Why I created this blog

I would like to welcome you to my new blog where I hope to share some ideas, books, and resources that I hope will helpful you in your teaching. Why did a start this blog? Well after teaching for five years I have discovered a few things about teaching 1) we are constantly reinventing the wheel, 2) that teachers don't like to share and 3) finding good ready to use resources for intermediate grades is as easy as getting a root canal.

1) For those of you who aren't teachers you might ask why are we constantly creating new assignments and assessments for our students? Well the reason for this is we want to keep up with the ever changing curriculum, society, technology and we want to improve in our own teaching practices. However with the amount of curriculum to cover in a year this can turn into a truly exhausting experience. And for those of you in teaching you know very well that you could work 24 hours a day and it still wouldn't be enough.

2) Now as far as why teachers don't like to share, I'm not criticizing my fellow teachers. Don't get me wrong I know why this is, we work very hard to create authentic learning activities and assessments so why share it with others and not get any credit for it right? It does take a lot of time and effort so it's hard to part with! One thing I learned in teacher's college that was actually relevant to the teaching profession was to beg, borrow and steal. I know, I know we are professionals and there is the whole copyright thing, but if you are in education you know money isn't readily available for many things and grants are so well hidden that it's easier to locate the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

3) Being an intermediate teacher at heart and having taught a variety of splits and single grade combinations I have learned that there are tons of fun, creative, well planned books and acitvities for grades K-6, but somewhere after 6 teachers are on your own! So I hope to share some things that have worked and maybe not have worked so well for grades 7 & 8.