Surviving and Thriving: Ms. G’s Journey to the Classroom
“I hope sharing my story will offer others the teacher support I found when I started teaching.” Paula
Hi all, I am Paula or Ms. G as my students like to yell all day every day :). You have stumbled across my new site made by a teacher for teacher support. I am going into my 4th year of teaching in August of this year. Prior to that I worked in non-profit leadership in Pennsylvania. There were some huge changes in my life in 2022; I moved to Florida with my boyfriend after living in Pennsylvania for the first 50 years of my life.
Middle Age Teaching
That is correct I started teaching after hitting middle age! I will be honest and tell you that first year of the move and teaching were not easy. I left a career that I knew I excelled at behind to 6 months of not being able to find a job and knowing no one that could help me find a job. When finally returning to work I started out working part-time in the school system in Florida. Next I moved into a permanent sub position that paid nothing to finally a full-time English Language Arts teaching position. While I absolutely love, love, and love the beach and the pool and I was doing lots of beaching and swimming during this time. I missed being confident in my personal and professional lives to frankly floundering. I was just barely keeping my head above water.
Support from other Teachers
I survived that first year and felt I may have found my calling in life. Then the second year of teaching was so much better. If I had not had a strong teacher support system that first year I doubt I would have made it through. Some of those supports have become like family to me. Now do not get me wrong there were still days of crying at my desk or falling on the bed at the end of the day because of “teacher exhaustion.” The students loved me, my test scores were great, but my classroom management needed some work. I started to read every blog, website, and books that I could find. One of my favorites being, “Light Up the Learning Brain: 7 Keys to Reducing Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom” by Jessica Sinarski. https://www.bravebrains.com
Tumor to Teaching
This particular book really spoke to me personally. Due to some things from my past that have affected who I am as a person. Fundamentally I still have my faith and moral grounding but began to take more risks, to try new things more often, and not to just live but to enjoy living more. In 2009 I was diagnosed with a meningioma that was affecting my life, work, and was growing rapidly even though these types of brain tumors are supposed to stay dormant. Just to give you my friends and new readers a little background without going into all the minute details. Two craniotomies and on disability for seven years it was a long, difficult recovery.
I was stir crazy missing work, but as you can imagine my career took a dive after years of being out of work. It took several more years to get back to work full-time and back into a management position.
Surviving to Thriving
I continued to do non-profit work through my time in Pennsylvania. When the opportunity to move to the beach presented itself I took it and jumped in with both feet. At this point I was in a toxic work situation and needed to move on from that situation. So that is how I ended up here in Florida as an 8th grade English Language Arts and Journalism teacher. It is not an easy career. However, I love on-going learning and want to share through this blog how I survive the classroom with faith, glitter, and chaos and in middle school some days I need all three. https://gph.iyv.mybluehost.me/how-to-create-engaging-lesson-plans-for-diverse-learners/
I hope you enjoy the blog! I will be updating the website with more content each day and welcome any members who want to contribute. This site is for teacher support with humor, teaching strategies, and resources I have found helpful. Please bear with me as I finish my master’s this week it may take some time to build the site into what I would like it to become. With your help and suggestions, I hope I can be a teacher support to those that need it. https://www.teachingwithfaithglitterandchaos.com
Thanks,
Paula
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