Absence Explained
So once again my poor blog has been neglected - for years! Where have I been? What have I been doing? Why have I returned to care for this despondent, abandoned blog?
Family Explosion
My family has grown again. We're now at three kids in four years which has made life a bit crazy to say the least.
K, my oldest daughter, is 4 and has started Junior Kindergarten. K is super bright and creative and definitely keeps me on my toes. She absolutely loves school and I'm impressed with how well she has adjusted to it. Her teacher is amazing and I'm so excited to see what she learns this year. Being a teacher-mom was an adjustment but now I'm a teacher who is the mom of a student and that is wacky. I had a lot of anxiety about K starting school that had nothing to do with me being sad that she was growing up (which is sad but she was totally ready for school). It had a lot to do with how much work it would be for me to manage all of the forms, pizza lunches, and potential homework. I'm also worried about how to reign in my teacher-ness when it comes to dealing with other teachers. Does that make sense?
C, my middle daughter, will be 3 in November. She is a spunky little peanut and is in nursery school three mornings a week. This girl is super confident and walks into every room like she owns it. My blog took a huge hit after returning to work when my mat leave with C ended. Two kids in daycare and a 40 minute commute left me exhausted by the end of each day. Family first, right?
N is my new almost 4-month old baby boy. This kid was 12 days overdue and is a giant. He was 10lbs at birth and continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. I'm hoping that my spaghetti arms will also gain some muscle by carrying this boy around. He's a smiley boy and I've found a tickle spot so I'm totally enjoying his chuckles. He also spits up a lot which combined with three messy kids means I do laundry ALL THE TIME.
Changing Schools, Changing Focus
March Break 2017 I decided to clean out my crawl space. I loved my school and teaching Music so I thought why not get rid of my non-Music resources? Little did I know, God had other plans for this over-confident, somewhat complacent teacher. An opportunity came up a few months after my purge for me to change schools to an amazing little school 20 minutes from my house. The catch? I would still be teaching Instrumental Music but would also have a Grade 6 homeroom. Less of commute and workload doubled. "Sign me up!" said the over-confident, overly ambitious, naive teacher.
I would have to say my workload quadrupled. Being back in the regular classroom was like being a first-year teacher again. I worked hard to get caught up with the changes to teaching Math and am proud of what my students and I accomplished. I couldn't focus as much on Music as I would have liked. My Grade 6s and 7/8 classes only had one hour of Music a week which was definitely not enough. I turned my attention to my Concert Band and we rocked it! These kids picked up so much Music in such a short time that the staff and school community were blown away. Isn't the love of Music powerful?
Social Media Community 💕
Instagram. I was late to the game with this social media platform but have quickly fallen in love. I was the only Grade 6 teacher at my school and felt a bit lonely. Cue Instagram riding in to save me and motivate me and connect me with an amazing teacher community. I've started up my teacher account and would love for you to follow me @frommathtomusic
Teachers Pay Teachers was also a big inspiration for me last year. I have a few free products only up on my TPT site currently. I'm planning to update my freebies and add some paid products, too.
My poor, poor blog will be getting some much needed attention this year. I'll continue to post some Music resources but will also add some posts about Math and Language. Since I'm still on maternity leave until September 2019 I will be sharing ideas that worked for me last school year.
I am super pumped to get back into blogging and can't wait to share this journey with you!
Family Explosion
My family has grown again. We're now at three kids in four years which has made life a bit crazy to say the least.
K, my oldest daughter, is 4 and has started Junior Kindergarten. K is super bright and creative and definitely keeps me on my toes. She absolutely loves school and I'm impressed with how well she has adjusted to it. Her teacher is amazing and I'm so excited to see what she learns this year. Being a teacher-mom was an adjustment but now I'm a teacher who is the mom of a student and that is wacky. I had a lot of anxiety about K starting school that had nothing to do with me being sad that she was growing up (which is sad but she was totally ready for school). It had a lot to do with how much work it would be for me to manage all of the forms, pizza lunches, and potential homework. I'm also worried about how to reign in my teacher-ness when it comes to dealing with other teachers. Does that make sense?
C, my middle daughter, will be 3 in November. She is a spunky little peanut and is in nursery school three mornings a week. This girl is super confident and walks into every room like she owns it. My blog took a huge hit after returning to work when my mat leave with C ended. Two kids in daycare and a 40 minute commute left me exhausted by the end of each day. Family first, right?
N is my new almost 4-month old baby boy. This kid was 12 days overdue and is a giant. He was 10lbs at birth and continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. I'm hoping that my spaghetti arms will also gain some muscle by carrying this boy around. He's a smiley boy and I've found a tickle spot so I'm totally enjoying his chuckles. He also spits up a lot which combined with three messy kids means I do laundry ALL THE TIME.
Changing Schools, Changing Focus
March Break 2017 I decided to clean out my crawl space. I loved my school and teaching Music so I thought why not get rid of my non-Music resources? Little did I know, God had other plans for this over-confident, somewhat complacent teacher. An opportunity came up a few months after my purge for me to change schools to an amazing little school 20 minutes from my house. The catch? I would still be teaching Instrumental Music but would also have a Grade 6 homeroom. Less of commute and workload doubled. "Sign me up!" said the over-confident, overly ambitious, naive teacher.
I would have to say my workload quadrupled. Being back in the regular classroom was like being a first-year teacher again. I worked hard to get caught up with the changes to teaching Math and am proud of what my students and I accomplished. I couldn't focus as much on Music as I would have liked. My Grade 6s and 7/8 classes only had one hour of Music a week which was definitely not enough. I turned my attention to my Concert Band and we rocked it! These kids picked up so much Music in such a short time that the staff and school community were blown away. Isn't the love of Music powerful?
Social Media Community 💕
Instagram. I was late to the game with this social media platform but have quickly fallen in love. I was the only Grade 6 teacher at my school and felt a bit lonely. Cue Instagram riding in to save me and motivate me and connect me with an amazing teacher community. I've started up my teacher account and would love for you to follow me @frommathtomusic
Teachers Pay Teachers was also a big inspiration for me last year. I have a few free products only up on my TPT site currently. I'm planning to update my freebies and add some paid products, too.
My poor, poor blog will be getting some much needed attention this year. I'll continue to post some Music resources but will also add some posts about Math and Language. Since I'm still on maternity leave until September 2019 I will be sharing ideas that worked for me last school year.
I am super pumped to get back into blogging and can't wait to share this journey with you!
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