One Year Update

It's been a little over a year since we started this blog and announced our decision to move to the hi-line to teach in rural Montana schools. To say we learned a lot since then would be an understatement.

I can say with certainty that I am a lot more comfortable with our decision to move out here than I was a year ago, or even just half a year ago. 

I like my job, I love the kids, and I think I have a better idea of what I am doing. I know what it feels like to have really excellently prepared lessons... And how it feels when I don't. I am still working on the balance between fun and structure in the classroom, but I have a general level of respect from my students that is conducive to learning. 

And now that I know that I can do it, I'm ready to tackle next year with even more energy. Next year I won't worry so much about doing it "right," or how the teacher prior to me did it. I am just going to go for it. 

This week, I even rearranged my room to how I want it and how I think it will best serve my students, not just how it was when I got there. I moved my desk, commandeered a printer for my classroom, and exchanged out my 5 student desks for 2 tables. So much more room for activities! 

I feel like the classroom is finally mine. Is it weird that it took all year for me to feel this way?

Next year, I will be much busier at Saco school, and I like it that way. I will get to teach 6th and 7th grade math, as well as a music elective class. "Bye bye" hours of prep I didn't effectively use, "hello" happy Chelsea who gets to work with kids all day long!

I am really proud of all we have accomplished in our first year of teaching. Josey and I both put on successful concerts, and we helped create a co-oped pep band that actually sounded pretty good, and was at every game, even the "home" games way out in Whitewater. 

We learned that when you take students to honor band, you have to bring your own music stands... Same with district basketball tournaments. Whoops. 

Several of our students even qualified for state music festival in Billings last weekend, and I am excited to try to take even more next year!

This month, we are both putting in elementary school musicals- Josey's elementary musical "Wackadoo Zoo" is Monday, May 16th at 7pm in Hinsdale, and Saco's "Sing Me A Story" is May 23rd at 6:30 PM. Be prepared for adorable costumes and cute, singing kids. We already had our regular spring concerts, and they went off without a hitch. 

Next year I should have every single student in the school in either band or choir, and I am anticipating having quite a few do both. We are also planning to take a music trip next year to see a show and/or perform somewhere neat. Our high school band kids should get to go to MSU's "Band Day" in the fall and march with the marching band at a football game... The kids are pretty excited about that. 

After school, Josey and I have been teaching private piano, guitar, voice, and violin lessons as well. Between the two of us, we teach at least 20 private lessons a week, and this Sunday we will have our first studio recital at Saco School. Most of the performers are beginner piano students - and I am so dang proud of them. These students started from square one, and can now read and play songs, with two hands! 

Those two hours after school when I teach lessons are sometimes the best part of my day. I never would have thought I would enjoy teaching piano lessons so much!  I guess it is because I get to see the learning and the improvement firsthand, and the feeling from producing music is something these kids just can't get doing anything else. 

I have been pretty clear about this, but we will be teaching here for at least another year.

At this time, that's all we can promise.  We just never know when a "dream job" will open up. We like teaching here, we love doing private lessons, we love the kids here, but Saco isn't where we want to spend all of eternity. (Sorry all of you wishful thinkers!)

Ideally, we would like to be somewhere bigger. Bozeman, Helena or Great Falls would be great, but it's tough to know how competitive we would be with only 2 years of experience. Josey's criteria is that we have to stay in Montana. My criteria is that we have to live somewhere near an airport so I can get to my family.  

We know we would be more marketable in the bigger towns if we started working on our Masters...  But it is so hard to think about paying for school when so much of our income this year has already been sucked away to pay off Josey's student debt. The blog post about us paying off all our student loans is here, although the blogger app on my phone isn't allowing me to make this a fancy hyperlink. http://chelsandjosey.blogspot.com/2016/02/debt-free-at-23.html

We will probably look at starting some online classes in the fall. By then I will have been a resident long enough to get in-state tuition. But seriously, I don't know if I'm ready for more school just yet.  

In a few weeks, we'll be loading up our cars and trailer with the necessities for the summer and head to Bozeman. We are very lucky- the school does not charge us much rent in Saco if we do not stay there during the summer, and we got have an awesome priest friend in Bozeman who is renting us a condo! 

Josey will landscape for Bear Paw Landscapes again this summer, and I will be a nanny for a family in Belgrade. He has been been daydreaming about landscaping since March, and I am excited to not work in an office this summer! The boys I'll be watching love to be outside, and the Gallatin valley is the perfect place to be in the summer. I am looking forward to playing in the great outdoors during the week, and hopefully even more with Josey on the weekends. 

We also will get to sing and play with our college music group at Ressurection on Sundays, which will be a real treat for us. We joined the music group in the new church for Easter and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for the photo Mike!

Also, sorry, but there are no babies in the near future for any of you who are wondering. For now, I am getting my baby fix with my dear friends who make cute kids. ;)

Since we've upgraded our photography and photo editing equipment, I'll be trying to do more shoots in Bozeman- probably family and senior photos, or whatever people are looking for. I have learned that babies are very hard. Also, it might finally be time for me to make an actual photography Facebook/website. 

We have a busy summer ahead, full of fun and weddings, and probably more Panther adventures. (We are already planning to sedate him for the drive to Bozeman... He's a talker.) But leaving our friends in Saco is going to be just as hard as leaving our Bozeman "family."  Good thing we are coming back after just a few months. 

The connections I have made with my students this year solidify why I wanted to become a teacher. Yes, music and math are also my loves, but the kids are what make it. They drive me crazy, and make me want to scream on a regular basis.

But they are also the reason I go to school every day. I look forward to seeing them around town, at track practice, or even in my kitchen. I set my expectations of them so high- and they astound me every day.  I can't even imagine leaving "for good." So I'm just not going to think about that right now.

So here we go- a school year that is rapidly ending, a jam-packed summer ahead, and then a new year in the same schools where we feel we've finally got a good grasp on things. Small school/town challenges are no match for the Quinones. 

Okay, I'm not all THAT confident. I know we still have a lot to learn. But together we can tackle whatever comes our way. 

With love,

Chelsea