But, you get summer's off!

If you're a teacher the chances are that you've heard this statement many times.  If you're not a teacher, the chances that you've said this to a teacher are even higher.  Non teacher friends, let me warn you that this statement has been known to elicit anger, steam coming from the nostrils, death stares, and an earful  when directed to us.  I'm not sure where the misconception that teacher's sit around lounging by pools, eating bon bons and vacationing for three months came from but I assure you this is not true.  For starters, we can't afford to go to both the pool AND buy bon bons.  It's one or the other.  Secondly, teacher's spend so much money preparing and stocking their classrooms during the summer that we couldn't afford to go on vacation if we even had the time.  That said, we LOVE what we do so much and are so passionate about teaching that most teachers spend their summers attending professional development workshops, reading up on new practices, reflecting on their last year teaching, hunting garage sales for good finds (books, furniture, manipulatives, games, etc...) and writing lesson plans for the upcoming year.  If we're lucky we might sneak in a day or two at the pool on dollar day.

After hearing the dreaded "but, you get summer's off!" statement yet again this week, I realized that if many of my friends had this misconception then it was likely that many of student's parents thought this as well, so I started asking myself; "How I can share my teaching and classroom experiences with parent's, friends, family, future teacher's, etc...?" Well, like all tech crazy teachers I figured I'd take it to "the net".  That ominous mythical but thriving entity that drives our current social media.

In this blog I hope to share with you my experiences as a 2nd grade teacher.  I also hope to find ways to incorporate my student's work into this blog as well.  It's already a huge part of their lives, they're already using it, so why not use it as a teaching tool, right?!  Killeen ISD is a unique district in the fact that the majority of our students are from military families.  I'm hoping that this classroom blog helps students connect with their deployed loved ones and their extended families, so they too can be part of their child's learning experience.  Whether you're a fellow teacher, a parent, a student or just find my bemusings entertaining there will be a little of something for everyone here.  Classroom and lesson plan ideas, experiences, meanderings, student work samples, and hopefully actual student publications.  Whatever the reason you're here, Welcome!  I look forward to this journey of "blogging" with you!