Well, I've been meaning to start blogging for a few months now, but every time I go to my blog I just stare at this empty page. I don't really know where to start. The more I think about it, the more I've decided to start here... blogging about where to start and telling about me. I think maybe if I just begin writing it will become easier. I guess I'll find out.
I've been a teacher for almost 20 years now. It makes me feel so old seeing it on "paper". I started with teaching kindergarten for 3 years and then moved up to 2nd grade. I loved kindergarten, but I started to feel like I was trying to do too much with them at the young age of 5 and 6. They were babies! Second grade wasn't my favorite and I had my first baby that year. I wanted to be closer to home, so I applied in another district and landed a job teaching 4th grade. I remained there for 7 years and had 2 more babies and received my master's degree during that time. After 7 years it was time for another change so I jumped all the way up to 5th grade where I remained for 4 years. The longer I taught, the more I felt like I wanted to try my hand at teaching middle school. I was not having much success getting there, so my principal asked if I'd teach keyboarding skills at my school (I think she knew I needed another change). I did. For 2 years. I'm not sure I could have done it any longer. Really... you can only repeat the same things over and over and over again for so long. "Sit up straight"... "feet flat on the floor"... "relax your arms"... "fingers on the home row". You get the point. That position ended up getting absorbed by the regular classroom teachers so I was back into the elementary classroom teaching 4th grade again.
Last year brought a WONDERFUL opportunity to my school... 1:1 learning. I was teaching 4th grade in a 3-5 building and we were given the chance to pilot 1:1 learning in our classrooms using Android tablets. I was so excited when I found out and I couldn't wait to get started. It was a rough start with working out internet and wifi issues, along with tablet issues, AND receiving a new reading curriculum that we would be using on the tablets, but I was so grateful I was where I was. We had had help along the way, but for the most part we were figuring out things to do on the tablets to enhance our curriculum. We were SO excited when we figured out how to get a PDF worksheet onto the tablets and the students could WRITE on them!!!! Oh how little I knew about worksheets and all of the wonderful alternatives there are to worksheets.
Mid-year we found out that the 1:1 program would be going into 3 more buildings. It would be in another 3-5 building, a K-5 building, and the middle school for the 6th graders. Our district would be hiring a Technology Integration Specialist at each of those buildings. It sounded like my dream job because I embrace technology and want to learn as much as I can about it. I applied and was offered the position at the other 3-5 building, which is where I am today.
See that... all I had to do was get started. This is the beginning of my blogging career. It's probably a bit wordy, but I'll get it all figured out.
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