My First Entry

Oh My Goodness. What am I doing?  I would never have thought myself as a blogger.  I love spending my free time reading what other teachers do in their classrooms, but me? Who would be interested in what I do every day?  According to my director and co-workers, a lot of people.  So here I go.

Welcome to my blog!! Very unimaginative title, maybe I'll change that later.  It's early on a Sunday morning, and as I sip my coffee reading thru the various Kindergarten blogs I enjoy.  In New Jersey, our school year runs from September to June, so as I read I can't help but be jealous of all my fellow teachers who are finishing up their school year.  I have 22 more school days left, not that I am counting or anything.  *smiles*

Why am I here?  Why am I doing this?  I have been teaching science and math in an academic preschool for seven years.  The preschool also functions as a daycare, so we have some kids at the school from 7am to 6pm. Yikes.  I am a "teaching specialist" which means I teach only.  There are other staff members who "care for" the students.  We are unique in that the classes rotate thru eight different subject classrooms throughout the week.  I am also responsible for a homeroom class that comes back to me for lunch and rest time.

When I first started teaching, it was fun and easy.  Now it has become less fun and not-so-easy.  While I am told I am an excellent teacher, this past year was so rough I did not feel like it at all.  I decided I needed a sabbatical to gather my thoughts and decide if this is truly what I want to do until I retire.  I'm sure many of you have felt the same way at some time or another.

This is a second career for me.  After doing my part in the business world, I decided to be a stay-at-home-mom when my kids were born.  I started working part-time for a play & music program, mainly to get out of the house, and decided that I wanted to learn more about early education.  I loved teaching my own children, as well as the kids in my classes, so it seemed a perfect fit.  After enrolling in an early childhood ed program at the local community college I decided that *cough too many* years ago I should have stayed in the teaching program at college but instead of dropping out of becoming a high school spanish teacher I should have switched to elementary ed.  At this point, the local school districts were all starting their layoffs due to budget cuts, teachers were in surplus, so early childhood here I come!!

This year has been a very difficult one, and I just don't know that I want to do what I have been doing anymore.  So I decided to take a sabbatical from the classroom, and spend the next year doing what I do best.  Writing curriculum.  I have been reading a LOT into the Common Core Standards, and find that most of my lessons are a perfect fit to help other teachers out there.  My director, who is an award-winning teacher, has been encouraging me since my first year to write and publish curriculum.  So this summer I am putting my first effort into that.  Bear with me as I figure out how to do that, but this blog will serve not only as an emotional outlet for me but to share my knowledge with other teachers, in hopes it will help you in your classrooms when school starts up next year.  My intention is to focus this blog on Preschool Math & Science, taking the Kindergarten Common Care Standards and bring them down to the preschool level, so that your students are fully prepared and ready to take on Kindergarten!!  So, welcome again and wish me luck!!!