Meet the Teacher Monday

My daughter and I making ornaments for her teacher.

My husband, son, and daughter



Tell us a little something about you.

I am a wife and a mom.  I have been married to my husband for almost 17 years.  I took a short break from teaching and became a sales associate for a now defunct home improvement chain and met my husband while I was working there.  He even proposed to me on bended knee in the flooring department.  How romantic don't you think?  Three years later while subbing in my now school district I had my first child, a son, Joshua.  Five years later while teaching in my now school building I had my second child, a daughter, Elizabeth.  They are now 13 and 9.  And I am old. 

How long have you been teaching?

I taught at a small christian school for 3 1/2 years, took a break, subbed a year, and now I have been at my current job for 14 years.  So my grand total is 18 1/2 years. Yikes!!!  You would think that I would have my act together by now.

You might not know...

I have always wanted to be a rock star.  When I turned 40, I somehow knew that was not going to be my reality.  But, I have been able to have some pretty awesome singing gigs.  I sang to my husband at our wedding while holding his hands and looking into his eyes. Not a dry eye in the house.  I had to however threaten my now husband of 17 years, that if he cried I would kill him.  Then I had the opportunity to sing the same song at the vow renewal for my parents 25th anniversary.  Priceless memories.

 What are you looking most forward to this school year?

Teaching third grade and Daily 5 and CAFE in the Classroom.

What do you need to improve?

I really need some help in paperwork and material organization.  My way of thinking says, "If I put it on my table, I will know where to find it when I need it."  Here is the problem  I don't have a desk. I station myself at my "U" table.  After about 3-4 days, I look as if I am barricading myself behind a walled fortress.

I would also like to improve on timely feed back to my students regarding their daily work and homework.  I end up with stacks and piles of work to grade when I go to do report cards.  I am trying to solve this problem in two ways.  Less more meaningful work grading many items together as a class.

Lastly, I want to use more formative assessment, especially in the area of literacy.

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

This past year I was given an Elmo and digital projector to use in my classroom.  Can I just say, It was one of the best tools that I have ever been given to teach with in my teaching career.  I packed up my overhead and got rid of it.  I never want to use that thing again.  I could show clips off of the Internet, put a picture book up and read it and the entire class could see it, put up student work, and much more.

Now it's your turn.  Click on the frog below and link up and tell about yourself!