The First Day

The house is quiet. It is the first Monday morning of summer vacation. In a house with one student and two teachers, we should all be asleep. The precious, delicious extravagance of sleeping as late as one wants on a Monday may be one of the finest delights summer has to offer around here.

I am drinking my coffee iced instead of hot. My head is filled with ideas for household projects, not lesson plans. And one more thing. I am looking for a job.

After twelve years teaching music and movement to preschoolers with special needs in the Howard County Schools, I am moving on.

I'm grateful to the Office of Early Intervention for all of their support through the years and for the amazing work of RECC team members with whom I have worked. If teaching music for the RECC Program could be a full time job and, dare I say, in only one location, I would never, ever leave. Music has always been my first love and working with these students has been a joy.

I created the RECC Music program with the support of two colleagues who worked at the Waterloo RECC where my daughter was a student. It grew from one school in the first year to sixteen schools this last year. While I have put my whole self into it, the program has always been a part time endeavor since billable teaching hours are logistically much less than travel, planning, and preparation.

I have no complaints. I have been treated well and paid fairly. I have done a job I love. But now I am on a journey to find a full time job that will both use the skills and talents I have and contribute more to the college fund for the little girl who started her academic career in the Waterloo RECC. She's starting high school in the Fall--hardly little anymore.

I am doubtful that one person with the crazy dream to lift up the lives of special needs preschoolers with music and movement would be able to make any headway in the current environment in the Howard County Public Schools. I was extremely fortunate to have people who believed in me and what I was doing. And I was blessed to work with the most beautiful students in the world. I'll carry them with me in my heart forever.