Amazing Opportunity

This school year has been one of the most amazing years of my life. I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure that I am not dreaming. I can attribute these feelings to the fact that I am teaching in a classroom.

I did teach a few years after I graduated from college many years ago. I absolutely loved teaching, but when I had my kids I decided to stay home with them. Staying home did not mean staying away from school. Between volunteering, room mom, and a paid lunch helper I was definitely kept happy.

When my youngest was in kindergarten, I was offered a part-time EA/SEA position at Stephens. This was perfect. Time in school - time at home. I have loved being an EA/SEA for the past ten years. In some ways it was the best training I could have had for my position right now. I have been in every age level classroom, learned to modify lessons for special needs students, fine-tuned my ability to develop relationships and conflict resolution skills, and benefited from observing on a daily basis some great teachers. I was able to take classes along with my fellow teachers every year and allowed to teach lessons I had prepared in their classrooms.

Once my oldest child was in college and my youngest in high school, I finally realized that I wanted to take everything I had learned and set up my own classroom. REACH became my opportunity to teach and I went for it. I am so glad that I did. I love REACH!! I love to teach and to see students' faces light up when they learn to do something new on the computer.

REACH gives me the opportunity to see students at all grade levels. It allows me to not only teach technology but to incorporate literacy, math, social skills, etc. My technology background was limited when I started, but with an open mind I feel like I have learned more in the past year than I would have ever thought possible. I am a person that loves to learn new things and with technology constantly changing, I feel that I am in a perfect spot. I am so excited about the opportunity to learn more about technology, best practices for teaching technology, and ways to collaborate with the regular classroom teacher.

Also, I am excited to take this class at Thoreau. This will give me an opportunity to get to know all of you better. I am very impressed with the teachers and the work they do here. Thanks to everyone for being so welcoming.