Year One Complete!

 "Always make your past self jealous." - Erin Kennedy

With the girls all going to school, I decided I might as well work, too. Mostly as a hobby, for something to do. I only wanted part-time, and I wanted it to be flexible and work with the girl's schedule so I could still be a mom first. I thought subbing would be OK, so I applied.

Then an email from Camille's school went out saying they needed a GT Facilitator. I thought, "I have no idea what that is, but it sounds interesting enough to apply. Let's see what happens."

That started a miraculous journey I never could have anticipated. I absolutely LOVE my job. I love the energy of a school- I felt it the first night we went to Back to School night with Audra two years ago. I missed that energy, and I didn't even realize it.

I love working with a group of experts who know HOW to teach, who love kids and love to teach, who know what it means to be an educator and have studied for years to know the ins and outs of education, and are true professionals in their field. I love watching these masters teach and being able to work with them is an honor.

I love using my degree that I earned forever ago. I love feeling like I'm making a difference. I love that the kids are excited to see me, to learn, and to share their experiences with me.

I even love being a pre-algebra teacher! (with Ben's help, of course) Once kids who have been flexing up in math reach 6th grade, they need 7th grade math, but our school only goes through 6th grade. So they come to me for pre-algebra. Anybody who knows me knows it is ridiculous that I would be teaching pre-algebra. But, my pre-algebra kids all ROCKED their ITBS 8th grade math test, so we did something right!

I love being at Trailblazer. We have the highest scores in Highlands Ranch for everything. It's tough being the best at everything, but we do it, and we have a lot of fun doing it! I think it's because we have low class sizes, so while some of you should come to Trailblazer, don't all of you come because we still want small class sizes! We won a ton of awards this year, and are truly a school of excellence.

I love being back in the classroom, and I love my role in it. I'm not a classroom teacher- those are the real heroes and rock stars of the school- but I love what I do, and I love helping to make Trailblazer the incredible school that it is. All the awards that we win, all the achievement scores where we rank higher than every other school in the area, the huge GreatSchools rating- that isn't by chance. It's because there's an awesome staff who are really, really, really good at what they do to make it happen.

This is a year I never could have imagined- and I'm so grateful the door opened for it to happen. I don't know if my past self would be jealous, because homeschooling was an awesome journey I'll never regret, too- but I'm pretty sure my past self would be feeling great about what the future holds if she knew what lay ahead!