Tag Archives: teacher

Starting a new chapter….or going back to reread an old one, however you want to look at it

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I’ve been MIA from my blog for a while. Life sort of took the reigns on its own and went 100 miles a minute! With young kids I’m just doing my best to make sure everyone is on time and fully clothed these days!

A lot has changed in the last year. One of which is me making the decision to renew my teaching license. Will I go back? Maybe, maybe not. But I want the option to still be there.

I loved teaching. Being in the classroom was so much fun. Granted, I did have some tough days but I would say 90% of the time it was good. The memories I have in the classroom are days of laughter. I remember being at the front of the classroom almost falling over, and in tears because I was laughing SO hard from something a student said. I wish I could remember everything that was said in class that day. Because I remember the entire class, and myself laughing so hard for so long! I can still see their faces as we all barreled over laughing. It was such a great day. As my students were leaving class after the bell, so many of them told me how great that class was. They were right. I love that our class had the ability to laugh and enjoy themselves. I definitely think giving kids a little freedom to relax and be a kid in the classroom makes them stronger in class.

So here I go! I have 150+ hours of courses I have to take for my renewal. My goal is 2-3 hours of classes a day. That means I can finish it all in 50-75 days. Keep your fingers crossed for me! 3 young kids, teaching license renewal classes and my judging license renewal classes (20 hours of that) is a lot on my plate right now. But I can do it! I’m excited to start!

*the picture is my first year teaching and coaching 💙

Will you go back?

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I would say at least once a week someone asks me if I miss teaching and coaching. My answer isn’t a yes but it’s also not a no. It’s a sort of…..

I loved being in the classroom. Every day was different. I had 180 students with different back grounds, different stories and different beliefs. I enjoyed what I did, most days. I would say 95% of the time I loved teaching. The other 5% I wanted to be anywhere else but in the classroom. I think we all have those days with every job.

Teaching high school isn’t easy. Kids are more opinionated at that age. But I do miss watching students faces when they learned something new. Some with excitement and some with confusion as if what they thought previously was completely wrong.

I have my days where I miss coaching and then those that I don’t. Being a private coach hired in by the school is way different than being a teacher in the school hired as a sponsor/coach as well. The level of respect is different too. When I coached as a private coach with no affiliation to the school, I had limited parent contact. I communicated with the kids and the sponsor and rarely parents. The sponsor was my middle man. It helped keep me out of any drama and left me to just do my job coaching. I also felt the parents respected me more. When I came into contact with them, they treated me like I was the professional and knew what I was doing. It was different when I was a teacher hired in as a coach. Despite my background as a Big12 cheerleader, Semi pro cheerleader, and Worlds Judge, some parents acted as if so had no idea what I was doing. They would constantly tell me how to do my job or attack me if they felt I was doing something wrong. I was excessively dragged into parent drama. You think teenage girls can cause drama?? You have yet to see a group of middle ages cheer moms! It made my job more difficult and more stressful.

Would I ever go back to coaching? Well….If I ever went back to coaching it would be as a private coach, not a teacher/coach. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I described at every school. And I did have some pretty amazing cheer moms who trusted me to do my job and fully supported me and the team. But often times those negative moms overshadowed the positive and made my job very hard and very stressful. So ultimately private coaching would be my go to choice if I had to.

Would I ever go back to teaching? Maybe! I think I enjoyed it enough that I would. But not in the near future. I like being a stay at home mom. I like not missing a minute of anything my kids do. 💙

Body Dysmorphia

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I found this picture a few years ago and was shocked at how tiny I looked! My arms were so scrawny! I remember thinking back then I was “fat” and had weight to lose. I would spend almost two hours in the gym some days. I wish I could go back and slap my former self! 😳

When I was a teacher, I always started our mental health chapter by showing this picture and beginning the discussion of body dysmorphia. I would explain that sometimes you can’t see what others see, especially when it comes to your body.

Body dismorphia by definition is the obsessive idea that some aspect of one’s own body part or appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix their dysmorphic part.

This was a topic I actually spent two days on in both my health and leadership classes. Body dismorphia has become so prevalent, especially with the amount of social media channels now available.

Two days may seem like a long time to discuss a topic like body dismorphia but you’d be amazed at how into the topic they got! Kids will tell you the struggles of social media and how it affects their view of themselves. It’s brutal for kids now days. Its just my opinion, but I’m thankful I grew up in a time with no social media and cellphones that didn’t take pictures!

One of my favorite discussion questions to ask was “if we did away with social media (yes I know we never will but let’s just say hypothetically) would body dismorphia be less prevalent?”

We then followed up with a question like….. “do you think social media makes kids/teens now days tougher or weaker?” This question led to a full day of back and forth discussion (most of the time). In my leadership class we actually used it as a debate question when we did our debate section.

I was so incredibly impressed by the raw honesty of some of the kids in my classes. I was pretty quiet in HS and was always afraid to share my opinion for fear of ridicule. Obviously that’s changed now! 😂

I have my moments where I’m critical of myself, but I think I’m more logical now. Maybe that’s something that comes with age. But I look back at old pictures vs current and I feel like I know what “healthy” looks like now on my body. I also use social media as a tool! I love to read what new recipes people are trying or how other moms are getting through similar struggles. Yes social media has negative aspects and some people use it to vent and complain. But if you ignore all of that there are some really fantastic people out there in the world talking about so many great things. Find those people who encourage you and follow them! Remember, positivity breeds positivity! 💙