Part One: OVERSTIMULATED
First I must share how exciting it is to have a Super Cute blog design!!! I have to thank Christi Fultz for her talent, time, and teacheryness in creating my new blog! She was Johnny on the Spot for everything I needed and is one of the main reasons I started blogging...thanks to her super helpful youtube tutorials on how to start a blog! To any of you who have been blogstalking for the last 3 years or more (like myself) you really should start your own blog "if you can email, you can blog!" so head on over to Ms.Fultz's corner here and learn from all of her awesome tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/MsFultzsCorner Then once you see how easy she makes it look you can contact her here and get your own blog design:
As I shared I have been blogstalking for almost 3 years and I cannot begin to tell you how much I have learned, gleaned, and copycatted from some WAYYYYYYYYYYY awesome teachers! I started "following" blogs by bookmarking all my favorites and checking in monthly....no, weekly....actually you got it...almost nightly and religiously every day looking for ideas and inspiration while I was teaching first grade at a teeny tiny christian school with almost NO resources! The first blog I fell in love with and was superbly addicted to was Babbling Abby over at The Inspired Apple:
 |
| Her blog is almost as cute as she and her little family are! |
 |
| She is hilarious and spunky! Her little family is also adorable! |
Both of these ladies are amazingly talented and I'm so thankful for their techy ability to share with the world their creativeness and ideas! Not to mention all the rest of you whom I'm sure I've stalked on more than one occasion! Thank you for your willingness and ability to share and inspire others!
I am now moving on up even further to an even bigger and higher grade...the great big scary world of fifth grade at a new school that is closer to my house and in doing so felt led to share my experiences in moving and setting up my new classroom and simply found this as a great out for venting so that my sweet hubby doesn't have to hear it over and over! So...why did I choose "The OverStimulated Teacher" as my blog title?!
During my first year of teaching the Kinder teacher next to me, Mrs. Becky, (whom I now absolutely love that sadly retired and gave me all of her goodies) came in to see my class when it was all finished and said that it was overstimulating...later in the year as she mentored me during what I call the year that my students didn't learn squat she told me that I tried too much to make it fun and it was overstimulating for the students and when I got some age on me I would see that some of the things I did were not necessary. I remember overthinking about that word "overstimulating" and taking it as such an insult but tried to overlook it. By the end of the year she and I had grown close, though she was retiring, and she called me her MiniMe because she said she was once like me. We gave her a retirement party where instead of making it all about her she spoke and made it all about the other teachers that she taught with...when she got to me she had me stand and went on and on about my enthusiasm and how I encouraged her in her last year of teaching and how she'd never seen someone put so much into their class and said " I learned that it's good to be overstimulating after all!" She was my department head and there to find faults and areas of improvement and ways that she could help me..which she did in so many ways! At first I was unsure about her and she of me, what she saw as the greatest "fault" became my "feat" in making my class fun and is what she said my kiddos would remember anyway. She has been very influential in my teaching career. Three years later, the school closed and I moved and changed my classroom theme because it was 4th grade with older kids to the vintage circus as I was setting up the 5th grade teacher, Shannon, next door (whose son was to be in my class and I just knew was going to be a disaster...staff kids are almost always problems!) would come in and say how all my stuff and decorations were way too much and she couldn't handle it and the students were going to be too distracted. She also popped in a couple of times real boss like to tell me I was way too loud and that my walmart branded scentsy scents were too strong and giving her a headache...I just knew she and I were not going to get along and it was going to be a difficult year. Fortunately for me, we became very close by the end of the year (which was last year 2012-2013 school year) and when I announced that I would be moving schools (this upcoming year:) she begged me to stay and wrote this very long sweet email about how much her son enjoyed my class and she enjoyed teaching beside me and wasn't so sure there in the beginning. She included how I encouraged her to be a better teacher and make learning more fun. (even though I think she's already an awesome 5th grade teacher because she just has this "I don't take junk" attitude that straightens out those fifth graders and their rents!) Anyway about a month ago, as I was driving home from work OverWhelmed at the thought of changing schools, I had the thought of what the other teachers will think of me when they first see me and prepared myself mentally for them to think I'm too much and then thought of that label "overstimulating" that I was tagged with my very first year in teaching. I reflected of course on Mrs. Becky and Shannon. I was trying to think of what I should do different and what I've learned in the last 4 years and how I should change my personality when then I thought....I can't change because that's who I am and in everything not just teaching...I'm either overly committed to something or not committed at all for example...church, school, exercise, cooking, cleaning the house...either I am 110% in or -10% out and that's just me so "The Overstimulated Teacher" came to me as an aha moment and I came home that night webstered the definition of stimulated (my hubby was convinced it had sexual derivatives and
didn't want perverts constantly finding my blog and this is what I found on Webster.com:
Definition of OVER-
1.so as to exceed or surpass <overachieve>
2.excessive <overstimulation>
3 to an excessive degree <overthin>
Definition of STIMULATE
transitive verb
1. excite to activity or growth or to greater activity : animate, arouse
So then I thought that's exactly what I want to do as a teacher be animated and arouse the students to learning but not just on an average normal level...I want to overstimulate their learning so that
it exceeds and surpasses what they thought they could do on their own! Of course I can't just start blogging without one of those super cute designs because I have to do things overboard so I asked Christi to design my blog...and though I am still learning and still very untechy...I love it :)
#Ifinallyknowhowtoaddpicsfromotherblogs #Istilldon'tknowhowtoaddblogsthatifollow
#bloggingmakesmehappy
Part Two:OVERWHELMED
It has been a great night to have my new design up and running because boy howdy today has been OVERWHELMING! I was told that I could get into my classroom today and when I got there of course I couldn't :( There was stuff everywhere and nothing was completed yet!!! My new school does not seem accommodating or helpful to me yet...I'm really hoping that changes and trying to be positive! Today I at least wanted to start running some copies off when I found out I couldn't get in there. While there very few people even spoke to me and then at 2:00 when I finally realized there was no way I'd be getting in there, I left and it started pouring down rain right into the bag full of copies that I'd just made! I started the lady thing today...cough cough...and am not feeling well! I have a living room with a ton of stuff I've been buying lately with money that we don't have and don't have anywhere to put it!
 |
| My new Ikea sofa lounger for $169.00...they're marked down and going like hot cakes! |
 |
| The new red rug I bought from Big Lots and some cute gum that I thought would be cute to have on desks for Open House or the First Day of School with a cute little "This year is UP2U" saying and it's Mentos gum! How awesome is that?! |
"...When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I" Psalm 61:2
Oh my goodness, your desscription of yourself sounds just like me. I feel your pressure too. I am a first year teacher and the only difference between our situations is that I have an AMAZING group of educators that I have been so blessed to join. They are willing to do anything to help me out. Good Luck this year.
ReplyDeleteMy best advice to you is...laugh a lot and at everything! You are so right, a supportive group of teacher friends is irreplaceable! I hope your first year is most memorable!
Delete