Long Time, No Blog {See}

Long time, no see, am I right?

Three weeks ago was my most recent blog post, which summarized our first eight days of school. Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? For me, it definitely does!

This school year is busier than those in the past, but for a variety of reasons. Let's dig in!

The first reason is that I have a different "clientele" this year in terms of students. My multilingual population is the biggest I have had, and that has taken additional patience, care & language adaptation. Not only is my multilingual population a larger group this year, but I have quite a range of diversity in my students, a few of which are English language learners for the first time. As a result, I'm finding new ways to support those students, modify my instruction, adapt my teaching approach and supplement resources to help them be successful. This is a wonderful learning experience, however it definitely takes additional time and energy.

Another reason this school year is busy is because we are implementing updated curriculum for our math block. We are using the same curriculum that we've had the past eight years, however it's an updated version. As the grade level representative for our math curriculum, I am responsible for going through each lesson, per module, per math unit, and cross referencing it with what we did last year. Some of the lessons are the same, some are completely different. It's a lot of page turning, reformatting, and rewriting of lesson plans.

The third reason for such a busy season is the fact that Indiana state standards were updated. Both ELA & Math standards were changed to reflect a more accurate depiction of what students should be learning in each grade level. We're focusing on different essential standards for each component of our day, which leads to more reflective discussion in grade level meetings , educational conversation as a school building & "revamping" of our core instruction.

All of these factors contributed to a busy launch to the school year. It's been chaotic, stressful and overwhelming at times, I won't deny that! However, it comes with the territory, so we tackle it as best as we can and we lean on our colleagues to power through!

BUT....that's not all!

The more personal reason for such a busy school year for me is that I'm in the heat of planning my wedding. Yes, the reality of teaching involves...you guessed it...teaching. However, my personal life influences my teaching, which is also my reality. I'm getting married in October and as we get closer to our big day, the wedding to-do list continues to grow! My fiance and I are thrilled about the upcoming wedding, but we still have much to do between now and then. There are vendor meetings, coordinator emails, final dress fittings, shower thank you notes, creating a seating chart, to name a few. That last one is one of the highlights as a teacher, so I'm especially excited for that!

With all that said, I'm pausing my blog for the next couple of months so I can fully commit to my job and the final preparations for my wedding. In other words, teach all day, wedding plan all night. Maybe sleep a little bit, right?

I'm so appreciative of all those who take the time to read my blogs when they get published. It means the world to me to have people invest in my profession and my perspective. My goal is to tackle work and help my students be the best they can be, and plan the wedding of my dreams. This Fall will give way to more time and more content to share! After all, I'm a Kindergarten teacher, I'm never short on stories!

Sharing Perspective. Encouraging Perseverance.

~Kendall