Tell All Tuesday: Summer Adventure

Hey Y'all! I'm linking up with Jayme from Teach.Talk.Inspire and Diana from My Day in K again for another Tell All Tuesday! It's been so fun getting to know more about Teacher Bloggers this summer.

This week we were asked to dig back into our photo albums and pull up a past summer adventure. Mine isn't a fun trip or activity... I decided to share about a favorite summer teaching adventure that really helped bring my dreams of teaching to life at an early age.

When I finished high school, I started tutoring. This quickly evolved into my own summer tutoring business out of my parents home. I set up a classroom in their basement so I could make the sessions as fun and engaging as possible. I prepared the lessons and set up for each session. I worked my tail off to get clients... I passed out flyers, business cards, emails, found community bulletin boards, etc!

I tutored students pre K - 8th grade and adults with special needs. Some summers I had between 15-17 students I saw weekly or bi-weekly! It was an enormous amount of time. I truly worked a full work day either with the kids or preparing and usually at least one weekend day. I gave a summary sheet to parents at the end of each session so they knew exactly what we did and what to do at home the next week.

As a college student, you only had so much time in the classroom and it wasn't your classroom. This was a way to have my own classroom, work for myself, and have sweet memories helping kids love to learn!

I often think back to my tutoring days when teaching at school because there's just something so sweet and so influential working 1:1 for a chunk of time with a child. As classroom teachers, we are always juggling so much, it's like a treat to get to really focus on a small group.  

This sweet lady and I grew so close working on reading, math, and skills to help her in her life and jobs. She spoke at my wedding and now we enjoy Starbucks dates.  

I don't tutor any more because I spent last summer getting married/honeymoon/moving and this summer had surgery and am blogging/TPT among other things.  I'm missing the relationships of tutoring a bit. However, my life is teaching so I am trying to invest more in my health, time with my husband, etc since teacher summers are not actually that long! Maybe someday I will get back into it or just enjoy working with my own children!

If you are developing a personal tutoring business and have any questions, let me know. If I can be of help to you, I am happy to do so!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tell All Tuesday

Hi Everyone! I'm linking up with my dear friends Jayme and Diana for their Tell All Tuesday Linky! This week we were asked about our Teacher Bucket List!

 As I sit here and think about the future, I am feeling so unplanned, I almost didn't participate in the linky. Here's the thing, I am the LAST person you would ever think wouldn't have a plan ready for something like this. My plan was always to teach a few years and then go get my masters to be a reading specialist. I still consider that as an option! Right now, my husband and I are living off my non-master degree 4th year teacher salary, so I am not going to start a masters just yet! I always think it might be down the road anyway if I end up staying home with babies, teaching at my child's preschool, or homeschooling at any point. I'm really not sure! I'm telling myself it's okay to live and figure it out as I go a bit!

In the short term, something I would like to do is work with more undergrad or high school students interested in becoming teachers. I had a practicum student this year, and it was so rewarding to watch her learn, grow, and be loved in my classroom. That was such a magical time for me - forming those sweet bonds with students for the first time and experiencing the joy of helping a child learn. I dreamed and dreamed about creating fun learning experiences and having a classroom, so I want to give other young aspiring educators a home and the mentorship they need to fall in love with the profession.

I have a such a passion for social-emotional learning and would love to become an expert. I think the stronger we are in social-emotional skills/teaching abilities, the more meaningful we are able to make learning experiences for our students. I love to help students grow in their character and love finding genius ideas on Pinterest/Blogs that enrich my classroom community. I also am working on the SEL committee for my District. Plus, I think the more I learn with character education/behavior, the better mom I will someday be! 

Finally, I am definitely still finding my way in the blogging/tpt creating world! I hope to make lots of great connections and create tools/content that helps other teachers. I think this whole blog/tpt world fuels our passions, increases our collaboration, and ultimately raises the level of teaching/learning!!!

Thanks for getting to know more about me! Head back to the linky to find out what more about other teachers!

Two Truths and Lie Reveal

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read my Two Truths and a Lie for the first week of Tell All Tuesday hosted by Teach.Talk.Inspire and My Day In K.

1- My number one was the LIE! My husband and I will be coming up on our ONE year anniversary this June 21st! We dated through college and after and got married when we were 24. I love being married - It's the best. He's such a sweet husband!

 June 21, 2014

2- My number two didn't fool anyone... Yes I do have a "baby brother" whom I love and adore! He is off to college this fall, and when I say off to college, I mean he is half-way across the country off to college. Yikes!  I'm going to miss him SO much!!! Here we are when he actually was a baby! He was the cutest!

3- My number three was also true... Believe it or not, I had sinus surgery Wednesday. It was scary and stressful but all went well. It has been very uncomfortable and required a lot of medication/be poked (which always makes me uneasy). However, I wasn't under for that long, and the doctor said I really needed it. Apparently, I was living with the symptoms of a mild sinus infection each day due to the inflammation of my of my sinuses without even having an infection. Now I am in the healing process. I was warned it is not a pleasant one, but I'm hanging in there.  Here I am blogging, right? Each time I think about complaining, I try to be thankful in health care and support God has provided me. I will say, I can't wait until I can breathe through my nose again. Hoping to have my healthiest school year yet this coming year!

I'll spare you a picture of me here... and instead show you the beautiful purple/white flowers my mom gave me to help me feel better as I spend the next week on the couch! I was feeling so blessed this week by the care/support of my husband, family, and friends. Very thankful.

Thanks for playing along with me! Don't forget to head back to the link up to see what others revealed!

Tell All Tuesday

Linking up with some dear friends for Tell All Tuesday!

 This week we are playing a little game to get to know each other better... Two Truths and a Lie! Mine is a little bit tricky... Can you find which one is NOT true about me? I'll be back on Friday to let you know which one was the "lie."

1- My Husband and I are about to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary this coming June 21st.

2- I have a brother who I think of as my baby brother but he just graduated from high school. I bawled my eyes out! I can't send him off to Virginia (Washington and Lee) for college. He's always been the baby of the family and a HUGE blessing to my life.

3- I'm getting sinus surgery this week... Yikes! I'm a little nervous about getting anesthesia because I've never had it, and I'm still getting over a bad cold/virus so praying lots and hoping for a good result and healthier times ahead!!!


Ok, now it's your turn, use the comment section below to find the "lie" up there...

An InLinkz Link-up