Diving In!

Welcome to my blog!  I’m a first grade teacher in north Florida who has spent the past week trying to decide if I could actually create a blog that other people would read – and possibly like!  Finally I decided to take the advice I give out all day long – dive right in, you’ll never know until you try! 

With that being said here’s a little bit about me - I am in my third year of teaching at my third school.  That’s right three schools in three years!  My first two years were filled with many, let’s say, experiences.  Some of these experiences were wonderful, others not so much, but each one taught me a valuable lesson.  (For example, you never know how fast you can move until a student puts a pair of scissors in their mouth!)  I was a teacher at a private school and then an associate teacher in the public school system, and if I’m being honest - neither one was my dream job.  But after two years and countless interviews, I finally have my very own class in the public school system I worked so hard to get into!  If I were in show business, I guess you would call this my big break!!!

I spent the better part of my college years and my first two years teaching thinking Kindergarten was the place for me.  Even during my first year teaching, which was in a first grade class.  Scratch that – ESPECIALLY during my first year teaching, which was in a first grade class!  I thought I belonged in Kindergarten right up until August 20^th of this year, when 18 first graders walked through my door and proved me wrong!  It didn’t take me long to realize that first grade is fin-tastic (as we say in Miss Watters’ class)! 

I’ve looked at various teaching blogs here and there over the last few years, but I guess you could say I’ve reached “blog stalker” status since the beginning of this school year.  I have found so many great ideas that have helped me out tremendously– especially with our new common core standards.  I can honestly say, between Common Core, jumping into the Daily 5 this year and all the amazing ideas other teachers share on their blogs, I have completely changed the way I teach.  I have pretty much let go of the textbooks that no longer align with our standards, and instead use activities that I have created or seen on one of the fabulous blogs I follow.  It has made teaching so much more fun!  This blog is definitely a work in progress, but I am excited to share my ideas with you! I guess it’s time to dive in!!!

Happy Teaching! J Lindsay