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Why I left my school… and liked it

First off, it’s important to know some background and how heavy this choice was for me. I teach in Hawaii, where the employment system for teachers is a bit… abnormal. In the Hawaii Department of Education, you must complete your first 3 years at a single school. With the entire state being one district, there is no way to go around this. You are in a probationary status for your first 3 years, then you can begin to transfer positions and schools.

During my second year teaching I got a feeling of despair and indescribable fatigue. Honestly, I got this feeling during my first year but put it up to complications happening at my school that year. I kept trying to move past these feelings. I would tell myself over and over again, “Only one more year. Only one more year. Only one more year.” By spring semester I was absolutely positive that I could not make it the last year. I was devastated with myself and felt like a failure. I wanted to leave teaching behind and never look back. Being a teacher was all that I imagined since middle school. What was my future if not being a teacher? Was there even a point?

I then made a choice to try again. I looked into other options, weighing the consequences of each choice. I worked around the system and decided to give up ALL of my probationary status and start over. I would lose my saved up leave and everything. I went in for an interview and immediately knew that this was the school I was meant to be at. Seriously, I mean IMMEDIATELY. I hadn’t even started the interview. The vibe was completely different than what I had been in for the last two years. I got excited about teaching once again.

I will say, moving schools and grade levels was difficult. A bigger school, unfamiliar content, new people, and all along dealing with health issues popping up. It is now winter break. I’ve been asked many times how I feel about my decision, and every time has been an answer within a heart-beat, “100% YES!”

The thing I have taken away from the past few months is the idea of giving things another shot. I felt like I had done this many times at my first school, but the truth is that I wasn’t truly starting over. My advice for any new teacher who is feeling burnout is to give it another shot, and if that doesn’t work, try one more time with a new slate. Burnout is normal, but being miserable is not. Take care of yourself, allow yourself to feel your feelings, but remember to rebalance your vibes and keep moving forward. I love you.

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Canva for Education (Free!)

Let’s walk through one of the coolest things I’ve found as a teacher. If you don’t know what Canva is or don’t use Canva, OMG! Please mess around with it now and see if it works for you. Let’s go step by step on how to get Canva for free as an educator. I want to be transparent in saying that this post is NOT sponsored or in any way requested by Canva or any other entity. I just seriously love Canva for Education and want to share it with you.

Now, in order basically get Canva Pro for free, you do have to verify that you are a teacher. There are two ways to do this:

  • If you are making a brand new account, you can use your school email and it will automatically approve due to the school domain. If you don’t want to use your school email or already have an account, just follow the next step way to verify.
  • If you are not using a school domain email, you’ll need to verify with an “approved document” when you apply. This can be photos of your license, employment status, or school ID. When I first heard of Canva for Education I already had Canva, so I applied in with my school ID and was easily verified.

There are SO many cool ways to use this resource as an educator. You can use templates and change them to fit the needs of your classroom, find pre-made resources, you can even make a class with student access! If you do that, you can use Canva assignments similarly to Google Classroom assignments. You post the assignment, and students use that as a template (they can also see instructions as an attachment). I wish I knew more about this, but since my kiddos are so young (Kindergarten and 1st Grade SpEd) it just doesn’t work out in my classroom. I do know that you can INTEGRATE CANVA INTO GOOGLE CLASSROOM!

How do you add students you ask? There’s multiple ways to do this, so you can choose what works best for your situation. You can invite via:

  • Link
  • Code
  • Email
  • Google Classroom
A photo of the "invite people" link when using Canva for classroom.

Canva is so versatile. Not only can you set up your classroom, they even have the platform to set up a school. I use Canva to create assignments to print, for newsletters, and for posters/visual schedules/anything visually appealing in my classroom. I also use Canva to make a template for my student IEP at a Glance document so that I don’t have to duplicate the document each time manually. Canva’s website also gives some great tips that you can find here, including a video course for teachers.

Moral of the story, do yourself a favor and at least explore what Canva has to offer. You can ALWAYS reach out if you have questions or need ideas. Like the classic movie High School Musical says, we’re all in this together.

Sending you good vibes,

Courtney

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SPRING. BREAK.

Finally, I can take a breath and really start this thing. I can really introduce myself and give you a look into my life. The idea of starting this blog was with the intention of it being a sort of catharsis for my first years teaching… hiccups. When I finally decided to do this, I knew I couldn’t allow myself to put that kind of negativity into the world so often.

Don’t worry, I will vent a bunch!!! Maybe even some hilarious stories or fun things. Get ready for the real and raw experiences from a new teacher. My goal is to help others who were in my place. In my first year teaching, 4 first-year teachers were hired. The other 3 quit by the end of November. I think back and though I definitely did NOT know what I was doing, I wish I could have done something to support them.

That’s what I want to do now. I want to help people. I want to spread positive vibes and creative ideas. I am putting intention into my life right now to make my bubble around me positive instead of the gloomy place it is. I will explain this (including my mental health issues) later.

But, yeah… This is me. Honestly, this whole thing about blogging is so new and foreign to me. I’m sure I’ll learn and grow so I get better at it, but for now I’ll just continue being awkward and rambling. Gotta keep that growth mindset going but also not beating myself up for not being at the goal yet. At least I’m trying right?

So, this is me. My name is Courtney. I currently live in Hawaii since my husband is stationed here, but I am from Missouri (and miss it a lot!). I teach Kindergarten/1st Grade Special Education Resource at an elementary school on base. Since the whole state of Hawaii is technically one district, it makes it easier for my school to be a public school. If you ever get confused with the way for applying to teach in Hawaii, I only sorta understand the HIDOE’s system… but have gone through it so I have a little experience? Anyway, hit me up.

My dream job has always been elementary art education. Maybe when I move back to the Mainland in a few years I’ll have a shot at it, but for now, I am absolutely LOVING my job. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. Quite frankly I’m pretty miserable at my job, but only because of the situational and administrative side of things. I love what I do, and I love my kids. When I think about leaving this job, as I have many times over the past 2 years, that’s what always brings me back.

I intend to keep up with this blog, post weekly or biweekly, and update my shop with resources I have created. My blog will be a mix of what I’ll call either “talk” or “demo.” Talk is just what it sounds like… talking story. Demo will be explanations or tutorials of my resources or general resources that I did not create, or even ideas for content. Though I intend on posting frequently, I will allow myself some grace and understanding. That is something I want to pass on to you–I don’t want you to feel any shame for not doing something you planned on or not doing something as well as you hoped. You show compassion to your kids, now it’s time to practice what you teach.

If you read this far, WOW! I’m really impressed, haha. Some day I’ll get into all of the ups and downs I’ve had both personally and professionally. I’m going to be as open as I can be. I’m gonna be honest about something right now, though. I am LONELY. I don’t have many friends. I’m not the greatest friend, I don’t always reply quickly or at all, time differences can make things hard, and if I’m drained emotionally, I may not even really check my phone for a week.

If you need a friend, or someone to talk to about something, a person to vent to that no one else knows, anything like that. You can email me and I intend to be the best friend that I can be. Maybe we can even make a group chat on WhatsApp! (Now I am just day dreaming and getting my expectations too high. I’ve decided not to delete this part of my post to be transparent about my highs and lows so that I can truly be open about my mental health. If they are not inappropriate, I will also leave my intrusive thoughts in the future.)

Sending you good vibes,

Courtney

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Hello world!

My name is Courtney. I’m a teacher and I’m here to share my stories and resources with you. Whether you’re a veteran teacher, or a newer teacher (like me), I want to help you in any way possible! I will be sharing anecdotal stories of teacher life, but I will also create posts that go along with the products in my store on how to use them. Check out all the FREEBIES!