Weekend Warriors: 3-2-1 Teacher Bio

I'm joining Primarily Speaking for the Weekend Warriors Linky Party!

I love getting a chance to read more about the teacher bloggers and their lives, it's a great community of educators who truly enjoy sharing their ideas!  After this post, I'm off to read more about the individuals in this community! 

#1 - I've been teaching for a while, but at times I still feel like a newbie.  One thing I truly love about teaching is that I'm still learning new things myself each year.  I found out what works for me and my class and what doesn't.  My teaching style has definitely changed since my first year of teaching, but I have always stayed true to myself.

#2 - One lesson I had done a few years ago for my formal observation was on congruent shapes.  Instead of introducing the concept, I showed digital cards that followed the "definition" (or RULE as I called it) and some that didn't.  I had students tell me what they could see, then I showed them another set of both following and not following.  The students told me their new observations, then they were given cards that they had to decipher if it followed the rule or not.  Then I asked the students "What does congruent shapes mean?" and they all were able to give the definition in their own words.  This was something the NEVER forgot throughout the year.  I truly believe that since they discovered and investigated it on their own that they could easily retain the information.

#3 - This is another big reason why I love the teacher blogging community, you get a chance to get exposed to new ideas!  I had never heard of SCOOT and I tried it once in math with my kids and they absolutely LOVED it!  I changed up my reading groups and applied Daily 5 and my students (and myself) enjoyed our reading block more and got more out of it!

#1 - I was a child of a Military family, but luckily didn't have to move THAT much compared to others.  I grew up in Hawaii from Kindergarten to 6th Grade, then moved to Florida.  I think that getting the chance to live in Hawaii, which was at the time VERY different to lifestyle in the rest of the "mainland" as we called it, gave me to bug to live overseas one day!  I had looked into teaching overseas at one point, but I actually ended up getting a teaching job nearby.  (I wasn't ready to move away from my family at that point.)  But after 5 years of teaching, I made the decision to move to Australia.  It was scary and I didn't realize how big of a move it was!  After being here for over a year I'm still loving it and finding myself really being "at home."  Let's hope my permanent visa goes through and I can stay here!

#2 - Thanks to my dad I'm a HUE technology nerd.  I had 2 iPads, an iPod Touch, current iPhone & an old iPhone, my MacBook and so on.  Really, should I say I'm an Apple/Mac nerd?  (Did I mention I also have an AppleTV?)  Either way I use EACH item in my classroom at some point!  I'm asking all my friends that if they're getting rid of their old iPhones to donate them to my class to use as an iPod Touch! We live in an age where technology is taking over, and I love incorporating it in the classroom!  (But only to a certain extent!  No terminator problems arising in my classroom please!)

I was all about moving and teaching overseas for years and I finally achieved it! (I'm still shocked I went through with this!)  My next goal is to take this blog to the next level!  I want to make sure I post regularly (and schedule posts ahead of time) and possibly get the chance to attend a meet up of some sort!  (Teacher Bloggers of Australia, think we could arrange this at some point?)  I'd love to collaborate more and participate in more of these linky parties! It exposes me to new blogs and bloggers!