I got the crazy idea to start my blog after a chain of events that eventually led me here. I have always enjoyed creating things to use in my classroom that get the kids engaged. When I first started teaching, I would make little games to use with my kids and wrangle my new teacher friend across the hall into doing the activities with me. She is a seasoned teacher and put up with me as a greenhorn teacher. I learned SO much my first year of teaching - mainly how to hold my head above water while juggling everything that goes along with teaching. (Which, by the way - they don't teach you in college!!) I wondered how teachers went home before dark every night! I basically woke up every day, went to school, stayed until bed time, went home and slept and turned around and came back the next day with a smile pained on my face. (Remember that year for you?)
My next year of teaching was a little better. I was lucky enough to get to stay in the same grade and thought I had it made in the shade since I had kept everything I used the previous year. It didn't take me long to realize that teaching is a revolving door of new ideas, new curriculum, new research, new tests, new data to gather, new, new, new, new, new…..however, I am alive to tell the story. (Remember when you figured that out, too?) I survived a second year of the TAKS test, another group of 20 rambunctious 3rd graders, and didn't lose my hair.
Fast forward to the next year. I was moved to a different grade level (against my will, kicking and screaming, crying and frustrated due to personal and professional reasons that I was NOT ready to move). BUT as low man on the totem pole due to seniority and everyone else saying, "NOT IT!," I was the lucky one to go since we didn't need seven 3rd grade teachers anymore. (Yes, I said SEVEN).
Well, I've always been taught that God is in control, and one of these days I promise I'm going to learn to listen and trust that. Moving grade levels was probably the best thing that could've happened to me. (If my principal from then ever reads this, he can give me a big "I TOLD you so!") Even though my new school year in a new grade level was HARD and not pretty, it forced me to do things I would have never done while in 3rd grade with my security blankets (the other 6 AMAZING teachers on that team who I aspire to be). It yanked me out of my comfort zone, made me do some soul-searching about whether or not I was in the right profession, made me start thinking long term about what I want to do as an educator, how I want to leave my mark, and was when I really started creating more and more resources. (It's ok to eye roll…creating to me is like coloring to others or listening to calming music. It's my down-time, therapeutic, enjoyable activity). I warned you that I was a nerd. I am. Through and through.
Wait, back up to the beginning of that new, really hard year...I left out a HUGE part - did I mention that the year I began 2nd grade (which meant changing rooms, and if you've ever had to do that, bless your heart!) I had just had TWINS 8 weeks earlier?!! Yup. Twin newborns. New grade level. New room to have to redo. Working on 4 hours of constant interrupted sleep. New team mates to have to learn. New, new, new, new, new……again! So now I had to learn how to keep my head above water while juggling and trying to do it all as fast as possible so I could hurry up and get home! Learning how to be a teacher, a wife AND a mommy
Speaking of twins - I have apparently blogged long enough for this evening and will have to continue this story a little later on! They are 3 and I run on THEIR schedules. :) (And love every minute of it!)
If you have found my little 'ol blog, please feel free to follow me and check back for entertaining stories (I've got quite an arsenal as you can imagine!) and see what I'm up to with my 20 2nd graders!
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