The Owl Teacher

I graduated in 2004 with a Bachelors in Science degree and an elementary education certificate. I am certified to teach K-8 Self-Contained and Middle School Science. I have taught ever since graduation, with experience in 3rd, 4th, 5th, and a 3rd/4th split. I have attended professional development workshops and had numerous trainings in reading workshop, writing workshop, math workshop, inquiry-based science, differentiation, STEM, positive discipline, and much more.

I utilize a lot of differentiated strategies along with the workshop model in reading, writing, math, and sometimes science. I love more hands-on activities that are related to a real-life application for students to explore. I'm not a huge fan of worksheets, but do use them occasionally.

I have repeatedly had the Dean's list in college. I don't work for a district that has a Teacher of the Year. I hope to someday earn outstanding recognition. I'm always striving to be the best teacher possible!

When I was younger I struggled with money concepts and reading. I remember being pulled out into a separate room and how I felt. I hated reading and because of that, I strive to have no student in my class hate reading. I now love to read... I had that one special teacher!

My motto is, "Take back your weekends, without sacrificing quality teaching." This motto to me is very near and dear to my heart. When I first started teaching in 2004, it seemed I worked and worked. I went into the classroom early and left late. I went in on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. I can think of countless times that I sat in the evening hours watching prime time TV while working on teaching things. I did this for years. As you can imagine it wasn't because I was a workaholic. It wasn't because I was avoiding my family. It was because I was so dedicated as a teacher to produce lessons that were of high quality, rigor, and engagement. I wasn't satisfied with boring worksheets that came with the textbooks. I wanted my students to get up and get active - I wanted them to be passionate about learning! The problem was, it got tiring. Curriculum was always changing or I was always moving to another grade level. I was getting burned out pretty fast. My family wasn't exactly thrilled that they didn't see me much either. That really isn't a way to live - but yet so many teachers do it - even veteran teachers. That's why my motto as a teacher, as a blogger, as a teachers pay teachers seller - is all about saving teachers time. When I write my blog posts, they are always with the overworked teacher in mind. How can I help teachers in their classrooms and save them time? I want to make sure that each teacher is able to trust that my resources - free or paid- will be of quality so they can enjoy their weekends and do the things they love! I don't want to see any teacher become burned out on their job... Teaching should be about creating passion in students - helping students. Not missing out on life. That is why I do all of this here... Because I want teachers to take back their weekends, without sacrificing quality teaching! :)