Posted on August 19, 2016
I can pinpoint to the day, the moment even, that changed my teaching career forever. You could say that a light bulb was turned on inside my head. At the time, I had been teaching for five years and had just finished saying goodbye to the most frustrating and challenging class of my career. I knew that I needed to take a long hard look at my career over the summer. I also knew that I needed to reflect and make some changes the following school year.
Just by chance I came across a fellow teacher’s blog called Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits. The writer is currently a first grade teacher in Texas. I started reading through her blog and was so amazed at what a wonderfully, creative teacher she was. There were fresh ideas, pictures, helpful blog posts, and free activities all there for the taking. I spent the next two months researching many teacher’s blogs, but always came back to Mrs. Tunstall’s blog.
I teach at a very small school, where we only have one of each grade. I have always felt like I was on my own, but for the first time I knew that there were other teachers out there with the same questions and concerns, fears and challenges and triumphs. For example, I have always struggled with creating hands on centers in Math and I discovered Mrs. Tunstall had created a resource called Big Bundle of Math Centers. It is packed full of hands on math activities that covers a wide range of first grade standards. It was so exciting getting to use these activities in my classroom. I was able to enrich our current math program to ensure student success.
As a rule, we know that teachers are very good at sharing and borrowing ideas. It is because of finding a community of teachers online that I have completely fallen in love with teaching all over again. I work hard everyday to make sure that the light bulb stays lit and shines brightly for all to see.
I went back to school that fall revitalized and energized. I had a fresh new outlook on teaching and couldn’t wait to see the changes in my classroom. That was three years ago last month. I will be forever grateful to the teachers that are brave enough to put themselves out there through blogs and online resources. It is in my opinion that teaching is a team effort. We need to collaborate and share ideas on a daily basis. I only hope that one day my blogs can be an inspiration to a new crop of teachers in the same way that I was inspired by my fellow teachers when I needed it the most.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized.
