It’s Spring Break and I finally have a chance to sit down and provide a little update on what has been going on over here at I Heart Grade 3. I feel like I have been on overdrive since returning to school after the Christmas holidays – from work, to family, to personal obligations… it has been hectic to say the least. However, I took two days of my Spring Break to SLEEP and get my body, mind, and soul well rested. The third day was spent cleaning my house, which had been neglected for far too long, and now I am getting to do the things I love doing – spending time with my family and working on projects that I am passionate about.
Like I said, after the Christmas holidays, my life switched into high gear. My youngest daughter, was smack in the middle of her competitive synchronized skating season, and with her provincial and national competitions on the horizon, if I wasn’t in my classroom, I was doing something skating related. I travelled to Sherbrooke, Quebec, to watch her and her team win silver at the provincial competition and to Calgary, Alberta to watch her win a national Bronze medal. Watching her cry with joy at her and her teammates’ accomplishments made all the travelling, early morning wake-ups, and financial responsibilities worth it.
As you might have already known from THIS post, I was in the process of writing a book and the deadline was looming around the same time that my daughter was training. Part of my obligation, besides writing the book itself, was to provide my publishing company with a headshot for the back of my book. YIKES! Talk about taking a gigantic leap outside of my comfort zone. I am not a natural in front of the camera, and never felt comfortable whenever a regular camera or a video camera was around. I contacted a parent of two of my former students who is a professional photographer. In fact, she does the school photos of all the students at my school and they are OUT OF THIS WORLD BEAUTIFUL. I was nervous asking her to do this for me, but she agreed and was a delight to work with. Was I ever in for a surprise – taking photos is HARD work! I was taking instructions, moving my body in weird types of positions, and sweating! It was a real workout! In the end, I put all my trust in Sarah, and she rewarded me with beautiful pictures of myself that I had a hard time choosing which one to put on the back of my book.
To see more of Sarah’s great work, click on her logo below!
So, the headshots bring me to another reason why I was so busy these past few months… my book! The deadline was February 28, and for the first time in my life, I did not finish it up last minute! In fact, I sent it to my editor 5 days ahead of the deadline date! Hooray for me!
I am still not allowed to share the title with you just yet, hence the blankness above my name, but this photo represents four months of perseverance and confidence building. When I was contacted about writing a book about a technique I used in my classroom, I was, and in many ways still am, consumed with a lot of self doubt. Will people actually want to read something I wrote? I do not consider myself to be an expert in the education world, I have limited experience presenting to other educators, and here I am writing a book for educators based on some things I have shared on this blog. Who would have thought?!?
My manuscript is now in the trusty hands of my editor who will take the next few weeks to have a look over it before she sends it to another department at the publishing company. I imagine there will be some constructive criticism coming my way and some rewrites that will have to be completed but so far, I am happy with how everything is coming together. I can’t imagine how I will feel once I get my hands on my first official copy! I don’t know how I will be able to contain myself!
And now that my daughter’s competitive season is over and the biggest part of my book is completed, I am now ready to get back into creating and posting educational products for you to use. I am currently making new resources for my new Trading Card product line. New items are being added as they are completed.
Here is a sneak peek of the Multiplication Trading Cards that are posted in my TpT shop and on my blog.
My students are all wild about trading cards! Whether they are hockey, baseball, or cards associated with a strategy game, trading cards are all the rage! Why not bring some of that enjoyment and motivation into your classroom with your own set of trading cards tailored to your curriculum and what you are working on in class?
This set of trading cards comes with everything you need to make a class set of multiplication trading cards for your class. How you choose to give them out is totally up to you but you could give them out as a study aide or as a reward when students master a specific table.
And there you have it, folks! That’s been the last 2 months for me in a nutshell! Hopefully this post finds you all healthy and happy!
Have a great day!
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