Making a Comeback (Part 2)

I know I said I'd post Part 2 Friday. But after actually doing all of those things that I stated I'd do in my last post, (yes I actually did go to the gym, and I literally did destroy a recipe that I found on Pinterest) I fell asleep.
Because being me is exhausting.
And I think my body knows that's what usually happens to me on a typical Friday night, and my body doesn't want me to get out of my usual schedule. So thoughtful.

Oh, and then yesterday was my anniversary with husband. No big deal.
Either way, anniversary? No post-y.

Plus, you guys didn't actually think I would post twice in a day after not posting for over 4 months did you? (And with further investigation, turns out a month before that. Man this fall was not a good time for blogging huh?)

Either way, here's Part 2 of my "Making a Comeback" series, if you will. This post is going to be about the other things that have been filling up my life while I haven't been blogging for essentially the past 5 months. Or just exciting things that I need to catch you up on.

So here it is, my life in the past 5 months.

Teaching

If I had to name the one thing that has most hindered my time/energy to blog, as well as the reason I should be blogging/writing, teaching would be it. 

I'm in my third year of teaching in general, as well as my third year of teaching at this particular middle school. So reason would tell you that things should be going normally, I'm falling into routine, and this year is the easiest that it's ever been. 

Reason is wrong. 

Many expected changes came my way this fall including: the changing of teaching teams (the other teachers that I teach and work closely within a team environment), changing the students that I would be teaching, changing from having two grade levels to just one grade level, and the biggest one of them all was completely switching content areas from Language Arts to Humanities.  ( I explain more about all of these changes somewhere in one of these posts, have fun sifting)

This all sounds like reasonable and survivable professional changes, which they are, but all together at once it's quite a mix. 

Out of the aforementioned changes, probably the change that has been most taxing is teaching the subject of Humanities. I'm responsible for covering the Language Arts standards as well as the Social Studies standards for my students. Our school has a basic Language Arts curriculum aligned with state standards, and it has a basic Social Studies curriculum aligned with state standards. Humanities curriculum? No such luck. There's one other teacher in the building that teaches it, but they have a different grade level. 

Now, I have received lots of support and suggestions from colleauges. That does not change the fact that this is an extremely overwhelming endeavor. All of the Language Arts teachers in the building, including myself the last two years, teach the same curriculum but in different and unique ways. All of the Social Studies teachers in the building teach the same curriculum but in different and unique ways. That equals a lot of different handouts, philosophies, teaching styles and opinions including my own.

So taking all of this information and synthesizing it together, and essentially trying to teach what 2 teachers do in 2 years with 1 teacher in 1 year while still meeting the EXTREMELY UNIQUE AND DIVERSE needs of all of my students? 

You could say it's been overwhelming. 

Thank God for my teaching teammates and my other close colleagues. They've been guiding the way, giving me confidence, and doing their best to hit some of "my" standards and content to lighten the educational load. 

The planning and grading that goes along with Humanities? It's intimidating, immense and time consuming. I'll keep it at that.

Did I mention that I have students?
Oh yes I have 70 students. All in 8th grade.  
Which first of all,  both years that I've taught I've had 7th and 8th grade. Only teaching 8th grade is way different than teaching both 7th and 8th. Each grade level has different attributes and it's nice to get a taste of both throughout the day. So assimilating to teaching one grade level at a time (next year I loop back down to 7th) has been quite the change.

Now, I can't tell you much about my students out of respect and confidentiality.
But I will tell you this:
This has been professionally one of my toughest years. If you didn't catch it from the large sized font above, I have an extremely unique and diverse group of students this year.
I come home every night completely physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. Some of you may be thinking, "Well you are surrounded by 13 year olds all day, of course you are." But there's just something about this group of students that wears me out more so than my first two years of teaching.

I've also found myself personally investing everything I have into all aspects of what these kids have going on. If I'm not in a colleague's classroom asking for classroom management advice for a single student, then I'm staying late in my classroom to making extra assignments to challenge others. Or I'm staying up late searching for and emailing tips to parents for a struggling reader. Or I'm tossing and turning in bed over a recent bullying issue that's come up.
All of this is of course "normal" teacher stuff. It just seems as though this year there's about ten times more, and in a landslide.

Fortunately, with challenges do come rewards. Since September I feel as though all of my students have come leaps and bounds academically and as young adults, no matter where each individual student started in September. 

With all of that said, I am having fun with them.
The most important part about teaching middle school is to roll with the punches, and have a sense of humor. This is an adage that I've always known, but has been tested and reconfirmed this year.

And by the way, I told all of my precious young gems that if 100% of them got either an A, B, or C in Quarter 3, I'd dye my hair pink. 

Yup. 

I'll keep you updated. 

And I'll keep repeating this:

(Pinterest)

OKAY MOVING ON. (Because believe it or not my career isn't the only thing in my life.)

Marriage

As of yesterday, my darling husband and I have been married for exactly a year. 

All good parties have sparklers.

 

Being married to my saint of a husband actually has made my life easier than harder. As a matter of fact, he was the person encouraging me to get blogging again and take some time for myself. 

 He cooks when I am tired, (every night) finds my keys and my hairbrush when I'm going crazy, (all of the time) and wakes me up when I fall asleep on the couch at 8:30. Even though sometimes I wake up irrationally angry about the fact that he brushed his teeth before me. 

Having said that, if anyone ever tells you that marriage isn't work, they are lying.
If they ever tell you that it's just like being in a committed relationship, they are still lying.
And if they also ever tell you that the first year there shouldn't be any disagreements because you're supposed to still be on the honeymoon, then call them a liar.
Because they have lied to you three times. That liar.

Marriage is work, and it's somehow inexplicably different than just  being in a relationship with someone, and the honeymoon is never over but that doesn't mean that you can't have disagreements.

 I can't explain it to you because I can't, it's just different. And kind of the same. And easy. And hard. And awesome.  All at the same time.

Either way, it's worth it, and it's fun. And he doesn't make me feel like a Princess, because I am a Queen and which he tells me everyday. And he's not Prince Charming, he's the genie from Aladdin. Because genie much cooler than any of the other princes anyway. 

 

We Got A Kitten!

Linus checking out the couch.

 

He got comfortable about 3 minutes in.

 Well he's not quite a kitten anymore...

 Well, he's kind of still a kitten, but not as much as when we first adopted him.

 Meet Linus. 

We adopted him at the end of October. He was 4 1/2 months old when we adopted him, which puts him at about 8 1/2 months today.

There's a whole story behind why we decided to get a cat, why we picked him, and his name, but I can tell you about all of that later.

Pretty much what you need to know is that if curiousity really did kill the cat, he would be dead. He is all over the place, brave, and always in something he shouldn't be. He wakes us up in the middle of the night by playing with curtains, he eats dog food, attacks toes, chases his tail, and has literally ripped an earring out of my ear. He's a lunatic covered in fur. 

But, he's also pretty sweet. When you come for the day, he cries and cries for you to pick him up. He's always waiting for you when you get out of the shower, and gives you kitty kisses while purring in your arms. I try to ignore the fact that he likes Dave better than he likes me.

Most importantly, he and Bruin are two peas in a pod. They are two peas in a pod, they follow each other around, and keep each other company.

Did I mention that they cuddle?

Adorable right?

Sorry for the cuteness overload.

Don't worry, I have more, but I'll save them for later.

Crafty-ness?

I don't have a crafty or homemaking bone in my body. But Pinterest has tricked me into thinking that I have the ability to be crafty. I've hung up and arranged lots of photos, made a cute little wall arrangement in my bedroom with wooden letters, and redid some bureaus in my bedroom. 

And cooking? Don't even get me started on the fact that I've used Polenta in a recipe.

I know, I'm blowing your mind. 

I'll try to make a priority to post the process or whatever of either one. Because I know you're all just dying to know what color I did my bedroom furniture and what wooden letters I painted for my bedroom wall. Just a taste.

Taking Photos/Adventuring/Being Awesome

In between essentially September and February, there is a lot of opportunity for adventuring and taking photos. Between the swarm of holidays, birthdays and long weekends I've been going and going and going. This vacation was a great time for me to just take a break. 

Maybe at some point I'll fill you in on all of my hanging out with family or gallivanting in the woods with friends. Maybe I won't, we'll see. But for now I'll again just give a teaser of some good times. 

And that my friends is it in a very wordy nutshell. 

I hope you enjoyed. Now that I've recapped my life and gotten you up to date on the essentials, I can move on to guilt free blogging. 

Now, the nice thing about not blogging for 5 months is that I now have extra stuff to blog about if I know I want to write but am having writers block. I've turned it all into a win-win!

Until next time, stay fabulous!