Nae's Thoughts

 To all the beautiful teachers, A semester before I graduated college I had a meeting with my absolute favorite professor. She taught most of my early childhood education classes. She asked me what my plans were for my career. I told her I wanted to teach Kindergarten and then maybe someday become a college professor so I could come back and help people become good teachers. She joked that I wanted to follow her career path. I said, absolutely.  During our conversation we talked about what being a teacher, and an early childhood education teacher specifically was like. She joked that we don't always get the recognition we deserve. That someday when kids are graduating from High School they would be thanking all their coaches and high school teachers, but always seemed to forget those teachers from their younger years. My favorite line from the conversation had to be, "I taught you how to read, damn it"  I have seriously been considering getting a job outside of education.

Remember how I tend to overshare everything in my life. Here we go again.  So life. What a time, am I right.  You know what I've learned about faith recently. It's okay if you want to quit. It's okay if life feels too heavy. It's okay if you have to talk yourself into going to church. Or leaving your bed in the morning. It's okay to not want to do the simple things that you know are important. It's okay to believed and still struggle. Because no matter what Christ will still be there. Even if you want to quit. He still loves you. And sometimes we go into this survival mode and it's not until a while later that we see just how broken we might have really been. Or how hard we pushed ourselves when we didn't really feel like there was anything else to give. And he still loves us even when we don't make the best choices. Or when we have questions or doubts.  That's the thing about Christ. His love doesn't come with conditions. And even a tiny pie

I started to write this blog post last week and it just didn't feel right. I was in a super weird place and just feeling so overwhelmed and pretty lonely. So I decided to reach out via social media to my "friends".  To see what brings you all hope. So I wanted to share what I learned from the messages, comments, texts, and kind words that everyone shared with me. Along with the original thoughts from my post.   These past two years have been no joke really for anyone in the world. We've all struggled, felt hopeless, or let down. We've given more than we thought we had inside of us.  I read a lot of books, watch a pretty good amount of TV, and love to take myself to the movies. The older I get the more I realize that there is one theme that I look for in a story more than any other Hope.  I am a self proclaimed hopeless romantic.  I love me a good love story. I used to think that was what I wanted most in a story. While that's true to a small degree I've fo

 This is going to be a little bit of a different blog post than most of them that I write. This is going to be some of my all time favorite ABC, name, and literacy practice activities that I used while teaching Kindergarten for the past 4 years. I get people asking about these so I figured rather than type it all out a million times to send I could do it once here and then easily share them.  One of my favorite thing about education is when I get to collaborate with other professionals to share ideas of how to promote student learning and growth. I view this as a simple way to collaborate with some pretty amazing parents on simple fun ways to help kids learn their ABC’s.  **Disclaimer- theses are just my own thoughts and opinions. There are lots of different ways kids learn. These are just ways that I found to be effective in my classroom.  Tips 1. Start with teaching the letters in their name. They are the easiest for them to remember! Say the letters as you write them.  2. Honestly t

 Each year at Kindergarten Graduation I try to thank parents for letting me be a part of their child’s story. A small part of the amazing people I know they are going to grow up and be.   Recently with a new job and feeling like we are finally reconnecting post COVID I’ve stopped to think about my own story. In the past week I’ve had a handful of people I haven’t talked to in a while reach out and reconnect. People that have meant a lot to me over the years, but our stories just happened to move in different directions. I’ve also watched a dear friend receive some of the hardest news you can about the health of a loved one. Babies have been announced, marriage’s too.  Life continues.  All of these made my stop and ponder my story. The nature of life for me right now means that I spend a lot of my day alone. In the car, on my couch, at the store. The tiny moments are often spent by myself. This chapter of my story has me flying solo. But it doesn’t mean it’s lonely.  One major lesson I

 I'm such a loud outgoing person, but sometimes I just don't feel seen.  Since the time I was little I have always been loud. I was that kid in class who was constantly being told to use her inside voice (which was clearly what I was already using). No joke one time I was standing in a big group of friends back in high school and this girl asks, "why is it so loud?" and in unison my friends on both sides of her go, "Denae's here."  I have lot's of friends. I'm super social. I can scroll through my phone or social media and find many great people who love and care about me. The logic part of my brain understands that. It has labeled us as an extrovert. It thrives in large groups of people. It speaks up in pretty much any situation we find ourselves in. (work, church, social, etc)  And yet, sometimes I feel like no matter how loud I am or how often I'm surrounded by others I don't feel like anyone really see's me.  I often wonder if oth