Thursday, June 21, 2012

My first official day of summer as a teacher!

Finally! It's my first official day of summer vacation.
I have been sitting all ay getting ready to begin this blog and it has to be just right!
Let me tell you a bit about myself and why this blog is so important to me.
I knew when I was in the second grade, that I was going to be a teacher. I assume many of teachers have had this experience where a kind, beautiful (insert descriptive words here)....teacher made you feel smart, special and you knew one day - that is what you wanted to do for a child.

So I went into teaching naturally and over the years it has been quite the struggle to find work. I opened my own art studio a few years ago when teaching positions in Niagara became scarce. Best thing I ever did. Now, it wasn't always booming and I wasn't rolling in cash; but I was surrounded by young minds dying to get their hands in the clay, paint on their shirts and wanted to know so bad why Van Gogh had only one ear.

I did this for two years, all the while persistently trying to get in with a school board.
Finally it all came together in November of 2011 - I was put on a supply list and was working steadily. Finally feeling like I had shown what I could do, I applied for over 20 Long Term Positions and guess how many interviews I had?....... none. Not even at the school where I was working 4 days a week! This really made me feel like "see! they don't know I exist, will they ever know I exist?". Then one day, I received an email to my board address from an HR person at a local private school asking ME if I would be interested in an interview. Without even thinking - YES!

I accepted a position as a LTO in the Upper School Art Dept teaching grades 10, 11 & 12 visual arts. A dream, great class sizes, all the supplies you could ask for and a schedule so busy you needed 40 hours in a day.

I worked my butt off, proving myself once again and now I can say it showed. I was offered a full time position half way through my LTO teaching in the Lower School.

So...long story short, here I am - my first real summer OFF in my life, and for the day I have spent it "working" on a blog.

My intentions for this blog:
- to become a catalogue of art units, lessons, rubrics and all things educational in the field of the arts.
Please enjoy the images and postings and offer advice.

After all, do we ever stop learning?

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