Blogging was not my original idea, but once I heard about it, I knew it was for me...eventually. The idea to blog came about during a year of unemployment. Well, semi-intentional unemployment, anyway...let me explain. My teaching career started after being hired in after school care, summer schools, extended sub positions, and then teaching 3 maternity leaves in the same school system back in 2006, 2007, and 2008. I gained a lot of valuable experience during these times but finally landed my own 3rd grade classroom in the summer of 2008. It was great; it was grand; I thought I knew it all and this would be a breeze...but, I soon realized I had a lot to learn. I did take the opportunity to learn every chance I got, though. I learned from other teachers, professional developments, webinars, seminars, parents, and students, but mostly I learned from the experience of being responsible for my own students' success. They were going to sink or swim depending on whether I sank or swam or not so...I learned how to swim.
3rd grade was the best! I taught for two years and then had some personal life tragedies and changes which led me to move to a new place--the wild open west! I visited some dear friends in Idaho for a summer, taught for one more year in Alabama, and then moved. I sent out resume packets and filled out online applications for weeks before moving. By the time I got there in June (after a 2.5 day almost nonstop roadtrip), I already had an interview lined up and had completed all but one form toward receiving my Idaho teacher's license. I interviewed the morning after the drive and they called me back within an hour to offer me a position as a 1st grade teacher. I was ecstatic, feeling capable and proud knowing that this venture was the correct path for my life. After teaching for two years in Idaho, I met the love of my life (who is actually from CO, but that's another story) while serving (on the side) at the local bed-and-breakfast. We drained our Idaho retirement accounts and moved back to Alabama jobless and uncertain of what the future might hold.
My talented husband was able to land an amazing job in his field about 4 months after we moved here. I, on the other hand, had what felt like interview after interview that summer all to no avail. I began to panic. What we had saved through our retirement accounts was not going to last much longer. I started looking in every direction and it was in one of these routes that my sister-in-law suggested blogging. I liked the idea but didn't know it to be lucrative at all so I let it go. I subbed in every school system around while serving at Red Robin and beginning school to complete a second Bachelors degree. Then in May, two days after our wedding day and almost one full year after moving, while in DFW airport waiting on our connecting flight to Maui, HI for our honeymoon, I got a call from my favorite school to substitute in offering me a job as a Kindergarten teacher! I was once again ecstatic knowing that every bumpy step and struggle along the way had again led me to exactly where I was supposed to be. It was just a few days after accepting the job that I officially began blogging. (It's actually much easier to blog when you don't think of it as a duty from which you're trying to make a career.) I started blogging with MrsScrivnersKinderGardening.blogspot.com (Check it out here.) for fun and my blog has now evolved into "Scrivner's Class". This journey has absolutely shaped my teaching style and career and has molded me into the person I am today. I'm so grateful to have made it this far and am excited to see where the rest of this journey will take me.
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