I’m very excited to be creating my first blog, although I’m not exactly sure where to start. I think I’ll start with a bit about myself and why I decided to start writing.
I’m 26 years old, I’ve been married for nearly five years to my lovely husband who teaches high school Maths at the same school as me, and we have three dogs who keep us very entertained. We live in rural New South Wales, Australia, in a small residential area and we dream of owning five acres out of town one day so we can have chickens, veggies, a few alpacas and room for the dogs to run around!
Throughout my life I have had a broad range of interests and hobbies, some of them are still current but some have fallen by the wayside so I can throw myself into a new area of interest. I love trying new things, but I don’t always stick to them for a long time! I have a ‘hobby room’ in our house that my husband and I jokingly call the ‘Room of Requirement’ or ‘The Room of Hobbies Past’. Some of my current and past interests include: camping, face painting, Irish dancing, card making, music (I play the trumpet and I’m learning drums), genealogy, graphic design, gardening, history, animals and reading. Actually looking at that list now, I still do most of those things so that’s ok. :):)
I have been a teacher for the past five years, and I’ve taught Year One and Year Two in Australia and New Zealand. Although I loved teaching the adorable 6-7 year olds, I was ready for a new challenge, and when my school advertised a position for next year for a teacher librarian, I was so in! I had to go through a formal interview process and there were others who applied, but I was thrilled when I found out I was the successful applicant.
I have always adored books and reading, and when I was in university I had a casual job at a small independent bookshop (when I found out I got that job, I went home and bawled my eyes out, I was so excited!). I have also done a lot of research into my own family history and soak up history documentaries like they are going out of fashion, especially if they are about historical England or Scotland.
I spend a lot of time on Etsy and TeachersPayTeachers, and I love reading blogs from other great teachers who teach a similar age group to me. I love getting fresh ideas and just that feeling that there are others out there who experience the same challenges and successes as me, so I thought that with this transition into my new job, there might be someone out there who is also starting to be a teacher librarian who might hopefully find something useful in my own experiences. I would love to be able to save someone stress or extra work through learning from my mistakes or stress rather than their own!
I have also been accepted to do my Masters of Education (Teacher Librarianship) and I start that next month (November). I am glad that I’ll be starting that early, even though I will still be teaching my Year One class until the end of the year. Hopefully I will be able to get a head start on some assignments over the Christmas holidays while my head is clear and the school year is over.
Anyway, welcome again! Thanks for reading and please share this with anyone who may find it useful. I would LOVE to hear from anyone who is a teacher librarian (or wants to be) and hear about your experiences!
Bye for now :):)
