Hello, World!

I'm so excited to join the teaching blog community as a blogger! I have been reading teaching blogs (some of my favorites are linked in the side bar) for many months. All of the amazing educators I have been reading about have made me feel especially inspired and enthused about creating my own classroom. But why wait to start a blog until I have my own classroom? I love to share and am eager to learn!

I am currently pursuing my master's degree in elementary education at the University of Mary Washington (UMW). I started this graduate program immediately following my undergraduate degree where I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Child Language Development, also from Mary Wash. As an undergrad, I took education courses and had several practicum experiences in addition to my major program. I recently completed the fall semester of my grad program, where I took education courses and student taught in third grade two days a week. Currently, for the spring semester, I am student teaching full time in first grade and will be performing action research on Virtual Field Trips: Videoconferencing as an Enriching Educational Tool. You can view my research proposal presentation here. I have loved my educational experience at UMW but am excited to graduate in May (on my 23rd birthday!) !

Organized is something I LOVE to be so I thought I would share how I have organized my student teaching stuff. First, is my teaching bag!

This bag rocks! I love the long straps, the three outside pockets, the vinyl material (easy for cleaning), and it has a zipper top. I bought it at Pepperberries, which is local to Culpeper, Virginia.

Here is the spacious inside:

In my bag, I have my student teaching binder and planner.

free font used: KG Like a Skyscraper from dafont

free font used: Later On from da font

In the front of my binder, I have my student teaching timeline (left folder) and a ziplock bag that I three-hole punched (Thanks, Pinterest!) to hold my notebook. I also included a table of contents for my university supervisor to easily navigate through my binder to find my plans.

 LOVE this planner from Poketo!

little folder on inside cover (shown) and back cover (not shown)

As you can see, the front of the planner has layouts for entire months followed by weekly layouts. You circle the month and write in the dates. I use my planner to keep track of important dates like due dates for school assignments as well as social stuff, etc.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am so excited about starting this blog! I welcome any questions, suggestions, comments, etc.! Thanks for stopping by!

:) Alex