Having It All Melanie Holtsman)

Dear Melanie,

How do you do it all?

• a mother of four children (twins at that!)
• a wife
• a gifted teacher
• a standard's coach
• a technology mentor
• Literacy navigator Safety Net
• Mary Kay Sales
• Blogging Updates
• Twittering
• Professional Literature read
• Reading children's books
• Reading adult literature
• Traveling to conferences

The list goes on and on! How do you balance it all and still have time for fun and down time from your job?

I will be anxiously waiting for your reply.

Love, Dorry Lopez

Dear Dorry,

Here's the quick answer I always give people when they ask me how I balance it all ---the same way you eat an elephant, one bite at a time! The truth of the matter is I don't balance it. I make my family and students my priority and juggle the rest. I'm a master mult-tasker. Something always suffers, but I try never to have it be the people in my life.

Many of the things you listed are the fun of my life. I really enjoy what I do. I have always been a reader. Teaching second and third grade ELA grew my love of writing and I love reading the craft of children's authors. One of the reasons I became a teacher is because I love learning. I'm always trying new things with my classes. Technology and professional networking online is a way for me to learn something new every day. It's addicting. When I have choice time I mostly choose to do these things. Other things I do for fun you might not know about: I love watching comedies or stand-up comedians (I have a warped sense of humor). I like to draw and paint (my girls and I go paint pottery as often as we can), which leads to the Mary Kay- I love to do makeup and hair makeovers (watch out if you have to stay in a hotel room with me)! And ....I play Webkinz for fun.

Hopefully I haven't ruined all of your professional perceptions of me!

Love,
Melanie