Welcome to my corner of the online world. I am SO glad you are here!
![](https://tanyaraeteaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/more-than-just-a-teacher-2-1024x576.png)
If you haven’t already read my bio, I suggest you start there. After getting a glimpse of my teaching credentials and brief history of how I became a teacher, I feel it’s important for me to start this journey by talking about the exact opposite!
What?!?
That’s right teachers, in this space, where I focus mainly on teaching and engaging students, I want to start by pointing out the fact that we think WAY too much about “teaching” and all that word evokes.
Bear with me for a few and let’s talk about how I (and I’m assuming you too) are more than “JUST” a teacher.
There is ALWAYS so much more to our story. My life is SO much more than teaching and I will start by letting you in on a little secret…I haven’t always felt this way.
When I started my teaching career in 2006, I was just a wee baby teacher, fresh out of college and new to the harsh and exhilaratingly special reality that is teaching in an actual classroom. Pair that with the fact that I had just moved from my rural Wisconsin town (I’m talking population <1,000) to the Buckhead district in Atlanta, Georgia and I can definitely say I was a “fish out of water”.
Before moving on, you need to know...the two years my husband and I spent in Atlanta were filled with more memories than I ever thought a person could hold. It was an amazing experience and we will never forget the people we met and memories we made.
OK, back to that first couple of years in my career.
When you’re just starting ANY job, there’s so much to know and learn that you don’t even know what you don’t know. You know?
I bet you do. I had NO clue what I was doing! I was scared and excited, stressed and so extremely driven. It was a whirlwind of emotions.
![](https://tanyaraeteaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/lakeshore-learning-store-2.jpg)
What I lacked in experience, I made up with in passion and drive, but one thing I lacked was curriculum! I was a first year teacher and fish out of water, without curriculum to teach and little to no resources to pluck from. Google (the 2006 version, remember) became my best friend with the nearest Lakeshore Learning Store coming in close second. I don’t even want to think about the money I spent on all those teaching resource books. Seriously….nobody needs to know.
It was ALL so exciting and overwhelming!
I was figuring out who I was as a teacher AND as an adult with her first “big girl” job. It didn’t take long until I was introducing myself as, “I’m Tanya…and I’m a teacher.” Most of my friends were teachers because who else did I have time to meet? Every time we would go out to dinner or somewhere with OR without our significant others, the conversation would quickly turn to…you guessed it…teaching! My husband (we weren’t married yet at the time) eventually got so sick of the constant “teacher talk” that I’m sure he dreaded going anywhere with my friends, because we would hijack every conversation and spin it back to…well, you know.
![](https://tanyaraeteaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/n59507520_31091890_1747-2.jpg)
Here I am setting up my first classroom in Atlanta, GA back in 2006. I can just feel the excitement! Things sure have changed since then.
Powder Springs, GA
Those two years went by so quickly as I spent WAY more time at school than I did at home. In fact, our late-night custodian would come into my room at night and ask, “Why are you STILL here?! Girl, GO HOME!” I had a TV in the corner of my classroom and would put it on as background noise after school hours as I was planning/grading/organizing, etc. When reruns of Friends would come on, I knew it was time to head home. Seven O’clock! That’s what time Friends aired. I was staying until 7:00 in the PM! It didn’t dawn on me then, but I was quickly becoming JUST A TEACHER!
So, when did it end?
I’m afraid to admit, but I wore my “stressed out teacher” badge with pride for more years than I care to admit. Fifteen years later, I STILL find myself working too long of hours now and then, but it’s rare! Through experience, time, practice, proper planning, strategic scheduling, and personal development – LOTS of the personal development, I am proud to say I am unapologetically WAY more than just a teacher. I LOVE being a teacher, but let me tell you, it’s not WHO I am. It’s a large part of my life, but so is being a mom, wife, friend, creative soul and entrepreneur (just to name a few things that make me, well…me)!
Today, I feel balanced, focused, centered, and light. It took a lot of failure, setback, loss, some dips of depression sprinkled here and there, but I’m in SUCH a better place. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be here in this space, with you.
All of this is to say that when you are a teacher, sometimes you feel like that is ALL that you have going on. As teachers, we pour our hearts into our jobs and that makes us so darn good at what we do, but if we’re not careful – if we don’t find a way to manage and balance, it will do us in. Once I learned to get to know myself at a personal level and work to make better, the parts of me operating behind the scenes, I was able to embrace ALL that comes with the job when I put my teacher hat(s) on. The key is to hang that hat up on it’s own little special hook when you walk out the door, because teacher friend, you are more than JUST a teacher!
I sincerely hope to get to know you as a teacher AND as the unique soul you are! What is one fact about you that makes you MORE than just a teacher / mother / father / fill in the blank? I would love to hear!
Until then, take care
&
Let your Light SHINE!
![Tanya Rae Signature with lightbulb](https://tanyaraeteaches.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Signature.png)
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