About Me

Hey Ya'll (that's southern for welcome to my blog)! Thank you for stopping by my About Me page. I'm excited to share a little about myself with all of you. 

Let's start with a little non-teaching related information. I'm married to a wonderful man who serves our country each day by putting his life on the line to protect strangers! My wonderful police officer has made the past 7 years of my life so wonderful that I wouldn't change a thing, even if I could. 




I am a mother to the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen. My little Annie made me her mommy on May 29, 2015 and it's been a crazy, fun, exciting, scary, whirlwind of a ride since the second she arrived (and really since we found out she was on her way)! 





I also have one fur baby who has stolen my heart! My little Gandhi was born March 26, 2014 and became a part of our family on May 24, 2015. 





Now on to the teaching information. I graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2012, after switching from 3 years of Pre-Med Biology, with an Early Childhood Education degree. The decision to switch fields did not come easily. I grew up wanting to be a scientist but upon entering college I realized that the medical field wasn't for me; I thought about switching to Marine Biology but my parents said they wouldn't help pay for that degree (I'm very fortunate that my parents helped put me through college and I didn't have to take out a single loan) because they feared there were no jobs in that field. 


I really started thinking about my options and realized that the main thing I wanted in life was to help others! I had always loved playing school, helping my mom decorate her classroom, and helping my teachers grade papers, etc. Then it hit me, I wanted to be a teacher! I thought about switching to middle/high school teaching with a major in math and science (since I already had 3 years worth of credits) but finally decided on elementary grades because I love helping children grow. 


Fast forward 3 years and here I am, entering my 4th year of teaching, as a 3rd grade teacher. I've taught in 2 different schools and have had over 600 students! My first 2 years of teaching I was blessed to be a Title I Reading/Math resource teacher. I worked with over 300 students a year who were well below grade level. This was one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever had. Watching my students learn and grow and readers and mathematicians is something that I can't even begin to explain the feeling of. 


My 3rd year of teaching brought me to a new district and new school. I hired as a 3rd grade teacher and had 27 students. Little did I know that I would be given one of the most challenging classrooms in school. My principal decided to make my room the special education/gifted inclusion cluster. This meant that I had 1/3 of my class identified as special education, 1/3 gifted/high potential, and the remaining 1/3 was general education with most having RTIs and EIPs but not yet identified as special education. I had no experience with teaching special education or IEPs, EIPs, RTIs, etc. It was the most challenging experience of my career! However, I worked with many wonderful teachers and did a TON of research and finally figured out some ways to make it work. My students showed so much growth and performed much higher than they were expected to! Looking back, I couldn't be more proud of my students and how hard they worked to succeed! 


This will be my 2nd year in 3rd grade. My class population will be changing again and I will have to do more research, learn new interventions, etc. but I'm ready to grow and learn right along with my new students! 

1 comment:

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