Teacher to the Core

Classroom Teacher:
I am energetic 1st grade teacher and have been teaching 1st and 2nd grade since the year 2000. I get more excited each year about creating new curriculum and student engagement.

If you walk through my door:
I care deeply for the students and student teachers that come through my classroom door! It is my personal mission that the people who come through my door know 3 things.
✔ #1 You are loved and gifted! We need what you bring to school.
✔ #2 Your brain is beautiful and with effort we can grow and build that brain muscle.
✔ # 3. You don't have to be silent in this room, unless I am talking, but you need to be on task and trying hard.
Because this is my philosophy students feel safe to try hard, persist with grit, to engage each other in their learning.

Conference Speaker and Professional Development:
I travel the West Coast, as often as my family can spare me, providing professional development on the following topics:
✔ literacy
✔ fluency skills and strategies
✔ comprehension
✔ collaborative learning and engaging lessons
✔ classroom management.

Research-based Teaching
I am an avid reader on all of the topics listed above. I read pedagogy books so that I can teach using best practices, and so that I can share that learning through professional development sessions at conferences. Also I work hard to create rigorous and research based products, so I do the research. My products are time-tested, data proved, and research-based.

Blog Authoress I am the author of the award winning blog Teacher to the Core! You can find me there at www.teachertothecore.com What will you find if you go to Teacher to the Core?
✔ A real and relaxed environment where I share best practices and best attempts for teaching 1st and 2nd grade. I say attempts because sometimes I am going to share my epic failures and ensuing fixes.
✔ Easy to implement ideas
✔ Free resources
✔ Pictures from a Southern California classroom
✔ A place where you can laugh and get refreshed

Walking into my room you will see:
✔ Desks in groups of 4 with a HUGE meeting space in the center of the room.
✔ Kids working with me and working with each other
✔ a beautiful and student-centered classroom filled with resources for them, and very few decorations for me
✔ a classroom library that would rival any found in a big city because I absolutely love books. They are "portable magic"!

Walking into my room you will hear:
✔ students engaging with each other as much as possible
✔ If I am teaching you will hear me teach for less than 5 minutes before having students try it out. We share the stage and the students and I teach in a back and forth method. I hope to empower them to be the resident expert.
✔ You often hear me say, "__________ how did you solve...?" "Who wants to show us how they... ______________?"

Walking into my room you will feel:
✔ welcomed
✔ at home
✔ inspired to try new things and participate in highly engaging lessons
✔ You will also feel that I respect my students and that I am both to be respected and respected.

If I can make learning a game, joyful, or fun then my students will be happy to learn and I will be happy while teaching!

PTA Creative Idea Award
2X Keynote Presenter at the Southern California TK-1st Conference
Ideas featured in Scholastic Magazine
Buzz Feeds 35 Teacher Hacks to Stay Organized

Bachelors and Masters from California Baptist University
Certificate to Teach the Gifted and Talented from Cal State Fullerton

Teaching can be tough. I hear you! I have been there. But let me tell you, having curriculum you are excited about, and that directly supports the Common Core, can really make teaching joyful!
I look to TpT to find quality resources to make my life easier as I enrich my classroom and teach with skill and rigor. I write curriculum for TpT because I know that's what you are looking for too!