My Teaching Journey – finding love and balance

Hey there, I’m Hannah Ogden, and I’ve spent the past 6 years teaching junior high in Utah! During those years I’ve taught 7th-grade science, high school chemistry (my true love), and AVID (college prep for junior high). I originally graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. 

After 5 years of working in various laboratories, I decided to pursue a career in teaching. I took the baptism-by-fire approach and was hired straight into teaching junior high with absolutely no experience. The first day that I taught, I knew that this was the right career for me.

That said, during my first year I also wanted to quit every day because the stress and anxiety were so high!

I felt overwhelmed. I felt exhausted, and I felt alone. Sound familiar?

Clearly, I still needed to find my love for teaching. It would have been easy to quit, but I stuck it out because I absolutely loved seeing the enthusiasm in my students’ faces every day. More than anything, these kids needed consistency, support, and care from a respected adult! I wanted to provide that for them.

Still, I felt myself struggling mentally and physically to keep up with the daily demands of my job. I had found reasons to love teaching, but I hadn’t achieved a successful work-life balance.

I was giving everything I had for my students at the expense of my health.

Throughout my 6 years of teaching, I have experienced some major life changes in my personal life, as I’m sure many of you have had as well. Specifically, I struggled through a divorce during my third year of teaching, which pushed me to feel a greater need to find a better balance.

I began to actively focus on making my classroom a more positive environment for myself, and not just for my students.

For example, I hung pictures of nature around my room to help me feel calmer. I embedded team-building activities within my lessons to build a more positive class culture. I made time to actively send positive feedback to parents. Click here to see my recent post on improving teacher mental health.

As I implemented these changes, I began to notice my mindset changing and my health improving. 

I believe that these improvements were a direct result of focusing on the good things that were happening around me.

These changes helped set the tone for additional future life events. First, I was able to stay focused and teach successfully while dating and throughout my subsequent marriage to the greatest guy in the whole world (who I met in junior high, ironically, but that’s a story for another day)! 

Next, this new mindset helped me navigate the incredible difficulties of the covid-19 virus. Most recently, I’ve had to learn to balance teaching with the first trimester of my very first pregnancy! 

These life events will never slow down, so it’s time that we as teachers learn how to keep up!

With our baby boy coming this November, my husband and I decided it was time for me to take a step back from teaching to take care of our growing family. As my baby has grown, so has my desire to stay involved in the world of education.

Like you, I believe that there is no greater calling or profession than that of a teacher. As a Christian, I find it deeply motivating to study the life of the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, and know that the very son of God was sent here to be a teacher. I hope that the principles by which He taught will be reflected in this blog.

So here I am, 27 weeks pregnant, and ready to share every educational resource that I have ever created with the world.

I want to share these resources AT NO COST because I know that I could never have created them without the help of my coworkers and mentors!

I hope that this site will be a useful resource for you as you navigate your teaching journey!  Mostly, I hope that it will help lighten your load so that you can take care of yourself as life inevitably happens. Finally, I hope that you will continue to provide children and youth throughout the world with your amazing examples of love and care.

Every day that you show up for your students, YOU are making a difference. When you choose to be patient and kind instead of scolding that kid who is driving you crazy on purpose, YOU are making a difference. Every time you stay up late creating a lesson plan that doesn’t end up going as planned, YOU still end up making a difference. Each day that you passively tell a student “good job” YOU are making a difference! 

Please Reach Out To Me So That I Can Make A Difference For YOU.

Thank you, for all that you do. 

I hope that as you explore my resources, I can help you find the balance you deserve!