As most of you know, I am no longer in the classroom and spend my days helping my husband run his business and/or creating resources to help save you busy teachers some time. Hopefully in return, letting you get a bit of your "after school life" back! Even though I am no longer teaching, I will always think of myself as a teacher.
Anytime I'm around my nephews I always try to fit in some learning. Brady is not even 2 and already loves to look at books! Over Christmas he kept wanting to read books about "Ho" (aka Santa Claus). :) Of course I have to try to get him to point out colors or find images in the books, so we can work on some early comprehension and vocabulary!
My nephew Colton is almost 5 and is genuinely a super smart kid (I don't just say that as his aunt). He has been reading simple books since he turned 4 and now is reading at a late 1st grade level. We skyped this past week and he asked if he could read me 2 books. I love seeing how excited he is about learning!! I'm going down to visit him next week and he knows I'll be brining him some books and other activities we can play.
I taught for 8 years, with 7 of those being in Kindergarten. I LOVED Kindergarten and was incredibly sad when I got moved to 2nd grade for a year (due to seniority, BOO)! It is so amazing to see the growth that Kindergarteners make throughout the school year. They come to us not knowing letters or how to write, and end up leaving reading books and writing stories. The growth is incredible! Here are my Kinder babies on our field day my last year!!
I love creating things for teachers and students on TPT because I not only get to share my love of teaching with others, but I get to find ways to bring FUN back into the classroom. I go back and volunteer often and just recently showed this 1st grade classroom how to play Fluency & Fitness. I loved being able to see their excitement of learning subtraction and then getting a bit of a break to get in some movement. When it was over, they asked to do another one! It makes my heart so happy to hear that! I always tried to make my classroom a very caring and fun environment so students wanted to be at school. We put so much pressure on them nowadays, but it's always important to remember that they are still kids!
Finally, I loved teaching because I felt like I could make an impact on student's lives. Many times, we see our students more than they see their parents. It's very important to build a good relationship with your students and know the impact you have on them. My mother teaches 6th grade and actually has some of my past students from when I taught in my hometown. Recently, they had her send this picture to me asking me to come down and visit. That made me feel so good that years later they not only remembered me, but wanted to see me again. I drove down a few days ago and got to see about 15 of my old students. It was a lot of fun, but also made me realize that there's a reason we do what we do, no matter how stressful it is, or how much extra time we put in without getting paid. We are not in teaching for the money, but for the kids!
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