I write this post with some different emotions, it’s taken me a few months to find the right words to fit what I want to say so that all will understand my actions. I’ve had an amazing opportunity placed down in front of me and I’ve decided to take it. I am leaving my position as elementary music educator for the Laconia School District and will be joining the Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music team full time as their new Northeast Key Accounts Representative!

I think I saw some of your mouths drop (others I know are probably waving their hands in the air saying “bout time!”), let me explain.

For the past few years I have been working in the same district I was born and raised in. I still live in the same house, and everyone knows my name where ever I go in town not because of my work, but because they’ve known me all my life. I always had pictured this job in the schools here as a first job position. Something to get my feet wet and experience under my belt while I looked at other places in the country to make a permanent move too. I do love my school district, they’ve been so good to me these past few years but I’ve been itching for a change, and it is time for me to move on and experience someplace new. I have wanderlust in my heart and places to see.

I completely gave this job all I had and will miss the kids terribly, but I’m still young and have plenty of time to experience something new. I will keep my certification up in the state of NH for as long as it allows just incase I miss the classroom too much. I also want my Masters so much it almost hurts, I haven’t had the time or the funds to go to grad school yet but I intend on using this new adventure to help me further my education and continue to learn and grow as soon as I get settled in and time allows me to do so. I might not be a music educator in the classroom, but I will be everywhere else.
This change also brought some speculation as to if my other ventures in the music technology world would continue. I am saying this now, you won’t get rid of me that easily. Do not consider me out, I will still be blogging, I will still be running musedmot, I will still be the music techie everyone knows. My adventures might be documented a little differently than before but they still are adventures in education. As I promised to continue learning, I hope to take the ideas and philosophies I collect from classes and materials and bring them with me into my online and conference persona.

I’m going to a place where smiles are plenty, hard work is acknowledged, and  creativity and inspiration flourish. I know so many of my new co workers already there are no nervous butterflies only excitement shown by jumping up and down with the occasional giggle fit. With what I have been told, I am so excited for this new venture. The travel, the meeting new people, it truly is going to be different from the scheduled school day I am so use to, but I’m so ready for it.

My students are obviously sad for this change, but know this was a great move for me and continue to say positive words as the school year ends. It makes me feel so loved to hear how much I’ll be missed and I really hope I won’t burst out in tears. I leave my classroom with no regrets because I know I did what I set out to do. I got kids to love music. We sing, we dance, we play, we create, we listen, and they walk out of my room still doing it. I created life long lovers of the arts and I know I’m leaving having made a difference.

So this is not a good bye to teaching, this is not a goodbye students, a goodbye PLN. This is a hello to helping teachers, hello to new sights and new experiences and documenting it all, hello to new challenges, and a BIG hello to being a part of Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music!