Lemonade Date | May 2022

Y’all, it’s time for a little lemonade date. Lemonade dates are my version of a coffee date since I can’t have caffeine. This is a time for you and me to catch up!

My last post was published on April 8th…whoopsie. I will say though, that these dresses are great for more than just Easter.

So let’s get into this lemonade date.

Things I’ve Accomplished this Year

1. Finishing grad school and I walked the Lawn!
2. Finished my 4th year of teaching.
3. Applied to renew my teaching license and applied to add my Reading Specialist (and Master’s Degree) to my license.
4. Focused more on my side hustle (check out my TPT store here and Poshmark)
5. Focused more on TikTok
6. Saved more money!

Some of these things seem super small. I mean, who doesn’t want to save money? That’s huge, especially for a millennial! Also, graduating grad school? At this point, most of my friends are either working toward or have advanced degrees. However, I got to walk the Lawn at UVA (albeit, it was the hottest day of the year so far).

I finished my fourth year of teaching. If you’ve seen the news recently, a lot of teachers are quitting and leaving the profession. Ths was by far the hardest year I’ve ever had as a classroom teacher. From behaviors to lack of support from families, it was tough. I am returning for year 5 at my school, still in 5th grade. This will be the first year since I’ve been at my school that my team will have all of the same team members (minus a long-term sub for two months), but I’m excited about some consistency. We will have a new principal, but as of right now I’ll still be teaching every core subject area. So, if you have tips for Science, I would greatly appreciate them!

I’m fortunate for my license renewal that my grad classes counted as all of my renewal points so filling out the paperwork was super easy! It won’t be as easy next time, but at least it’s done for now (and I don’t have to fill out paperwork for another 10 years).

For those of you that don’t know, my master’s degree is in Curriculum and Instruction and I’m so grateful for Teachers Pay Teachers because it has really allowed me to enjoy making things for curriculum! If I ever decide to leave the classroom or being a Reading Specialist, I do know curriculum is one thing I would want to go into to stay in the education field.

While my TikTok is mainly education-based, I’ve truly been enjoying this form of social media. It’s fun and a great way to build a community. I will say, social media is constantly getting harder to figure out as algorithms and other things change, but making the videos is fun! Plus, I plan to do Lives during the summer. I’ll try to post about them on here so that y’all can know about them, too.

Things I’m Working on

1. Pinterest.
2. Consistency with the blog.
3. Focusing on my well-being.
4. Podcasting.

Pinterest is something I have really let go over the past few months. I want to get back into it! Luckily, I’m only working a couple of days (3-4 days) during the week this summer, so I will hopefully have time to work on it.

Y’all, I’m really sad that my blog and my podcast have fallen to the side. Again, since I’m working less, hopefully I’ll have more time to focus on these two things.

Focusing on my well being is something I have ignored. Yep, I said it. I ignored myself. However, since it’s summer, I don’t really have an excuse not to focus on myself at least a little bit. I just bought a new alarm clock (a hatch), so we will see how that goes. I do want to try meditating, so if you have any good meditation apps, let me know! Bonus points if they’re free with no subscription. I also want to actually workout this summer. While my summer job is more physically demanding than teaching, it will still be beneficial to lift some weights and do some cardio on top of it.

What’s going on in your life? Fill me in!

xx,

Lindsey