update... it's almost 2019! Yikes!

So... I started working full time and subsequently had no time. This blog was forgotten (lost?!) to all the other more important events in life. It has been years since I posted. Busy years. I am teaching full time. In a new school since the post about cleaning out my inherited room. I spent 5 amazing years in that amazing classroom, with amazing students, and an amazing work family. Then our community went through a bit of a down turn and that amazing community school shrunk, and changes needed to be made. I was sent to work at a larger, busier, less family oriented staffed school a few blocks away. A school with junior high students, long vast hallways and closed classroom doors. I wept for quite a while.I wept when the teacher next door told me that she knew "I came from a close group of teachers- it's not like that here." I wept happy tears when I introduced myself to my new custodian and he said he knew who I was "because Tony (my old custodian) told him to look after me." I cried when I repeatedly had to impose myself into cliques and closed groups to try to break down some of the walls. I cried when after a year of sharing ideas, inviting colleagues to visit in my room after school, and missing my 'old teacher family', I finally felt like I belonged in my part of the hallway. I worked hard to invite, include, involve, and evolve to be part of the culture at my new school. I think in some ways my 'pushiness' to be a part of my new school, helped my colleagues be closer. I made it my mission to change the closed door, un-sharing culture to one where we share our ideas, our supplies, and our lives with each other. There have been some big and tough times and we have helped each other through them. We have become a family. I have been in my room now for 4 years. Those junior high students I mentioned, are the students I taught in grade 2 at my old loved school. They often come to volunteer in my class, they wave in the halls, and they sometimes stop for a hug or a visit as they move throughout their day. I feel blessed to see them as they have matured (in a junior high way) and are growing into fine young people. I still miss my Avondale home from when M, H and C were in elementary school. I really still miss the close family I had as I taught on the Hill. But... most days are good in my CPS world. The school itself is special, as our clientele is filled with many students with special needs. Needs that are mild, moderate and very severe and every day there are so many things to celebrate in the lives of each student. It is an amazing place and I feel that I have worked hard to be part of the weave of the fabric that makes it an amazing learning environment for students, staff and teaching colleagues.