Thread:Lidewey/@comment-29989042-20161220022006/@comment-29989042-20170116205516

I'm so sorry I'm just replying to this thread now. Wish the holidays and then the flu, I ran out of time for social media lol!

Thank you for taking the time to explain your teaching situations and history. I live on the west coast, so I'm so extra-glad to have connected with you whose experiences are different from mine. My working career was always as a teacher. My first job was as a 3rd-4th grade teacher in a small district in the coast range of western Oregon. In fact, I taught in a two-room school. In Oregon at the time, there were only six left. It was culture-shock for me, having been born in Pasadena, CA and raised in bigger cities my entire life. (We moved to Oregon when I was in high school, settling outside Portland.) My first district was 10 miles from my college (about 80 miles south of Portland). The district consisted of 3 elementary schools (1 main building in town and two 2-room schools in the outlying areas of the coast range). The other classroom in my building was 1st & 2nd grade. The students went into town for K at the main elementary school, and went back to town for 5th-8th grades. My school had sheep on one side, cattle on the other, and a Christmas tree farm across the highway. Most of my students were 4-H kids: cattle, sheep, and cavies. I have had to heard sheep off the highway on the way to/from school, as well as herd cattle before recess lol! Sometimes this city girl was the one receiving the education, and that happened often. I've even had bummer lambs named after me! After my first six months of teaching, I became Head Teacher in my building. After my first couple of years, I became involved in revamping our math curriculum with other teachers from my district. One of those teachers had a connection at out State Department of Education that encouraged us to apply for a grant that would allow our curriculum work to become part of a bigger nation-wide grant in the areas of Math, Science, and Technology. We applied and were accepted. After a summer training, our smaller local group rewrote curriculum in math and science, and wrote the first-ever technology curriculum in my area. This took 3 years, and the original grant paid money for subs for me to be away at meetings locally and statewide. When our work was finished, it was compiled with other local work from around the country and was distributed to every public elementary, middle, and high school in the U.S. I originally started getting on committees because I wasn't happy where Oregon was headed in the area of math in the early 1990s. That turned into a love and passion for writing and developing curriculum that lasts to this day. I taught in my tiny school for 9 years. Then I quit to be a stay-at-home mom to our two sons.

When our youngest started kindergarten, I started subbing and became the librarian in their private Christian school. It was preschool-8th grade (about 250-300) students total After a couple years as a sub/librarian, the lure to teach all subjects again was too much, so I asked to go back to the classroom. 😊 This was all in the private school where we now live. My first year back was in a kindergarten classroom. While I loved the entire year, this was not the age group for me! I also didn't like doing the same thing twice everyday, once for morning class, again for afternoon. The next year I transferred to 5th grade. I taught my own son and the principal's daughter. (I felt those eyeballs on you you felt!) I've also taught two of the head pastor's children, as well as the assistant pastor's youngest, who was home-schooled until I had her! We do have a school board. One year I had a child of every school board member's, except one! The last year I taught, I moved up to 6th grade Home Room, teaching 6th grade Bible, Spelling, Reading, and Science. I also taught Computer Lab (grades 1-8) and had 4 hours a week built into my schedule for writing my building's curriculum. Last year, before it was decided my narcolepsy was too severe to teach any longer, I was to have been 6th Gr. Home Room, teaching only 6-8th grade math and write curriculum. It was a very blessed career, filled with coworkers, kids, families, and people, and passions I loved. I miss it all terribly, but am finally content with where I am now.

Sorry this got so long! Hoping things are back on track for you, now that you're back in school after the holidays!