Back to School Amazon Wishlist!
Every year, part of my summer is spent preparing for back to school time. Part of this is reading about content and strategies, planning units for my classes, and creating new materials. The other part of this preparation is S H O P P I N G. My career is the perfect one for someone who LOVES office supplies and organization! Every summer I make a wish list of things I want and need for the upcoming year. I am lucky enough that I do get a reimbursement for up to $250 of the supplies I buy, which usually covers most of what I need. However, I also spend some…
Eighteen Months: Active, Chatty, and Pushing the Limits
After I put Olivia down last night, I sat and listened to her babble to herself and her dolly in her crib. She was talking and giggling and talking and giggling…and talking and giggling for almost an hour. I snuck back into her room, scooped her up, and sat in her rocking chair to savor some extra snuggles. As I held her, tears began to stream down my face. In the morning, my little baby would be a year and a half old. How have EIGHTEEN months already passed since she was born? What happened to my tiny six pound baby who used to lay so nicely on my chest?…
Feeling Stuck in Teaching? Three Action Steps to Start Feeling UNstuck!
This past school year was…difficult. Not only did I struggle with my transition back to work after my maternity leave, but I also just felt stuck in my profession. I started to feel trapped in my classroom and my heart was stretched in a million directions. I felt the pull towards home and being with Olivia, but I also missed the freedom I used to have with my job–coming and going when I wanted, not feeling rushed to complete my tasks, hanging out after school with students, and running extracurriculars. I also felt stagnant in what I was teaching. I was scheduled to teach five World Studies classes, and I…
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Lessons Learned as a Working Mom
Lessons Learned as a Working Mom
How quickly a school year goes by. Ten short months ago, I was preparing for the end of my maternity leave and getting ready to send Olivia off to daycare for the first time. Now, it’s already summer time again and we are back to having fun together everyday. Who knew how much of a whirlwind my first year as a working mother would be. From the constant sickness that comes with the transition to daycare, to rediscovering my teacher identity, to finding balance as a working mother, this year has taught me a lot about myself and about what matters. It also taught me a lot about finding balance…
Four Steps to Successfully Meal Plan & Prep
Sometimes the workweek feels like a marathon. That you have to sprint. While juggling. With your eyes closed. Ok. Maybe it’s not always that bad, but the Monday through Friday grind can definitely feel like a whirlwind. While I have not been to work outside of the home since December, I remember the feeling like it was yesterday. And, now that our family has grown, so have our responsibilities, so I can only imagine what it will feel like when I go back to school. I am working on trying to get back into some of the routines that we use throughout the school year. We have certain ways we run…
Friday SLAM #1
With my revamp, I am trying to get into the habit of posting on a regular basis, and one of my hopes for those posts is to include a weekly reflection every Friday of what I did this week for (S)elf Care, a new (L)earning or (L)ove, an (A)ction I took, and my favorite (M)om Moment of the week. Hence Friday SLAM. Here’s a look back at this past week. Self Care This past week I took some major steps in self-care. My mother in law was in town for a few days (I love when she comes to visit!), so I took advantage of the opportunity to get out of…
S I X M O N T H S
S I X M O N T H S. months have gone by since our sweet Olivia Marie arrived into this world. To say that this time has gone by quickly is an understatement. The transition to parenthood has been an abrupt (and happily welcomed) interruption to the life Brandon and I have built together over our five years of dating and subsequent five and a half years of marriage. This small human is everything we have waited for and has completed our family in a way that I didn’t even know we needed. She has brought us joy. She has challenged us. She has helped us grow. While I…
To Be Honest
It has been quite some time since I updated. I started this post over a month ago and am only now getting back to it. Over these past few months I have been reflecting a lot on purpose in my career and in myself as an individual. This school year has been a journey through which I have learned a lot about accepting limitations while still trying to improve. One practice that has helped me stay strong is my ability to accept vulnerability, but in other areas, I have struggled. This past week, my dear friend Michelle launched her new blog Naturally Ever After to help women work through things that…
How Vulnerability Can Save Your Career
If you’ve been reading, you know that his blog is about my journey to find balance in my life between my career and my life outside of school. Along this journey, there are obviously many parts of me that intersect. Whether I am at school or at home, I am who I am. Anyone who knows me might describe me as passionate and committed when speaking positively or as a worrier and high strung on the negative end of the spectrum. Only within the past year have I come to own and embrace all the parts of me. This year, I have been more honest about who I am, how…
A Form of Resistance: Teaching Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking in Today’s World
When I became a history teacher, I knew that I would need to teach my students to be proficient readers, writers, and thinkers so that they would be able to navigate the world in which we all live. Throughout the years, I have found avenues to show my students how these skills we use in the classroom are relevant in the world outside the walls of our school. We have planned school and community events. We have lobbied. We have written letters. We have engaged with youth who are different from us. These skills are ESPECIALLY pertinent in today’s political climate where often times there is a complete disregard for…
