I decided to speak up

In my last post, I mentioned that I had gotten another job. I know what stresses me out, so I asked to shadow the teacher who is leaving for his last two days. This way I could meet the kids and see what kinds of things they're working on. This is the first time I've …

Advertisement

Balrog’s whip

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” I love the Lord of the Rings movies. Shamefully, I've never read the books, but it's on my List of Things I'll Probably Never Do. Finishing Les Miserables (the book, not the musical) is another optimistic goal. In the …

On the Bright Side (or not)

My mother called me a "Susie Sunshine" when I was younger because I always tried to flip things around to see the good side of them. If you know me well, you know I have an equally-present "Debbie Downer" side, too. If I'm in the wrong mood, I see the potential for chaos and failure …

This WILL be my low point

I've made the decision that Friday WILL be my lowest point of the year. It will be, because I feel like I'm making clear steps forward and learning from my own mistakes. Has my school frustrated me? YES. I'm a music teacher with no instruments, no piano, no sound system to even PLAY music for …

CITWGEATTF

When I'm tired, I love to laugh. I NEED to laugh. So, in honor of my frustrating week, I decided to start planning a "private" collection of "Concert Ideas That Would Get Even a Tenured Teacher Fired" CITWGEATTF for short. I've got four so far. I may have a fun conversation with students about hilarious …

Deep Breaths, Girl

Tomorrow is my first day back since 2003. Crazy, right? What's surprised me the most this last week is how much I'VE changed since then. It seems like an easy "of course you've changed--you've had four kids!" kind of moment, but it's fascinating to see the changes against a standard. Yes I've changed, but let's …

Bad Day

I really wanted to keep this kind of upbeat, but I don't want to forget this part, either. So sorry in advance, but this wasn't a fun day. Here's a necessary reference-- I have four kids: E (early teen girl), K (tween girl), D (6-year-old boy), and L (preschool girl) Got it? 🙂 Ok.... After …

Note to self:

When you're editing a google doc that's been shared with you, COPY IT FIRST. That way, when you make notes on it like "fix this sh*t later" it's not shared with the entire e-mail list. I think if I face-palmed any harder, I would have broken my nose. This learning "curve" is more like a …

TIRED

I wanted to write yesterday. And the day before yesterday. But I'm TIRED. I'm not going to lie: today kind of hit hard. We were handed file after file after file of curriculum, along with forms we need to use for assessments, lesson planning, year planning, etc., and I kind of hit a wall. I …

Ewwww

Tomorrow is my first day back. And I have to get up at some ungodly hour. The kind of hour when I think "good lord, there really IS an a.m. version of 4:00?!" I suppose it's a good sign that my greatest concern for tomorrow is my fear of waking up. It can only go …