First & foremost, this blog’s main purpose is to serve as a digital portfolio, housing evidence of the Utah Effective Teaching Standards.

But, let me rewind to July 2016.

I can still remember getting the phone call that resulted in my first job offer, teaching 5th grade at Foothill Elementary (as an intern). I was at my cousins’ house when my phone rang, so I went to their front porch to take the call. After seeing my competition, when I walked out of the interview, I was mentally preparing myself for a giant NO! I was seriously shocked when the job was offered to me, but then I went into panic mode. I had little experience in the classroom & August was just around the corner!

A week after accepting the position, I found myself in Island Park, Idaho camping with my family. On a normal trip to Island Park, you might find me floating the Buffalo River, laying in a hammock tied to two mighty trees, or sitting around the campfire. While I may have done all of those things that summer, I did them with my phone in hand (waterproof case, friends), looking up every fifth grade/upper elementary Instagram account, Pinterest board, & blog. With my lack of experience in the classroom (due to bypassing student teaching), I was searching for the best ways to set up a classroom, what to cover in the first weeks of school, & finding the answer to, “Exactly how do you multiply & divide a fraction again?”. As a new teacher, the expertise & ideas of others were very beneficial, & they still are today!

While there were many different ways I could have approached my digital portfolio, a flash drive, my desktop, or Canvas, I ultimately decided to start a blog to make my teaching & learning more accessible to others. In addition to this being a digital portfolio,  it will also serve as a central location where I will share teacher struggles & celebrations, book recommendations, & any other teacher-related thing I want to share!

Sometimes I wonder if I will be writing to an empty audience, or why anyone would choose to read something a “new teacher” wrote… but here I am, let’s do this!

#BeAChampion