Website Updates, Music, and More

As you may have noticed the last couple weeks, I’ve been working on updating my website! I hope the changes make my website easier to use and any specific content you’re looking for easier to find. It’s always fun to have some new pictures, too. Here’s a quick look at what’s new here at Teacher by Nature.

Tags & Categories. I once read that Categories on a website are like the Table of Contents of a book, while Tags are like the index. I try to adhere to this distinction as much as I can, although it can be challenging sometimes. They’re easy to get mixed-up, especially when so many topics that I like to write about overlap with each other. So, in an effort to simplify things, I combined some Categories and split up others. The overall result is that I have fewer Categories, divided up into types of writing, and more specific Tags, divided by topic.

My Categories now include Poems, Songs, Essays (sort of a catch-all category), Stories, Devotionals (these focus on a specific Bible verse, as opposed to essays, which reference Bible verses), Education (resources for teachers here), and Books.

I don’t think I could list all of my Tags here, but you can browse them in the footer menu. They are now in a lovely Tag cloud.

Photos. Rather than using stock photos from Unsplash, I’m going to try to take all the photos that go with my posts myself. We just bought a refurbished iPad for me to use at home and at school, so I can go paperless with lesson plans, which makes it easy to snap photos and add them to WordPress. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of photos I can come up with. More often than not, I’m guessing they’ll be nature-related. Everything is so beautiful in rural Wisconsin.

New pages. I’m most excited about the new pages here at Teacher by Nature. I already added a ‘Music’ page, which showcases some of the songs I’ve written or learned that I’m most proud of. I also added a ‘Writing’ page, which is a list of all the writing I’ve done for other websites.

I’m working on a ‘Lessons’ page (I’ve had a couple inquiries from friends about teaching voice and ukulele lessons) and a ‘Booking’ page, in case anyone who finds my website would like to book me to play at a small, local venue, like a church gathering, coffee shop, or art & music festival. Nothing big yet–I still get fairly nervous in front of an audience. I’m also working on a ‘Submissions’ page. I think I would enjoy having some other contributors to my website. (Perhaps you’re interested in writing something for me?)

Thank you all for reading and supporting my work here at Teacher by Nature. I appreciate you, dear readers.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).

Photo: The clouds after a storm earlier this week