The time we don't speak of...

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away I was once a blogger. A blogger on this here blog. I started it back in 2011 when blogging, teachers on social media, and (gasp) Teachers Pay Teachers was just becoming a thing. It was amazing. I found it funny that people actually wanted to buy the things I was making for my own classroom. I wasn't making them for those people, I've just always been the crazy perfectionist type of person that needs things to be just how I like them. I don't like black spots on worksheets. I don't like Comic Sans. I don't like a the text to be off center. It seemed normal for me to just remake and create things the way I liked them. So that's where this all started. I blogged consistently for a while, and then I'd fall off, come back for a short while and repeat the cycle. At any moment I can search for something teaching related on Pinterest and come across my own classroom (sometimes not even knowing it's mine).

This all brings me to today. Right in this moment. Here I am, going into year 10 of teaching. That's crazy to think about. That's going on almost 300 students that have passed through my doors (although I was lucky enough to have some twice when I moved to 3rd grade). So here I am, year 10 and in the past few weeks I've had some sort of revelation? awakening? I'm not sure what I want to call it at this point.

Year nine was... was... interesting. Let's just use that word. Year 9 was the year I'll never forget. Outside of school I was finishing one masters, and halfway through another masters. I bought my first car (under my own volition). Plus I was living my best life outside of school. Inside of those 4 cinder block classroom walls, I had 29 third graders who exhausted every ounce of me. Many days ended in phone calls to my mom, dad, and texts to my boyfriend before he got home, upon which I would talk even more. I questioned what else I could do in life outside of teaching. I have never seen 3 teachers challenged as much as myself and 2 of my teammates were this year. I left that year behind without a thought the second that bell rang (the 5:00 flight to Arizona that night may have helped that!).

So here I am, it's the beginning of July, the downhill slope back to normal life and I've decided to start this adventure again. I'm telling myself this is a new year, with 21 (woo hoo!) new faces, and I'm determined to make year ten the best yet. In order to do this, I've decided maybe if I start blogging, instagramming, and facebooking (are those words?) again, it'll force me to keep my positivity and achieve my goals I'm setting for myself this year! (I suppose that'll really involved people reading my stuff and looking forward to my thoughts and ideas, but I'll hope for the best!)

In less than a year I finish my 2nd masters, this one is in Technology Coaching ("Technology Specialist") which is my absolute, 100%, obsession passion! I just attended ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference, and I'm going to blame that amazing experience on my new "rebirth" if we can call it that! I am obsessed with all of the technology that continues to come out. My goal is to sort through everything and find what I think will work best for me, and share out what are some amazing tools (even if they won't work for me). Can I call that goal one? Be a sharer of all things technology. Let's go with it!

If there's something else I'm obsessed with (aside from the Cubs and my dogs) it's crafting. It was scrapbooking when I was younger, and now it's making shirt, tumblers, pictures, anything! I bring that craftiness into the classroom occasionally, like when I need therapy and make a giant Elf Door. But I want to bring it into my lessons. Enter:

Now if you know me in any slightest way, which you don't, I am not a big reader. Might I even say (GASP) I don't like reading at all. So for me to go out of my way order from Amazon an actual, paper book is shocking. Absolutely shocking. I have followed Hope and Wade on social media on and off and I'm seriously in awe constantly of how creative they are. So I thought, if I'm already creative, and I love being creative, why can't I do that at school more often too? After all, for like 6 months of the year we're taking tests (okay that may be a slight exaggeration), so when we're not why can't we do fun things and still learn! Along the way, I figured I could share my experiences with the world, or at least blog about them so I don't forget them the next year!

So here I am, I'm putting the time we don't speak of (year 9) behind me, like it never happened. I'm going to pretend it's year 1 and I'm beyond excited to have my own classroom. Even though I'll be more than happy to never return to those first years when I had way too much stuff for my own good!