to put the cart in front of the horse though so I didn't have any questions ready and therefore, have a lot of unanswered questions right now. Though I'm sure that I'll get a lot of information today when I go to the school.

As of right now here is an explanation of my job......I'll be a fourth grade intervention specialist. Every grade level has three teachers and then an intervention specialist. My job consists of going into the fourth grade classrooms and working on several different types of interventions with the below level kids who aren't labeled as special ed. but are way below grade level and need a lot of help. I will be working closely with all the fourth grade teachers and I'll have access to their lesson plans on a weekly basis so that I can develop lessons for the kids I'm going to be working with. This is very data driven so I'm sure my merit pay increase after the year is up will totally be determined on how well these kids score on tests. That was FL in a nutshell so I'm very used to being driven by data, I'm not too worried about that.

Here are some of my questions that I have right now:

• Will I have my own desk/space where I can land and keep my stuff? They already explained that they don't have extra classroom space so I will be "pushing in" to the fourth grade classrooms and meeting with kids at tables in their own room which is totally fine with me but I am a little nervous about not having anywhere where I can store and organize my things.
• What will my schedule look like? Since I won't have my own class per say will I get the same types of lunch and breaks during the day as a regular classroom teacher would have?
• What other responsibilities will I have? Some schools have specials teachers and other staff members do bus duty or morning/afternoon monitoring.
• What is orientation going to consist of? I do know that I have a week long orientation starting August 17th for teachers who are new to the school's curriculum. I feel like I should be exempt from new teacher stuff since I've taught for 4 years but this is one exception because I have no experience with their unique curriculum. After that week I'll be going to the school for two weeks for things there but I have no idea what yet.
• How many sick/vacation days will I receive and what will the benefits be like? She mentioned pay, bonuses and health insurance, but does that include optical and dental? Is there retirement?
• How many other new teachers will there be at the school this year? I think every new school I've went to there were quite a few new teachers so I wasn't alone with learning all the new things. My first job there were like over 10 new teachers and my second job had quite a few, though I wasn't new to the county so I didn't have all the "new teacher" crap.

I have to get in the shower so I can get ready to head to the school so I'll probably post again when I get a few of these questions answered.