Adventures of a Messy Music Teacher: Introduction and Background

I can't promise that I am going to be very good at this whole "blogging" thing, but it is one of my goals to at least give it a solid try. I am a 23 year old teacher in California in the 2nd month of my 2nd year of teaching. I certainly don't pretend to have everything figured out yet, but I try to improve every day and am always open to new ideas and approaches to teaching. On this blog I will be posting activities and strategies I have learned from my undergraduate studies, workshops I have attended, picking experienced teachers' brains, and from my own experience thus far. This blog will not be limited to teaching information, I am also an avid traveler and will post about my travels and any tips I pick up along the way (heading to Greece in less than a month!!) as well as things about life in general.

A little about me...
I grew up in a small town (under 4,000 people) in Alaska where the closest Walmart was a 6 hour car ride away and the average snowfall was over 300 inches. When I was 18 I wanted nothing more than to get out of Alaska and try something new, so I came to California for college, met a boy, graduated, and found a job in California. This is the beginning of my 6th year living in "the golden state". In March of my senior year of college, I was offered a job at a brand new charter school in the town I went to school in. It was a very small school and gave me a unique opportunity to start my own music program for TK-8th grade from scratch. It was very challenging and I learned a lot from that experience, unfortunately, administrative issues caused me to want to look elsewhere for employment, so this year I am working for a large public school district. Other than teaching and traveling, I enjoy yoga, playing my piano, trying out different crafts, and being a bum on the couch (or beach).