It’s hard to believe that September’s almost here, and in just a few weeks, I’ll officially be a Grade 6 teacher. I’m thrilled about having this wonderful new teaching experience, but with this change, there comes one more change as well: I need a new professional blog name.

For years now, my blog has been called, A Primary Blog For The 21st Century. As a K-2 teacher, this name worked well for me, and definitely encapsulated the topics that I discussed in my posts. I’m no longer a primary teacher though, and I think that my new blog name needs to reflect the new me.

Jared Bennett (@mrjarbenne), the 21st Century Fluencies Consultant for our cluster, has helped me a lot with my blog over the years, and he even helped create the header for my Primary Blog. When I messaged him last night about changing my blog name and header design, he really got me thinking about how I could use my Twitter handle in my new blog name. What a great way to really help with my digital footprint!

So now became the issue of deciding on how Avivaloca would move from Twitter to blogging. Jared assisted with the new title of, Living Avivaloca: how could I not make the connection to the Ricky Martin song? 🙂 Now I needed a subtitle though that takes this catchy title and really makes the blog about me and about what I share here. I woke up this morning with the answer: My Many Musings on Life and Learning. I admit: I love the alliteration aspect of it. This title does represent me. It does represent what I share.

I hope that you like it too, and that you’ll check back here regularly to read and add to my many musings as I embark on a new adventure: Grade 6! 

I couldn’t resist the musical avatar for the musical title! 🙂

Aviva

This morning, I was perusing through my tweets on Twitter, and I caught this conversation between George Couros (@gcouros), a principal from Alberta, and Jennifer Brokofsky (@jennbrokofsky), an instructional consultant from Saskatchewan.

This conversation intrigued me because I’m constantly talking to colleagues about “balance.” I know that I don’t balance my work life and home life well. I’m at school every morning by 6:30 and often don’t leave until after 5:00. I do school work at home every night and on the weekends. I update websites and coordinate email lists on my own time. I do all of this because working makes me happy!

I know that I’m not the only educator out there that puts in this extra time, and I know that I’m not the only educator out there that regularly contemplates balance. George’s tweet though helped me see things differently today. Maybe life doesn’t need to be about balance.

I teach because I love to teach. I can’t imagine doing anything else in my life. I’ve wanted to teach since I was in elementary school. Working with students, watching them learn, and knowing that I’ve played a role in this makes me smile every day. I’m lucky that I get to do what I love!

So I may not have balance. I still spend time with family and friends though. I still read books, watch movies, and play with my dogs. I go to conferences. I make presentations. And I go on vacations. I do many different things, and sometimes I spend more time on one than on another, but all that I do makes me happy. If this is the way I always feel, then maybe it doesn’t matter if I have “balance.” What do you think? Should “happiness” become the standard?

Aviva

Last night, I received this tweet from Jennifer Faulkner (@learninghood):

I’ve never had much luck with a blogging app before, so this intrigued me. I went to upload the app though, and realized I needed to finish my software update first. No problem!:)

This morning, the update finished and the first app I installed was Blogsy. So worth the $4.99 price tag. I love how easy it is to upload videos and photographs, and I was actually able to finish a blog post on my iPad: a first for me.

So in the spirit of Sesame Street, this blog post is brought to you by the letter B: Brilliant Blogsy.:) I’ll be writing many more posts with you.:)

Have you used Blogsy before? What are your thoughts on this app? I’d love to know.

Aviva

Posted with Blogsy