PTTD:Post Traumatic Teaching Disorder

Have you noticed we haven't blogged in like an entire school year?! We are suffering from PTTD. It was a ROUGH school year. We struggled, taught, and cried but we made it through.  Before this school year, Juli and I were very proactive in our teaching. We surfed blogs, created products for TPT, and brainstormed new ideas constantly.

THEN...this year happened. The group came to us with a reputation for being a tough crew. We are experienced we thought. We have had rowdy classes before we thought. We've got this we thought.

THEN...the first day of school happened. Wow! Okay we thought. We have all sorts of tricks and techniques we thought. It will take a more creative approach we thought.

THEN...survival mode happened. Exhausted, deflated, and at a complete lost, we went into survival mode. Blog surfing ended. TPT shopping ceased. I lost ten pounds and started struggling with massive anxiety. At winter break, I cried and begged my husband not to make me go back  - not that there was really any choice! All teaching desire had been drained from me. I would feel guilty at times and try to muster the energy to get back in the groove, only to face the class and reality they brought with them and retreat back into survival mode.

THEN...the school year ended! We survived! Barely but we survived! Juli has been traveling with her family. I have done the same. Slowly we are recovering. I have gained back almost all my weight in the month we have been out of school. I still fight anxiety, but not the extent I was during the school year. While I am not quite ready to start mentally planning my school year, the thought of classroom prep doesn't make my stomach hurt.

We know that the group we had was a once in a teaching career group - or at least we hope! To go into detail about the group would be fruitless as we are putting it behind us and the group itself doesn't deserve to be analyzed or discussed openly on the web. We are picking ourselves up and brushing ourselves off. We hope to blog, create, and share once again.  To any followers that have stuck around and are reading this, thank you! We hope this coming year will be full of new and creative teaching ideas and products. Hope everyone is having as an enjoyable summer as we are!

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