Keep calm...life changes rapidly...and mine is definitely doing that right away!

As I head off on Maternity Leave on Friday, I am reminded that life is definitely something that needs to be treasured. As busy and hectic as this week is and will continue to be as I prepare for my replacement, get report cards completed, finish up my extra-curricular commitments and basically just try to find some time to enjoy my students, I know how much I will miss this school while I am absent.

People make a big impact on you whether you want to admit it or not. You can fight against the bad people impacting you, and sometimes it is those who we are frustrated with that take the most time from us, but in their impact you can find something positive to take away. Even if that is just to not be that way to others. It is those positive people you encounter in your day that deserve more attention. They make an effort, a choice, to be positive and/or happy and that is something we should all strive for. It is a reminder that life has its ups and downs and you need to ride them as it comes. For example, I have been taking time away from blogging (I'm sure only some of you actually noticed), but I didn't feel like I had something of interest to write about! That may or may not have actually been true in the end because as I tell my students all the time "You always have something interesting to write about, you just need to choose a direction and go. Someone will connect to it!" I should listen to my own advice sometimes, haha!

Well here I am, writing to you on the Tuesday before I take a hiatus from teaching to have my second child. We are so very excited to meet this little one and start this next adventure in our lives. I've heard it many times that "life is a gift". But it isn't until you're faced with a huge challenge, huge change, or huge joy, that you actually believe or understand that statement. Well mine is coming up soon, and I am ready for it! After my mother passed away, I was apprehensive of going through this process without her. She was a big presence around us after our son was born in 2012, and I still can't imagine what this is going to be like without here physically present with us. I know she's around me, around us, but that pain is still acute when I miss her. I am not sure that will ever go away really, and in some ways I don't exactly want it to. She is going to be super excited when this baby is born and I can see her crying with joy once we get to meet him or her.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that life is short, life is precious and you need to take time from being busy to make sure you enjoy all the little moments that make up your life before it changes or ends. I'm filled with so many emotions this week that I can hardly express to anyone what I am feeling. I guess that is okay. If you know me, then you know it's normal, my being full of all kinds of emotion haha!
Cheers to life - here's to looking forward to new adventures! Chat with you soon!

I'm Back!!!

HELLO EVERYONE!
Here I sit at my teacher desk after a year's maternity leave, and I think to myself what has changed in a year? The answer is.....a lot. The students grow taller, many mature (a bit at least), and the coursework is changing as new curricula is introduced as well as being given some new teaching assignments for this year. Change can be good as well as bad, I'm sure you all know that, but in terms of teaching - change is constant and therefore needs to be taken in stride.
I will say that not all change in education is great, but teaching is a profession that requires you to think on your feet. And let me tell you something, after a year's absence - and I mean absence (I didn't read a thing related to school until a month before coming back), thinking on your feet and adapting to change can be painful and confusing. I love my new family, my little boy William is just the best thing I've ever done, but after a year of one-ended conversation with him, I was ready to have some adult interactions. I played a scrabble game in the summer and my head hurt all evening! It was time to come back. 
I started looking at the new curricula that I was going to be teaching, I was reading new novels, creating lessons and units and I was suffering from some of the worst migraines I've ever had. My brain literally hurt. I've talked to other teachers, to gain some resources and some 'heads up" on ideas for teaching this new curricula but I was hit with a lot of "I am just as confused and frustrated as you are", which begs the question, what are we supposed to do as a teaching community to help out each other, if no one else is going to help us from the top-down? The answer? Technology. 
Now technology has changed in a year, but not a lot. Not to an extent that a person couldn't catch up easily enough. We got some different computers in our school, and our marks now need to be done using a specific program but all in all, (at least at the school level), not much has changed. Technology though, is that island of hope we are all looking for when it comes to sharing resources. Of course face-to-face is great, and I'm still a firm believer in it, but technology is that enhancement, made to make our lives that much less hectic and simpler. I can hear some of you yelling "wait a minute!! Isn't technology the devil that makes us slaves to our computers and phones?" My response is this: technology is here. It is not going away. Join it, use it, or you will be left in the dust. With the ever growing social media, availability of smartphones, and inclusion of technology into our curricula, how else do you expect to be relevant to your students? I've kept up what I've needed to, now the next step is sharing. I need resources, these new curricula are empty of resources! Even the website dedicated to it, has no resources listed for many of the curriculum out there! So the task is to us teachers, to create, share and use technology to enhance our teaching. I'm back and I'm ready, are you???