I'm Still Here

Yeesh -- It's been four months since my last post. Anybody still paying attention? For those who are, I can assure you that I am indeed still here. The reason for my online absenteeism is the new job; in fact, work is also the reason for my in-person and on-the-phone absenteeism. My apologies to all whom I haven't been in touch with these past few months. My life has been, and continues to be, dominated by getting up to speed as a full-time teacher. All the teachers I know told me that the first year of teaching is a blur. Four months into my first year I can wholeheartedly vouch for that assessment.

Beyond having limited time and energy for blogging, I have had another nagging concern holding me back. Most of my thoughts these days are about my teaching--especially my frustrations at not yet being the quality of teacher I hope to become. Aside from being terribly boring for most of you to read about, there is the sticky issue of making public my private concerns about my still-developing teaching skills. Although I feel such reflections would help me grow as a teacher, they are not necessarily thoughts that I'm ready to share with everyone. It's not that I want to bad-mouth anybody (other than myself), but rather that it's a struggle to honestly reflect on my own job performance if I'm worried about how the parent of a student might (mis)interpret it.

This blog was originally set up to keep y'all posted about my health after my cancer diagnosis, and the act of writing for you turned out to be very therapeutic for me. Now as I struggle with being a first-year teacher, I'm finding my mental health could use the same kind of writing therapy to give me some perspective and help me cope. Did I just compare teaching to having cancer? See! I'm getting myself into trouble already...

Anyway, the solution I've decided on is to start a second blog. But I'm a Teacher! is already up and running with parts of this message as its first post; however, access to this new blog is restricted to those whom I've granted permission. In order to access it, you'll need to set up a blogger account (if you don't have one already), which is a pain. I've already e-mailed invitation details to some of you. Anyone else interested should contact me and I'll set you up. If you're not interested in my teaching-related ramblings and/or don't want the hassle, no problem. I will keep But I'm an Aries! as a public blog and will continue to update it with non-teaching related info for family and friends. If you're interested in neither my teaching nor the rest of my life, then why have you read this far? It's the Internet, dude! Go find some singing kittens or something.

For those curious about what else has been going and have hung in this far, here are two quick highlights from these past few months:

Earlier this month was Jeanette's Mom's birthday. We took her out for lunch and then for a visit to the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory. It's a spectacular place to visit in the middle of winter.

And finally, way back in November, Alfredo and I celebrated our seventh anniversary with Big Brothers of Toronto by returning to the site of our first-ever outing: The Hockey Hall of Fame. Below are pictures comparing then and now.

That's all for now, folks. I hope it will be less than four months before my next post here. Thanks for your patience as I continue to work at this teaching thing. With any luck, it won't be too much longer before I get better at striking a balance between work and having a life. Until then, see ya on the other blog.