The world can take you wondrous places and lead you to meet incredible people. Life brought me to small town Kansas, to a school with fewer than 200 students K-12, to a farming community lucky enough to have a bank, a hospital, a bar, and 5 different churches. This is my home. I will live here until the day I die, and I couldn’t be more happy about it.

“Change is the only constant in life.”

Heraclitus

My husband and I welcomed four sweet babies in 5 short years of marriage. We laugh and cry and love and never sleep. We choose to live in this small community and work hard to make sure it is the best place for our children to grow up.

Our oldest started preschool this year, and it was because of this that I resigned from a high school science position that I loved in a neighboring town, and accepted a 6th-12th grade math position in the town I lived. The transition was scary, but absolutely was the right choice. Our son loves school, and the other three are thriving at their new daycare.

Perseverance

In one year, my husband and I:

• Resigned two jobs, accepted another and started a business
• Experienced a health scare with one of our children
• Organized a large community event
• Purchased a large piece of land to raise cattle on
• Changed daycare for our children
• Welcomed our fourth sweet baby!
• Planned a junior prom
• Completed a research project for teaching science in rural communities
• Began building our forever home on a farm

Looking at the start of the school year, I knew it would be a CHALLENGE. I decided to dedicate my year to the theme of PERSEVERANCE.

“These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.”

Glennon Doyle Melton

Just as I felt I personally needed to persevere through a tough year, I encouraged my students to persevere through their math classes. I truly feel as though I got through to most of them. We celebrate the small successes that lead to big successes, and I cannot wait to see what they accomplish in the years going forward!

I hereby dedicate my blog to the theme of PERSEVERANCE and empowering STEM educators, students, and parents to do the same. Teaching is not an easy endeavor, and I want to support you as much as I can. I look forward to continue to learn and grow, to ride the waves of change as they come, and to do the best I can with whatever life gives. Here’s to perseverance!