Simply Me

If you've been keeping up with my blog posts, you already know that I have finished up my first month of teaching! (Today is my last teacher workday). As much as I am going to miss my 8th graders, most of them anyway, I am so excited to be teaching 7th grade next year! I have started moving my stuff over to my new classroom and I am just so excited. My new room is bigger because it used to be a science room, so I keep thinking of millions of ideas of what to do with the space. I didn't decorate my first room because I had a feeling I would be switching classrooms so it never felt homey to me. I am determined to make my next classroom feel like mine without spending all my money on it haha. I think that the atmosphere of a classroom makes more of a difference than people think, so I am prioritizing it.  I have also started mingling with the 7th grade teachers, specifically the ELA department. They are so sweet and welcoming it's almost overwhelming. I was worried about movin...

 There's something bitter sweet about growing up in a family where birthdays were a big deal. Sweet because I always had the best memories on my birthdays growing up. Bitter because as an adult away from home, I don't know what to do on my birthday. This year Clayton has to work and it's the first day of my summer break from teaching. My parents always did a really great job at making me feel special and celebrating me each year, so it feels silly trying to celebrate myself. Clayton always does nice things for me for my birthday, but it's different than having your whole family there with you.  Anyways, here's a list of birthday ideas I've come up with: Morning - Open presents - Homemade breakfast (french toast) - Work out Afternoon - Make a lunch Clayton doesn't like - Chill at the pool (swim and tan) - Shower and get ready for dinner Evening - Nice italian dinner (new place) - Maybe Texas Roadhouse?? - Something outside? Near the restaurant? Scooter ride w...

The school year is coming to an end, as well as my first month and a half of teaching! I have been reflecting on how things have been going the past few weeks. When I think about how short of time I've been here, it makes me feel better about how I'm doing. Teaching here has gotten so much easier and better the more days that I'm here which gives me hope for next year! It's weird when I think back on my good students and my bad students. There are some students that have driven me crazy the past month. They seemed miserable in my class and were so difficult for me to motivate. A few of these students that I deemed impossible to impact have come up to me, thanking me for helping them finish off the year and thanking me for making english fun for them. I even had some of these students say I was there favorite teacher, which made me feel bad for complaining about them to Clayton haha. Although these interactions were a good thing, they definitely made me feel a little gui...

Today I had a random urge to write about my thoughts and feelings, utilizing this blog as an outlet. Today I have been having strong feelings of appreciation and gratitude for my life with Clayton. I can not believe how lucky I was to have met him in our circumstances. From being raised in completely different places, meeting somewhere we both thought we’d never end up, and now building a life together across the country. Today we spent the day completely relaxing with nothing on the agenda. We went to the pool and talked for hours just swimming. People always told me about relationships where they could just talk and laugh hysterically for hours on end, which I never experienced until I met Clayton. I couldn’t even relay what we talked about but we never stopped talking and laughing. For so many years, I struggled with finding a best friend. I had good friends in middle school that I thought were my whole world, but randomly decided to cut me out. Even doing so in the horrific way of ...

So much has happened this month I don't know where to start. At the beginning of this month, Clayton started his job and he is loving it. I started my job on the 14th, which was good because I was losing my marbles being home by myself waiting to start. The not so good news is that I'm barely a week in and have been so sick and completely lost my voice. I'm pretty sure I have laryngitis (very commonly diagnosed to teachers, caused from a big exposure of germs and talking too much/too loudly) which checks out. If you want to see if you're a good teacher, try to teach a classroom with no voice. It's a humbling experience for sure.  Even though I've been dying these past few days, I am not having a terrible time here at this school. All the teachers have been so nice and helpful making me feel welcome and supported. I have not had one bad experience with any of the staff here which is great! I just found out a few days ago that they want me to stay for next school ...

 My whole life I’ve felt like it was a race. In elementary school I needed to memorize all my times tables instantly and faster than everyone else. In middle school I needed to be in all the pre ap classes they would let me do so that I could be ahead academically. In high school I was racing to graduate and move as soon as I could. In college I fast tracked my 4 years so that I could graduate early and start working as soon as possible. Even now after I have graduated, I’ve been racing to buy every piece of furniture or decor I need for our apartment within the first week of living here. I even texted my mom that I finally hung up a picture and she responded with “you’ve only been there 3 days”.  Since moving here, I’ve felt the urge to rush more than I have before and I don’t know why. Clayton started his new job this past Monday but I haven’t started yet. Being alone for more time has forced me to reflect on and rethink what I want to do each day. I was talking to Caitlyn y...