A Tough Assignment

Before I took my first job as a middle school science teacher, one of the biggest challenges I faced was figuring out where I wanted to teach. It wasn't just that it was hard to know which school offered the kind of working environment I wanted, it was that I didn't even know exactly what kind of working environment I wanted in the first place. I didn't have a clear sense of the kinds of students I wanted to work with, the colleagues I wanted to have, or the organizational structures I wanted to work within.

I ended up getting lucky, landing a job in a school that offered many of the things I knew I did want—like highly organized and committed coworkers—as well as some things I didn't know I wanted, like the ability to stay with the same students through both 7th and 8th grade.