I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I set up my first classroom as a child in my basement. My toughest students, my younger brother and sister. My top students, my big stuffed St. Bernard and white teddy bear. They always cooperated and never talked back.
As it came time to choose a college, I knew I wanted to be a Badger. A huge fan of Badger sports in tandem with my love of music, I knew I wanted to be in the UW Band. Music was my first interest, and originally intended on Music Education, aspiring to be a choral director at the high school level. After some doors opening and some closing, it became very clear to me that kindergarteners were a better fit with my personality than high schoolers. I also realized that I could very easily use my passion for music in the early elementary grades. There was something about the kindergarten grade that had me hooked: the excitement the students have for learning, the drastic growth and development in literacy and math and teaching the foundations for concepts that students will use for the rest of their lives led me to a degree in Early Childhood through 3rd Grade certification.
Despite earning a degree at one of the top rated Schools of Education and student teaching abroad in an inner city school in London, they did not prepare me for the real world of teaching. I learned more about myself as a teacher and teaching practices in the first couple years at Thoreau than I did my years at the UW. 12 years later, I am still learning, changing and modifying my teaching practices and philosophies to meet the needs of a diverse group of students.
At first, just keeping up with the changing curriculums and new literacy ideas kept me busy (I think Julie and I have at least 5 different math curriculums in our cabinet that we've used over the years!). Now, adding technology as a supplement to our curricula is another aspect of teaching that I need to try to get a grasp on. I feel fairly competent with technology in my personal life--skyping my nephews in D.C., uploading pictures and chatting with friends on Facebook, even recording my re-written version of Smokey Robinson's I Second That Emotion for our Balance and Motion unit and burning it to a CD so Julie can sing it with the class on my days off--but, when it comes to adding technology to my curricula, I feel like I'm at a complete loss at where to begin. Hopefully, this class will help me figure out how I can take what I already know and give me ideas on how to use them with my K/1 Badgers.
