I'm guessing you're here because...
you miss that feeling of coming to work ready, inspired and confident in your lesson plans.
If you’re anything like me, you have high hopes each morning after listening to your pump-up playlist (or favourite podcast) on your way to work and enjoying your delicious cup of coffee. Then *bam* you arrive at school and you forgot to prep for your day before you left yesterday afternoon. Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered!
let me guess...
...you enjoyed your weekend and didn't think about school once but now it's Sunday night and you can't remember what you taught on Friday. I’m so glad you enjoyed your weekend! You absolutely need to do that (every weekend) and even better if you get outside into nature! Your self care is more important than anything else and your students will be excited to hear about your adventures! Your students will also be happy coming to school knowing what projects they are working on because there is well thought-out and purposeful planning behind their learning. Every step of their learning journey has already been considered, written down, saved and adjusted so there are fewer single lessons and, instead, engaging cross-curricular projects are in the works!
okay, I think I know why...
...you're new to Grade two and you're ready to learn this new curriculum! Here’s the fun part! I’m a Grade Two French Immersion Teacher and I believe that students should love to come to school ready to co-create and experience learning in positive ways. Starting with a confident and happy teacher.
So I'm gunna let you in on a little secret.
I've felt like that teacher time and time again. Arriving at work already overwhelmed and unsure about my day, about my week. What was I supposed to teach? How did I know what to do?
I had the Grade Level long-range plans that hadn’t been updated in who knows how long and I was supposed to just follow them?! I had the random photocopies of worksheets from teachers stuffed in my mailbox in the copy room but I didn’t know how they made sense altogether.
It was my first year teaching.
So I started from scratch. I stayed late. So late that I’m embarrassed to tell you how late. I worked all weekend long. I created lessons and projects by reading the curriculum and thinking about my students. I cut and glued things together and photocopied them to make my lessons. I was scrappy, unorganized and tired.
But I was happy. I loved to teach and see my students light up with my ideas for learning.
That’s right, that was me.
I started in Grade One French Immersion, then Grade Two French Immersion for a few years, at a few different schools, then into Grade Five French Immersion, and then back to Grade Two French Immersion and now Grade 3 French Immersion.
For as long as I can remember, I can come up with ideas on how to teach something without too much thought. I always figured every teacher did that. It wasn’t until I started ‘doing my own thing’ in my classroom that other teachers started to notice and ask where I got my ideas from. They started asking me for help. I realized it was my gift. I was good at it and I loved coming up with new ideas and sharing them.
I still love to do that but in the middle of my teaching journey, I experienced burnout.
Something shifted. I didn’t want to be the last car in the parking lot every day. I was hungry and thirsty all the time because I wasn’t eating my lunch or drinking water during the day. I began to feel anxious and didn’t want to do any work after school. I could feel my heart race on my way to work. I started buying random lessons from TPT during my preps instead of thoughtfully planning out my week, month, year like I had always done. Nobody at work noticed that I wasn’t okay. I was very good at being okay on the outside.
One morning I woke up and I knew I needed a break.
One morning I woke up and I knew I needed a break. That I needed to take better care of myself. I went on sick leave for a few months and healed. I healed from deep inside myself. I healed from the inner monologue and voices that had always dictated what being a teacher meant. I worked really hard to come back to the person I was before my identity was a teacher.
I reflected nonstop about how to be a great teacher and how to be a happy person. I knew I needed to realign and set intentional boundaries for myself. I started to share these goals and expectations with my teacher friends. I am proud to share that I am passionate about teacher self-care AND school-life balance.
I know that teachers are superhuman. I know that teachers are loved. I know that teachers work harder and longer than their workday because they care. I also know that teachers need to care just as much about themselves as they do about their classrooms and students.
Here’s the thing I want to you know.
It feels really good to feel prepared and confident in your teaching. Really good. It’s one of my favourite feelings. It feels secure and safe. Imagine how that feels for students. A teacher who cares about their learning but isn’t overwhelmed.
Through my years of teaching, I noticed a few things that really helped me.
I needed to know the curriculum – like really know it.
I needed to see the big picture of the curriculum strands and understand how long learning would take for each one.
I needed to make connections between subjects so that learning wasn’t separate but instead cross-curricular.
I needed sticky notes and I needed chart paper.
And that’s how A Series of Wonder happened.
I took all of my ideas, lessons, projects and put them together into Series that I could lay out with my routines and expectations for the year. I could look at it with a quick glance or sit down and rearrange when I needed to. And you know what happened?
I started smiling on my way to work.
I filled up my water bottle multiple times a day.
I ate my lunch and snacks before the end of the day.
I used my planning times for marking instead of zoning out on my phone.
I didn’t bring work home anymore.
I didn’t sit at my computer until 9 pm.
I cooked dinner and enjoyed eating it.
I went for walks.
I walked before work, I walked during the day, I walked when I got home.
I spent quality time with friends, family and my pup.
I met the love of my life, I got engaged, and I started a family.
Now I’d like to help you to do the same.
I created Series, from the curriculum, with target lessons that are best for you and your students because learning is more than a one time lesson and learning happens when students are in charge of their thinking and wondering. That’s where the magic happens. I take pride in providing students with the best learning possibilities and truly understanding how students learn.
