Last year was exhausting in every way. I was spread too thin in terms of preps: AP Literature, AP Research, English II, and Leadership. I sponsored too much – SGA, Senior Class, SBLT, etc. I was teaching English II for the first time in years, and the pressure to perform in a high stakes testing environment meant that all my efforts were focused on those two periods of English II. And they needed my entire focus too – how do you make students interested in doing well on a test? My AP classes did not get the attention that they so desperately wanted from me, and instead chose to ignore assignments and underperform at every level. Their apathy was overwhelming and disheartening.

Right before the end of the school year, a job posting appeared for St. Petersburg Collegiate High School. I had sent my resume to that school when I was a new teacher back in 2007, spamming any school where I might even have a miniscule interest in working. It seemed like a dream school – and the probably filed away my resume and shredded it a year or two later. When I heard they were opening a new campus and hiring for the first time in a decade, I jumped at the chance to apply.

I started writing this blog post in 2019 when I first took this job – it is now 2026, and I am still happily teaching at Collegiate. This school has expand my experiences in myriad ways, and I am very thankful I took the leap to join this program.