You Never Appreciate It Until It's Gone

Transferring to a new district has made me appreciate a lot of things I always took for granted in my previous district. Here is a list of things I wish I could have taken with me to my new school.

-Awesome colleagues
-Social Studies/Language Arts Department lunches
-Classroom document camera, LCD projector, DVD/VHS player, speaker, and screen
-Awesome students
-Its physical location in the Northwest
-A working grade book software that everyone used and that provided student information like parent phone numbers (no such software exists at my new school - I'll be forced to PURCHASE Easy Grade Pro or us Engrade.com)
-A staff understanding that everyone should use and check their district e-mail on a regular/daily basis (nobody uses their district e-mail at my new school and there are no school-wide e-mail lists that would allow us to e-mail whoever we want whenever we want)
-A "commons"area that the building centers around
-Name recognition amongst staff and students (my new staff is far too large to know all of your colleagues in any meaningful way - or even remember their names)

I suspect I will probably realize I will have taken the following things for granted at my new school when I move again in a few years:

-Five student computers in my room
-Awesome, diverse, multi-lingual colleagues and students
-Amazing and competent administrators (IMAGINE THAT!)
-A mentor who actually knows a ridiculous amount about teaching and learning methodology
-The amount of accountability that keeps me on point every moment of every day
-Its location in the nation's capital
-The ubiquity of Spanish - which is forcing me to slowly learn it and absorb many Hispanic cultures

It doesn't really matter how many times you have to learn it, you never really, truly appreciate the things you have until they're gone. Oh well, here's to being human.