Greetings blogger buddies!  Yikes! I can't believe our blog is up and running!  I was going to sit down and make a rough draft of my first blog - ya know, just go get my ideas organized and down on paper (with a newly sharpened #2 pencil of course) - when Kerri informed me that bloggers do NOT write rough drafts. They just write.  Right . . . I knew that. 

I am so excited to be doing this blog with my teaching bestie and mentor, Kerri.  Although we are in different grade levels and at different schools this year, I am still amazed by her wonderful teaching every day.  As a soon-to-be first time mom (my husband and I are expecting a son in August - yay!) I am most impressed by Kerri's devotion to her kids - both at home (she has two darling girls!) and in the classroom.  She works harder than anyone else I know, and yet finds a balance for her life.  I also love Kerri because, as I like to put it, she is "the peanut butter to my jelly".  We make a great teaching team and I look forward to the day when we can work together again!

Okay, okay, enough about Kerri . . . As I mentioned before, I am married to a wonderful guy named Paul, and we will be celebrating our two year anniversary right before our little man arrives.  He is a great "teacher husband" - never complaining about my late nights grading papers, the setting up and re-arranging of my classroom computers and other technology, or the many many trips we make to Lakeshore.  He was particularly great last summer when I had to pack up my entire kindergarten classoom after getting pink-slipped and move it all into our garage. And our guestroom. And even our bedroom!  (Don't worry - he began hanging up clothes on pocket charts stands and really embraced the chaos!)  Without getting all mushy, just know that he is the best. Really.

Finally, my class. This year I was blessed to get hired in late September to teach third grade.  Although it was a late start to the year, and a rough transition for all, I feel so lucky to have my 24 sweet third graders.  And when I say 24 third graders, I mean 17 boys and 7 girls.  That's right .  . . SEVENTEEN boys.  Yikes.  For me, this year has made me such a better teacher!  One of the neatest things about this year is the sharing that I get to do with my mom, who is also a third-grade teacher, and such an inspiration!  She gave me a quick "all-you-need-to-know" shpiel when I got hired three weeks into the school year and I am so thankful for her!

 I love and miss teaching the little ones, and hope that someday I will be back down in kinder . . .or perhaps first grade. When that day comes, however, I will defiantely be a better teacher as a result of all that I have learned this year!  (Why, just today I was lecturing Kerri about the importance of introducing her first graders to the Commutative Property of Addition.  It's important people!)

Well, that is all for now.  I look forward to sharing some of my clssroom ideas with y'all soon!

Happy Teaching!

Lindsay