The Gagners Ride Again

When I looked at my last entry and realized that it was something on the order of almost three years ago, I realized that it was high time I got back on the horse and started writing again.

It has been a busy couple hundred days since we last spoke. I have been knee-deep in Master's classes and also earning an endorsement on my first teaching license. That first license, you might remember, was to teach high school French; job prospects were slim, so I added a K-6 endorsement and have been teaching fifth and sixth grade in small, part-time, and temporary ways for about a year and a half. It has been fun, but I am ready to take the training wheels off. Luckily, so was fate and I scored  my own classroom in a great little school about two months ago. This is the same school where I had my very first teaching experience, filling in for a long-term medical leave. So yes, I have some history with the building and am very glad to return. I was in my classroom today, in fact, and absolutely adore moving in. There is so much promise in an empty room. It really brings out an alphabet soup of personality traits, the self-diagnosed ADD of which is actually what drew me to writing here and now.

I have become addicted to Pinterest as I prepare to start the school year. There are just so many ideas out there--almost too many to absorb, let alone try. Many teachers are blogging these days and still more are little factories of printables and cute stuff for your classroom. Who knew that posters and worksheets could become a cottage industry for enterprising educators? I make a lot of my own stuff too, but it doesn't look as good as the stuff these folks are putting out, so as long as they are being generous, I figured I would let them do the heavy lifting... at least until I have a full year under my belt.

Life on the Mountain has been busy in other ways, too. Over the holidays, Andy and I bought into the business that my mom's partner has owned for years, so we are now in the exterminating business. Speaking of cottage industries! The weather hasn't really been on our side this summer (rain keeps bugs away better than any exterminator, even my husband) but Andy has been working here and there and learning the trade. He's much happier than when he was dealing with people and computers all day!

We have also expanded our mini-farm to include two more ducks, four more chickens, and two sheep. A Thanksgiving time addition of a hellion of a little black cat rounds out the bunch, as do many of the same cast of characters you might have read about earlier on in this blog.

I am going to ask my students to do a lot of reflection this year, so I am going to walk the walk and do the same. My goal is to blog about life at least twice a week. It will largely be about my first year teaching, but I do want to train myself to find the interesting sides of the minutia that is life on Hell Mountain, so you could be hearing more from me than you expect. Hold on and stay tuned!