How is it November already?
Time passes by very strangely as a teacher. Mondays drag by, and Thursdays fly! Granted, Thursdays are my "Friday" so that probably has something to do with it....
There hasn't been much to write about lately. Nothing really new has happened. Panther (our kitty) continues to provide daily entertainment for us, and the two of us have been feeling the ups and downs of first year teaching. Several college professors had us write down our teaching philosophies, and one professor advised us that those philosophies will change once we are actually teaching. At the time that seemed like hocus pocus, but now, I understand. It will be interesting to see what my philosophy will be like by the end of this year.
In the last month, Josey and I have made quite a few weekend trips, which was one advantage to moving here. Yes, it takes us 5+ hours to get to Bozeman, or pretty much anywhere, but we have the three day weekends to travel. It was an amazing thing to get back to Bozeman for some football games, for a friend's sneaky marriage proposal, and to do some photo shoots. The hustle and bustle was exactly what I needed after the first weeks of being so secluded. We came back full of energy, and thoughtful about what it is we really enjoy. We also had lots and lots of time to talk about it in the car. ;)
We also made a trip to Billings for the MMEA (Montana Music Educators Association) conference, which was WAY more helpful now that we are actually teaching. In college, Josey and I attended these conferences and got many good ideas, but we were often unfocused and not sure which sessions to go to. What would we end up teaching? Should we go to the choir sessions, or band? Often times I would go to one elementary general music session and not want to go to anything else but elementary. Well this time we had the exact same struggle. As K-12 teachers, we teach it ALL. This year, instead of going to the sessions that really interested me for the future, I went to the sessions that I felt would help me the best in my current situation. I went to a lot of band sessions to help me in teaching beginning band and my 7th-12th grade combined band. I am a little bit out of my comfort zone teaching band.
Some days I come home and I feel like I had a great teaching day. Sometimes, I come home and try to blame something or someone else for my less than stellar day. And already I can tell that while I enjoy teaching at a K-12 school, I feel like my talents would be better used if they were focused in one area. For the last few years I have been leaning more towards elementary school music, especially at a school with multiple classes per grade level. With that kind of position, you can really create good lessons and re-use them and refine them with each class you have of that same grade level. I love my elementary kids here, but sometimes I feel bad because they are getting "new teacher" Chelsea who has never taught such small groups, and doesn't get to practice on any other classes before them. I really love teaching choir, and I love teaching band, but having to change channels to different age groups and different learning styles and different subjects is a lot harder than I thought. Plus, I feel like I put as much time into my math class I teach as I do to all of the other classes combined.
I am sure I am doing a fine job, but the perfectionist in me is saying that there is no way I can be "stellar" at all of the different parts of my job. I feel like I am not doing a good enough job in any one class. Now who knows, if I was working just as a choir director or elementary school music teacher or math teacher, maybe I would feel the same way. I've learned that I just have to have confidence in myself and my abilities as a teacher. The more I smile and the more energy I have the less discipline problems I have, and the more fun everyone's day is.
As for Josey, he really enjoys working with K-12 because he hasn't decided what he likes the best yet. His elementary classes love him, and he says he could work with that age group every day. He is enjoying choir a lot more than he anticipated, and he is getting a lot of really good sound from his band. He is so much more knowledgable than me with band instruments, and he has already saved me from having to send some instruments in for repairs!
I'm enjoying my role as "Pep Advisor" at the school - we had our first pep rally last week and it included (almost) the whole school dancing to "The Monster Mash." I taught them some cheers, since they haven't had a cheerleading squad in a really long time, and we played some silly games. The rally was also a send off for our volleyball and football athletes for post season playoffs and such.
In other news, we have been pecking away at student loans with each paycheck, and splurged about a week ago and bought ourselves a Mac desktop computer. It is a beautiful thing, and we spent the first 48 hours staring at it saying "this is ridiculous, we don't need a 27 inch screen, wow this is frivolous."
About a week into it, the shock of making a big purchase has worn off, and we are so happy with it. Josey's laptop is on it's last legs, and my little Macbook Pro is great but just wasn't cutting it for photo editing. The biggest bummer is that we have slow uploading internet speeds at the house, so uploading photos to websites is still slow. But everything else is ridiculously fast! The screen is so bright that when it's at full brightness it kind of hurts our eyes. HA!
We really enjoyed decorating the inside and the outside of our house for Halloween, and having trick or treaters was really neat. I've mentioned this before, but Josey has been waiting and waiting to have a home to decorate, and now he finally has one. Just last night as we were walking up to the house he started describing his plan for Christmas lights.
I make fun of him because I love him.. it's only November! But, like me, he really enjoys having something to look forward to. We are back in a limbo state where the next big thing is Thanksgiving... and that means black Friday shopping in Helena. We haven't planned any other trips or events, and having no plans bothers both of us. This upcoming weekend we do have some obligations/plans, so that's a good thing!
Yesterday, Josey also said "Hi Five! We've been married almost three months!" I hi-fived him, and then told him that no, it has almost been four months. (I guess this is why I have the math teaching endorsement and he doesn't?) I have had several newly wed friends over the past couple of years, and after the wedding almost all of them have posted some sort of "Wow, marriage is hard!" post on Facebook, with "I wouldn't have it any other way" somewhere in there. Or they say something about the "ups and down of married life."
I asked Josey if he felt that way about our marriage. He said no. I agreed with him. Marriage "sealed the deal", but we had already dedicated ourselves to each other probably 2 and a half years before we got married. We both knew there was no one else we wanted to be with. We knew that we bickered over silly things, and we're super competitive, and always needed to be working on something. I really knew Josey before he proposed, before we got married.
So on this new adventure, marriage has been the easy part. Teaching on the other hand? And being far away from our friends and family? That's more difficult. But I know I have a loving, listening ear, every day when I come home from work. And an annoying, pestering husband when I think all I want to do is nap on the couch. He gets me up, he keeps me moving, and we tackle this new life together.
And I wouldn't want it any other way. ;)
Love,
Chelsea
There hasn't been much to write about lately. Nothing really new has happened. Panther (our kitty) continues to provide daily entertainment for us, and the two of us have been feeling the ups and downs of first year teaching. Several college professors had us write down our teaching philosophies, and one professor advised us that those philosophies will change once we are actually teaching. At the time that seemed like hocus pocus, but now, I understand. It will be interesting to see what my philosophy will be like by the end of this year.
In the last month, Josey and I have made quite a few weekend trips, which was one advantage to moving here. Yes, it takes us 5+ hours to get to Bozeman, or pretty much anywhere, but we have the three day weekends to travel. It was an amazing thing to get back to Bozeman for some football games, for a friend's sneaky marriage proposal, and to do some photo shoots. The hustle and bustle was exactly what I needed after the first weeks of being so secluded. We came back full of energy, and thoughtful about what it is we really enjoy. We also had lots and lots of time to talk about it in the car. ;)
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| I have so many photos to go through from the game!!! |
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| I think one of my favorite photo shoots ever. |
We also made a trip to Billings for the MMEA (Montana Music Educators Association) conference, which was WAY more helpful now that we are actually teaching. In college, Josey and I attended these conferences and got many good ideas, but we were often unfocused and not sure which sessions to go to. What would we end up teaching? Should we go to the choir sessions, or band? Often times I would go to one elementary general music session and not want to go to anything else but elementary. Well this time we had the exact same struggle. As K-12 teachers, we teach it ALL. This year, instead of going to the sessions that really interested me for the future, I went to the sessions that I felt would help me the best in my current situation. I went to a lot of band sessions to help me in teaching beginning band and my 7th-12th grade combined band. I am a little bit out of my comfort zone teaching band.
Some days I come home and I feel like I had a great teaching day. Sometimes, I come home and try to blame something or someone else for my less than stellar day. And already I can tell that while I enjoy teaching at a K-12 school, I feel like my talents would be better used if they were focused in one area. For the last few years I have been leaning more towards elementary school music, especially at a school with multiple classes per grade level. With that kind of position, you can really create good lessons and re-use them and refine them with each class you have of that same grade level. I love my elementary kids here, but sometimes I feel bad because they are getting "new teacher" Chelsea who has never taught such small groups, and doesn't get to practice on any other classes before them. I really love teaching choir, and I love teaching band, but having to change channels to different age groups and different learning styles and different subjects is a lot harder than I thought. Plus, I feel like I put as much time into my math class I teach as I do to all of the other classes combined.
I am sure I am doing a fine job, but the perfectionist in me is saying that there is no way I can be "stellar" at all of the different parts of my job. I feel like I am not doing a good enough job in any one class. Now who knows, if I was working just as a choir director or elementary school music teacher or math teacher, maybe I would feel the same way. I've learned that I just have to have confidence in myself and my abilities as a teacher. The more I smile and the more energy I have the less discipline problems I have, and the more fun everyone's day is.
As for Josey, he really enjoys working with K-12 because he hasn't decided what he likes the best yet. His elementary classes love him, and he says he could work with that age group every day. He is enjoying choir a lot more than he anticipated, and he is getting a lot of really good sound from his band. He is so much more knowledgable than me with band instruments, and he has already saved me from having to send some instruments in for repairs!
I'm enjoying my role as "Pep Advisor" at the school - we had our first pep rally last week and it included (almost) the whole school dancing to "The Monster Mash." I taught them some cheers, since they haven't had a cheerleading squad in a really long time, and we played some silly games. The rally was also a send off for our volleyball and football athletes for post season playoffs and such.
In other news, we have been pecking away at student loans with each paycheck, and splurged about a week ago and bought ourselves a Mac desktop computer. It is a beautiful thing, and we spent the first 48 hours staring at it saying "this is ridiculous, we don't need a 27 inch screen, wow this is frivolous."
About a week into it, the shock of making a big purchase has worn off, and we are so happy with it. Josey's laptop is on it's last legs, and my little Macbook Pro is great but just wasn't cutting it for photo editing. The biggest bummer is that we have slow uploading internet speeds at the house, so uploading photos to websites is still slow. But everything else is ridiculously fast! The screen is so bright that when it's at full brightness it kind of hurts our eyes. HA!
We really enjoyed decorating the inside and the outside of our house for Halloween, and having trick or treaters was really neat. I've mentioned this before, but Josey has been waiting and waiting to have a home to decorate, and now he finally has one. Just last night as we were walking up to the house he started describing his plan for Christmas lights.
I make fun of him because I love him.. it's only November! But, like me, he really enjoys having something to look forward to. We are back in a limbo state where the next big thing is Thanksgiving... and that means black Friday shopping in Helena. We haven't planned any other trips or events, and having no plans bothers both of us. This upcoming weekend we do have some obligations/plans, so that's a good thing!
Yesterday, Josey also said "Hi Five! We've been married almost three months!" I hi-fived him, and then told him that no, it has almost been four months. (I guess this is why I have the math teaching endorsement and he doesn't?) I have had several newly wed friends over the past couple of years, and after the wedding almost all of them have posted some sort of "Wow, marriage is hard!" post on Facebook, with "I wouldn't have it any other way" somewhere in there. Or they say something about the "ups and down of married life."
I asked Josey if he felt that way about our marriage. He said no. I agreed with him. Marriage "sealed the deal", but we had already dedicated ourselves to each other probably 2 and a half years before we got married. We both knew there was no one else we wanted to be with. We knew that we bickered over silly things, and we're super competitive, and always needed to be working on something. I really knew Josey before he proposed, before we got married.
So on this new adventure, marriage has been the easy part. Teaching on the other hand? And being far away from our friends and family? That's more difficult. But I know I have a loving, listening ear, every day when I come home from work. And an annoying, pestering husband when I think all I want to do is nap on the couch. He gets me up, he keeps me moving, and we tackle this new life together.
And I wouldn't want it any other way. ;)
Love,
Chelsea
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