Dear Friends, Family and Amazing Readers,
I am so sorry for leaving you! Things got really crazy for me and I just couldn't keep up with everything going on. Right around Christmas I always get really emotional about not having my own classroom and for some reason it hit me harder than ever this year. I had days where I had to force myself to get out of the house and out of pajamas, which is a big deal because I am ridiculously stubborn. Then Christmas came and I got to spend time with my amazing husband and our families and I felt a little bit of the fog lift. I was not quite back to normal, but starting to feel more like myself everyday. After the new year, my husband and I took a trip to Las Vegas. We spent our time eating amazing food, seeing fabulous shows, and just relaxing together. It was all I really needed to get out of the fog and start concentrating on all of the good things in life.
That's when the real craziness started. And by craziness, I mean exciting things. A little back story first: I went to school in San Francisco. That is where I did all of student teaching, made all of my connections, and got all of my job offers. After school, I made the very difficult decision to move closer to my family and I've spent the last four years rebuilding connections and showing people down here what an awesome teacher I really am. That is where it was getting frustrating. The teachers that I was working with thought I was amazing and gave me steady work, but I really needed principals to notice and, as a sub, you just don't see a lot of them. This year though, someone did. I started getting phone calls to interview for teaching jobs that I hadn't even applied for, or knew existed. I went on three interviews and recently got hired as an ELD Intervention Teacher at a local middle school. Any one that knows me is probably thinking "Middle School? But you are an elementary teacher?" My thoughts exactly! But a lot of the students that I will be working with are the same students that I had when I taught fourth grade and I am so excited to be working with them! Plus, I have always been the teacher that really roots for the under dog, the students who are not expected to do well. I think it's my job as a teacher to help them to know that they can succeed at anything they want, even if they have previously been told that they cannot. These are the students that I will be working with everyday, and I am more than thrilled with this opportunity. I can't wait to share with you how it goes!
There are also some changes that you can expect from the blog from now on. Things will be a little more personal, I'm going to share with you more of what is going in my life. I will also post as many crafts and kid friendly ideas as I can, but some of my crafts will be more geared for grown ups. I also plan to share my blog obsession with you. I read so many blogs and find so many great things that just need to be shared. Finally, I hope to share my teaching journey with you and any tips and tricks that I learn along the way. I really hope that you will stick around because I think that there are some really exciting things to come!
- Jamie "Freckle Face" Snyder
