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Hi everyone! I am 32 years old and live in Hopkins, MO with my husband of 10 years, three beautiful children, and our chocolate lab. I am heading into my 6th year as a 2nd grade teacher. I teach at a very small school and truly love it. Next year I will only have 9 students in my class! Between family life, sports, activities, and school, there is rarely a dull moment. Life is busy and hectic at times, but I wouldn't change any of it!

Pictured: Hershey, Brandon, Peyton (11), Elise (8), Gavin (3), Me

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I graduated high school in 2003 and ventured out on a long road to earning my undergraduate degree. In the years between 2003 and my college graduation, we had our son Peyton, got married, bought our first home, and had our daughter Elise, all while I worked and chipped away at my degree. Graduation never felt so good! I received my bachelor's in Elementary Education  and minor in Early Childhood from Northwest Missouri State University in 2012. I have decided to head back to school to earn my Master's Degree so that I can continue to grow as a teacher.

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I am very excited to grow my knowledge about how best to use technology in the classroom, as well as the different types of technology available. I have taken baby steps each year to implement more technology into my teaching to better provide learning opportunities for all of my students. It takes time to educate myself on new technology, but each new experience has been worth it for the kids and overall learning atmosphere. My school will be a 1-1 school this year and I am lucky to have a Chromebook for each student which will be a new experience for all of us. I look forward to using our Chromebooks to achieve learning at the highest possible level, but I know I will need a lot of support along the way! My goal is to set up a google classroom and to use it for daily in class assignments and learning activities. Many of my students do not have internet in the home, so I hope to learn how to provide them with the opportunity to use their technology throughout the day.

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One thing that many other educators find interesting is that I have taught both of my school age children as their 2nd grade teacher. In my district we have one teacher per grade level so we didn't have much of a choice! I had my son in class during my second year and my daughter just this past year. It was challenging at times, but honestly during the school day they were just one of my kids like all of the rest of the students were my kids. I love to sing and dance (neither of which I am good at) so that was always a source of embarrassment for them!

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In my personal life I use technology for many different purposes. I check social media, pinterest, email, and current events daily. I am very interested in blogs and would love to have a teacher blog one day. I have started one but only posted a few times as it is very time consuming and my knowledge level is pretty low. I have lots to learn before I further tackle that goal!
In my professional life technology is essential. Within the last couple of years we have switched to a google drive and docs school for all of our file sharing. This has been a huge improvement to our communication and organization. I have a Smartboard in the classroom and use it all day in many different aspects. Last year, I began borrowing Chromebooks from other classrooms to use throughout the day so my students could quiz on their AR books and track their goals. We also enjoyed using Epic, MobyMax, SpellingCity, and other research based programs.