a new chapter

...but first a fresh cup of coffee!  Ok, let's do this...

Welcome to my first entry, a new endeavor to channel my thoughts and experiences with other people's children into something positive, contained and occasionally enlightening.

To begin, I suppose an introduction is in order.  I am a teacher of young children in an inner city school.  Currently, I am a special educator, though I have taught kindergarten, and many years in Montessori early childhood.  This is my eighteenth year in the classroom, and every minute is a learning experience for me.

I am also the auntie to four lovely little beings all under the age of six, whom I try to see as often as possible.

I am partnered with a wonderful woman, and we have no children of our own, unless you count our fish (rescued from the classroom for summer break and never returned..) and our two year old hamster with no teeth (heretofore known as The Toothless Wonder).

My life is rich with experience.  I sing in a 60 voice choral group, attend the opera and concerts when I can, go to museums and various restaurants, the occasional movie and read every night before I fall asleep.  I have traveled to Italy, France, England and Wales, have dug for dinosaur bones in Montana and explored orchids in Costa Rica.

I love to share what I have done and learned with my children.  Once, my nephew asked me if it was true that I dug for dinosaurs in the "the mean place".  Apparently my sister had told him that I went to "The Badlands" of Montana.  We laughed about it for days!

Having never blogged before, but having made a resolution this year to not bring home every little thing that happens at work (my girlfriend will be happier, I'm sure!), I don't know what this will bring.  At least, it will be an outlet for my poor, overworked, never-settles-down brain.  At most, someone else will read it and get something out of it.