The Old Kid On the Block

Whoa.  It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  I’m not going to apologize for the lack of blog posts.  Or not posting on Instagram.  Or even not making TpT products.  I took some time off.  A LONG time off.  I needed a social media break.  This whole blogging thing just got to be too much for me.  But, I want to rewind a bit – way back to 2010 when I first started this blogging gig.  I thought I might give you a little background as to how this all got started.

So, step into your time machine – here goes.  In 2010, I was teaching Kindergarten and working on my master’s degree.  My advisor wanted me to start thinking of what I wanted to do for my final project.  I had the brilliant (I thought) idea of starting a literacy blog.  My plan was to blog about my literacy teaching (since I was getting my master’s in Reading Education) and reflecting along the way.  I thought it was a great idea! My advisor did not. 

Well, by this time, I had already made quite a few blog posts, and had gained a pretty large following.  I was enjoying what I was doing – sharing with other teachers – so I kept going.  Pretty soon, I had thousands of hits a day.  I was amazed that teachers actually wanted to peek into my classroom.  I mean, I’m just an ordinary Kindergarten teacher from North Dakota – I was doing what everyone else was doing, right?

I started to make connections with other bloggers.  There weren’t very many of us out there at the time, so we all became pretty close.  Then this thing called Teachers Pay Teachers popped up on my radar.  So, I decided to give it a go.  Holy smokes.  People wanted to BUY what I was making? 

But, it got to be too much.   I had to take a step back.  I was spending too much time on my computer, and not enough time with my family.  In the time that I’ve been “gone”, I’ve changed schools twice, opened a brand new, beautiful school, and changed grade levels.  I’ve focused on my family (my girls are 15 and 10 now!) and the students that I have every day.

Now I’m back.  Ready to start again.  But,  this whole blogging world, and TpT has changed.  BIG TIME.  All of a sudden, we need to have “pin worthy” photographs, videos, Facebook Lives, Instagram Stories.  Hold up.  That’s NOT me. I completely respect and even envy the people that can do that, my life is too jam packed.  I don’t have hours in the day to spend doing those things – I work a full time job, and I have a full time family.  This is a side-gig!

I’m not sure if I’m doing anything in the classroom that you want to see, but I’m going to do my best to start showing you again.  I won’t have videos or pin-worthy photos.  Just simple, plain ideas.  So, if you want that, stick around – if you like what you’re reading, tell a friend!  That’s how this whole thing got started anyways – not Pinterest, not Instagram, not even Facebook! 

Thank you readers, for your support and kindness over the past 7 years.  I appreciate every kind word and message you have ever sent.  I will do my best to give you a peek into my classroom, and maybe make a few things along the way!