Teacher Week: Meet the Teacher!

Just completed the first day of school with students!

It was a positive and exciting day and this blog hop is the perfect way to unwind.

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' (♥) for Teacher Week:

The topic is “Let's Talk About Me!”

Hmmm…I like to talk, a lot, but it's not usually about myself. Let's see how interesting this Top 10 turns out to be!

1. I taught piano and music for 15-ish years (there were two years of part-time near the end) and then transitioned to special education in the public school system.

I thought I would miss piano dearly, but I truly love what I'm doing now. I also really enjoyed running the business side of a piano studio, so this blog and my teacher shop has been a dream for me to stay involved!

2. I met my husband when I was eighteen. That was quite a long time ago!

Here we are last summer:

3. I'm somewhat obsessed with teaching. If you're reading this blog, you may be, too. I'm very lucky to be able to do what I want (teach, think about teaching, create teaching materials) almost 100% of the time. Balance is not a word I'm too familiar with and I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that that's OKAY!  Besides a beach vacation thrown in here and there, I wouldn't want it any other way.

4. I love the beach! We visit Redington Beach, Florida a few times every year. My mother-in-law has a house there and graciously lets us stay there whenever we want. It's quiet and GORGEOUS there!

6. Oh my, we're only at 6? Random facts time…I'm the youngest of three (boy, girl, then me) and my siblings are amazing. They don't work in education, but are always supportive. I'm also very blessed to be the aunt to two nieces and three nephews. ♥

7. I love to workout and try to hit the gym everyday before work. Music, coffee, and weights = ME time. I do it for health reasons and I feel there's no way I could do my job without it!

8. I collect positive quotes and place them everywhere…my car, office, refrigerator. My favorite is “She believed she could, so she did.”

9. I also love data! I know, that's probably not a popular thing to share. I collect data endlessly at school, luckily it also happens to be a major part of my job description. There's nothing better than when we can display work samples of significant growth to a concerned parent. Yup, I know this categorizes me as a geek and I'm totally okay with it.

10. Sooo…I'm finally revealing why I chose my blog name…Positively Learning. I like to keep things positive, especially with the environment I work in. I create and use many “games” in my teaching and my students are almost always begging to play again (yay!). That's the “Positive Learning” spin on the name.

I also want to make sure my students are learning to their full potential, so almost all my materials include a support to collect data, often a checklist or observation log. So that goes with “Are you positive they are learning?”

Positively Learning – Learning Positively

GET IT?

I did share that I was a geek (see #9) 😉

Did any of these surprise you?

What else would you like to know? Let me know in the comments!