30 Days of Journaling

I have been mauling over an idea about doing a 30-day journal that is related to education.  Every day I would write on a different prompt about education.  Now I haven't formally gotten this idea organized, but I'm working on it and it may be something I do in the future in between the writing of other things that are going on.  It would encourage me to reflect and to write more (something that I would ask of my students so why not ask it of myself?).  I came across this idea from someone else's blog (but quite honestly I couldn't tell you who at this point.  I found it through of DeafRead - Best of Deaf Blogs RSS feed).  She was working on just journaling for 30 days straight pulling random prompts.  The one that caught my eye was about choosing her favorite songs.  She would write in an actual book, take a picture of the journal, and then write about her journaling experience.


The biggest part in getting started would obviously have to be finding 30 prompts related to education to write about that doesn't feel too contrived and that I would be interested in writing about.  It's an idea in progress and hopefully we will see it fruition very soon!

Good News!

Just a quick update for everyone, Crestview has board approved me to be an official member of the Crestview Local Schools community. Yay! If you are confused, the position I have was brand new this last year. Many school districts will contract out this position to another employer as kind of probation period. If it doesn't pan out with the teacher, they are under no obligations to renew their contract and this is a lot easier when done through an agency (such as an educational service center). BUT! The superintendent recommended me to the board to hired on as Crestview staff for this year and it was approved. I am very excited to be a(n official) Cougar!

Gaining Weight

Teaching will do a lot of things to you. It give you a sense or purpose and reward. It will drain your bank account. It will make you sleep-deprived. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And it will make you gain weight.

This past year, I gained 17 pounds from the time school began to the time it let out. Not a huge amount, but it was enough to make certain pants and shirts no longer fit and even make some buttons pop off! Before I get the lecture on body image, I do hold a belief that I'm aloud to be happy and if I can't be happy with the way I look, I should change it. And if I change within health limits and even adopt some better lifestyle choices for the coming school year, then I'm going to do it.

Once the weather became nicer more consistently, I started going for nightly walks with my dog (she also had put on some winter weight). Nothing big deal, just walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes. This gave me a chance to unwind and vent to Janis, who is a very good and attentive listener. Then once school was out, I started doing SparkPeople (www.sparkpeople.com). Handily enough, they have an app for my phone so I can keep track of what I eat, how much water I drink, and how often I exercise. It allowed me to set some goals to lose the weight by the end of August at about 2 pounds a week. I've never counted calories before and it turns it out, it's really hard. Everything I could possibly put in my mouth took away valuable points and the thing that changed first was my all-day grazing. I realized (once I was being held accountable to my phone) that I ate all day long. Not always bad things because I love fruits and vegetables, but basically from lunch on I was tasting and nibbling on something (it turns out that gum has really helped me kick that habit). I already knew that I was a sugar baby (love, love, love the sweets) so I now instead of the King Size Snickers, I go for the fun size. How do I not eat the whole bag? Every time I eat something, I enter into my chart and make a point to think about how many more meals I have that day and how that pans out in calories.

It's really going well for me. I'm still walking (about 6 times a week right now) and even jog on some of my walks. I have more energy and am starting to see the pounds come off on the scale (but not quite around my middle yet). Hopefully by August I'll be back to my starting point (and I don't go back up again by the next June!).

Always a New Beginning

So last year I made a lofty goal of blogging my first year of teaching. I thought that I would get one entry out a month (at least) and have a nice chronical of my adventures. Well...it didn't happen. I can give you every reason under the sun: "I'll do it tomorrow." "I'm so tired." "All day long I've written or talked, I want to be quiet for a little." "I'm so tired." "Does anyone really care about this?" "Seriously, I'm really tired..." The list goes on and on. I did a lot of things last year that I wish I would have put down on paper and got so far behind I gave up (something that's a bit out of character for me).

I was tired, worn down, and burnt out on being an over-achiever. I just wanted to teach and not worry about anything else for once! At this point I decided to just throw in the towel and not look back. If I'm not doing it for me, for my happiness, or for some reason that I think might better myself, then why do it?

But I've had a nagging feeling to start getting my thoughts down again. I've been looking at a lot of articles and websites that would be cool to share and there's something cathardic about sitting and putting all your thoughts down on paper. There's also something exhilerating about the thought of someone else reading something you have written and enjoying it.

So, here I go again, but with a little more insight into what my year is going to be like and with a little less critism on myself.