Wednesday, June 28, 2017

A New Thing

I've been an educator my entire life.  I grew up 'teaching' the neighborhood kids on a giant chalkboard at our babysitter's house.  As an adult, I've only had 1 job NOT at an educational institution. Even then, I was in training so I was still educating.

A few years ago, I experienced a career set back and it was devastating at the time.  Looking back though, I can see God's provision and blessings.  I would not have sought after God the way I have in the past 4 years.  I would not have been begging God to speak to me and direct me.  And I would not have been in a position to listen and obey.  I had to come to the end of me to receive what God had for me.

One of the major thing that I obeyed God on was starting a special needs ministry at our church. That was an easy yes. There was a need and everything feel into place. Valuable has been such a blessing to me! I've met, served, and served with some wonderful people.  I've gotten to be a part of the KidsMin staff and I absolutely treasure that!

Another thing I obeyed God about was staying in my full time job at Sunnyvale Middle School. This one was always as easy as starting Valuable.  God and I struggled over this one.  I questioned Him - a lot! But He provided me the strength to stay faithful.

I love my job at SMS, that wasn't the problem.  I just questioned if I was supposed to stay in education or move into full time ministry.  I guess that's where the struggle was, I didn't know what I was going to do next.  I had to trust that God had a plan and that His timing would be perfect.

And He didn't disappoint!

In April I was at the Orange Conference with the cLife KidsMin team.  During one of the large group sessions, I felt God stirring in my heart.  I, of course, answered with a question: "God, are you really calling me to stay in education full time, special needs ministry and writing all at once? Surely not!" I began praying and God continued to move.

Monday I signed a new contract at Sunnyvale ISD to become the Learning & Innovation Specialist.  It's a brand new role.  I'm going to be over the Middle School library.  I've been a certified librarian for 5 years and I'm so excited to use those skills to get kids into the library and reading more.  I'll also be helping both the Middle School and High School teachers with innovative teaching strategies.  This will mean a wide variety of things but will include integrating technology into the classroom and our form of problem based learning we called ELUs (engaged learning units).

I am over the moon excited about this new opportunity!  I feel like I'm going to get to use all my talents and serve more teachers and students.  I'm so thankful that our Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent are creative thinkers willing to try something new.  I'm also pretty thankful they are letting me be the one to do it!

I'm also a bit nervous.  I'm giving up some job duties I've had for the 8 years I've been at Sunnyvale.  I'm nervous about working on two campuses.  I still get to teach an elective course at the end of the day.  I'm happy and nervous about that.  I want to do an outstanding job at all the things! When I expressed my nervousness to my Superintendent, Mr. Williams, he gave me some awesome words of wisdom: "You're doing something new, you're supposed to be nervous."

So, I guess I'm right on track!



8 comments :

Busy Bee Andrea said...

Oh my goodness.. you are going to ROCK!!

Unknown said...

Congrats! This will be perfect for you!

Unknown said...

ELU for algebra 1? Congrats! You will be amazing!

aimee said...

Absolutely an ELU for Algebra 1!

aimee said...

Thanks Heather!

aimee said...

Thanks Andrea!!

Unknown said...

How exciting! Way to go! Many blessings to you this year!

aimee said...

Thanks Jennifer!