The courage I was talking about yesterday? Well I got the courage to make a HUGE life change back in April and I FINALLY get to tell you about it .

I got to send this email out at work:

Hi all,

I wanted to let everyone know that after 7+ really wonderful years on the design team that my last day at Microsoft Tellme will be July 19^th.  I’ve been given an amazing opportunity to teach at Challenger School, where Lucy will be attending this fall. 

As a little background, all throughout college I had plans to be a special education teacher but took a much needed break after graduation.  When I applied at Tellme, I also applied at a private school in the D.C. area but Tellme snatched me up first. I am very excited to be getting back to my roots and to get to go to school with Lucy every day!  Thankfully, I will NOT be teaching her class but instead a class of pre-K kiddos-no need to worry about standardized tests-thank you very much!

While I’ll miss you all terribly and can’t think of a better team of people to work with, I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life.

Thanks,

Chelsea

I’m going to chase my dreams and be a teacher!!!!  I can’t tell you how excited I am.  As part of the interview process I had to teach a group of 15 4 year olds about the short vowel rule: When there is one vowel in a word or syllable, it is usually short.  When there are 2 or more vowels in a word or syllable, the vowel is long.  Well that was old hat for these Challenger 4 year olds BUT the experience was so incredibly amazing and just felt so right.  I’ll be teaching 4 year olds and we’ll have phonics, math, science, and “imagination play” everyday. Most of the kids I teach will already know how to read and do simple math when they get to me!  I really believe in Challenger and their methods.  I actually had Lucy signed up to start there in the fall before I had even thought of applying to work there.

It’s going to be a huge shift for me but one that I am incredibly excited about!!!