I get it, and I want to help!
When I had my first baby in July of 2011, I did EVERYTHING wrong. I had no idea how maternity leave worked for teachers, I didn’t know what questions to ask or what benefits I had available, and I ended up making LOTS of mistakes when it came to planning and logistics. On top of that, I was so freaked out by the idea of giving over control of my classroom to someone else and paralyzed by the thought of preparing for a long-term substitute, that I literally took a new position (as the school testing coordinator) for the following year. It was mess!
I only lasted a year before I found myself back in the classroom (my true love); and, three years after that, I decided to give the whole maternity-leave thing another shot with the birth of my second baby in March of 2015. In the weeks and months leading up to my due date, I scoured the internet and was shocked by how few resources are available for the pregnant teacher. Instead, I turned to friends and colleagues for advice and, eventually, got myself organized and prepared. Thankfully, by the time Nora arrived, I felt good about the work I had done to set my students and my substitute up for success, and I was able to leave feeling confident that my class was in good hands, so I could focus on my baby at home.
Of course I didn’t do everything perfectly, but I learned a lot about the process of preparing for maternity leave and kept good notes as I went. The Stork Doesn’t Deliver Lesson Plans is a culmination of all those lessons and lists.
Getting ready for a baby can be exhausting and overwhelming enough as it is, so it is my hope that this book will take just one more thing off your plate leaving you free to focus on the exciting and fun parts of the season. In it, I’ve shared everything I know about maternity leave just like I would with my best teacher-friend down the hall. It is the book I wish someone had written for me!
Want to know more?
The Stork Doesn’t Deliver Lesson Plans: A Teacher’s Guide to Maternity Leave and Beyond is a PDF eBook that will be emailed to you instantly after payment. At just over sixty pages, it is organized into four parts that will walk you through first finding out you are pregnant and telling your school, preparing your students and classroom for your leave, making the most of your time away, and – ultimately – your return to work after baby. Within each section, I’ve tried to think through every question or scenario for you and shared every tip, detail, or piece of advice that made a difference for me to help you have the best experience possible. I know how valuable your time is right now (trust me), so I’ve designed this to be something you can read through quickly and then reference easily as needed throughout the process.
In addition, the appendix of the book includes my “Big Maternity Leave Checklist for Teachers” organized by trimester, printable cover pages and dividers to create your own Long-Term Sub Binder, and a list of the products and tools I found useful during this season with links. And that’s not at all, with the download of the eBook, buyers will also receive my exact Long Term Sub binder and lesson plan notes from my leave in 2015 as Word documents so that you can see a working example and edit/adapt mine to fit your needs.
But, wait, there’s more…
After you purchase the book, I’ll email you an invitation to join an exclusive Facebook group just for Stork readers. There, pregnant and new-mom teachers can chat freely, ask questions, help each other, and encourage each other all throughout the process of preparing for and returning from maternity leave. I’m SO excited about building that community with you!
Over the last five years, making the teacher-mom life work has become a passion of mine, and I think a successful maternity-leave is the first step in that direction. I’m proud of this book, and I’m excited to get it into your hands!!!
So… What are you waiting for?!? Get the book + all of the above resources now for only $11.99!