Let Me Introduce...

...my new blog, 

Learning to Teach in the Rain. 

Many of you may know me as the author of Sub Hub. And while Sub Hub was my first baby, and I will always have a special place in my heart for it, things in my life have changed this past year, making Sub Hub not the best place to share many of my ideas. But, don't worry, die hard Sub Hub fans (and I have so many of them for which I am eternally grateful), Sub Hub is not going away. I still intend to share and create for the hardworking subs in the world... and the teachers who are preparing for those subs.

It's just that, well, I finally found a school to adopt me permanently... I have an amazing, loving, welcoming, supportive (and every other positive adjective I can think of) forever home! Yes, a week after school had begun (and I had given up on another year of job searching for a permanent teaching position), I got a call for an interview. Of course, I went in right away. I interviewed for a fourth grade ESL position in front of a panel of the other three fourth grade teachers, the principal, and the vice principal. It all seemed to go well, but they warned me that HR was very backed up, and it might be a week before anyone heard anything. Imagine my surprise when I got that call the next day (ironically as I was on my way out the door to a sub job). I am pretty sure that poor HR man does not have any hearing anymore as I screamed with excitement into the phone. And I started in my own classroom the next day.

I'm sure all of you permanent teachers will agree that a first year of teaching can be a nightmare at worst and crazy busy and stressful at best. Well, luckily I got the best-case scenario. It was certainly not without bumps, but my first year of teaching has been the best I could possibly ask for. I stepped into a wonderfully organized classroom set up my the exiting teacher I was replacing (she took a position as a math specialist and so didn't need most of her classroom materials). I started teaching with a pretty darn amazing group of teachers, and my administration was so welcoming, supportive, and friendly. Best of all, my students were the sweetest, most well-behaved group of kiddos I have ever seen.

Anyway, all that being said, I now have a wealth of blogging ideas that are both subbing and permanent classroom related. I didn't really want to change up Sub Hub, as it's been out-of-this-world successful for me. So, I thought a new blog was in order to capture my teaching experiences.

Why Learning to Teach in the Rain? I live in San Antonio, which most times is a near-desert as far as rainfall. So, I don't mean the title literally as if I lived in Seattle or something. Where the title comes from is my all-time favorite quote:

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." 

~Vivian Greene

In my four years of subbing and all the disappointments of not finding a permanent job, I began to battle depression. It got so bad at one point, that I began speaking with a counselor who was a tremendous help to me. One solution she offered (and the one that worked the best for me) was to come up with a mantra... a little saying to repeat to yourself when things are rough. I thought a long time about an appropriate mantra for me. Then I remembered that quote that I had seen (where else) on Pinterest. I printed it out, created a photo of my son with the quote on it, and took the end part of "dance in the rain" as my mantra. Believe it or not, it is quite comforting when some terrible thing happens to repeat those words over and over. When it is really bad, I sound a little bit like Rainman... "dance in the rain, dance in the rain, definitely, dance in the rain." Ha! But it really does work... at least for me.

Well, I also know that the world of teaching and education is pretty stormy these days... over-testing, funding cuts, teacher layoffs, increasing demands on teachers in the classroom, decreasing public opinion of teachers. It is pretty much a deluge of negativity out there. And it is so easy to get caught up in that negativity. But, what I always remember is that it is NOT the students who are creating most of that negativity... and they all deserve a teacher who cares and who is willing to try whatever is necessary to make them successful. That's when I realized that my "dance in the rain" quote completely applies to teaching as well. Hence, the birth of Learning to Teach in the Rain.

So, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I hope you can come with me on my journey, as we all learn to:

TEACH IN THE RAIN!