Hi there! I’m so glad you decided to stop by. I love visitors-especially when I can stay nice and comfy in my home and invite visitors in. I’ll admit it. I LOVE being at home. It’s one of my favorite places to be, especially when it’s filled right up with my family which includes my husband, Matthew, my 3 boys, Brock, Brody, and Brennan, my daughter, Brielle, and our 2 dogs, Brandi and Baxter. Yes, I know that it’s a lot of B names!
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. It started when I was about 6, 7 and 8 years old and I would line up all 8 of my Cabbage Patch dolls to be my students. My play teaching usually involved a grade book, where I would write down every name that I was secretly in love with and possibly wanted to name my children some day. Those names were my pretend students and those students, except one or two, did remarkably well in my classroom. Most received A’s because they would always do their homework, always study for tests and always put school first. Oh, and they always loved math too! That was my warped reality as a child of what teaching would be like. It was this picture-perfect existence.
Until it wasn’t. Until I was a 21-year old baby, fresh out of college, thrown into my first teaching job. I was teaching 4th grade in a school that was highly transient, had a high population of students that didn’t speak English as their 1st language and was also serving mostly low-income families. It was dramatically different from the world that I grew up in. I quickly learned that not every student always did their homework, not every student always studied for tests and not every student could put school first. They didn’t always have food in their bellies, and they didn’t always have an adult there when they got home from school. I learned a lot in that first year and in every year to come.
I taught 4th grade for several years, then taught a 4th/5th grade split for a few years. I ended up spending many years in 5th grade, and finally taught 6th grade math and advanced math in middle school. Each grade had it’s own set of excitements and challenges, but I will admit I enjoyed teaching middle school where I could be immersed in math ALL DAY LONG!
My favorite part of teaching was when I got to witness an “aha” moment for a student. When something finally clicked with what we were learning and their eyes lit up and a huge smile spread across their face. Those are the moments I cherish!