Here it goes!!!!!!!

Well... I have been HEEM HAW-ing about this little blog thing for ever. I have discovered and become ADDICTED TO the whole teacher blog concept for months now, and really struggled with how to start... what to name it.... etc etc.  Well...  As I was cruising through my favorite blogs tonight I came across a great opportunity to introduce myself and hopefully make some blog friends!!  So...as the title says.... here goes an introduction!!

Tell us a little something about you...

I'm Tracy, and I started blogging way back in the days of MySpace.  I have been "blogging as a grown up" on  my personal blog Not the Queen of Quiet and just started my teacher blog Crazy in the Classroom tonight!! I have been married to my handsome spouse for 9 years, I am mom to Marshall 7, and Mackenzie 3, and the youngest of six crazy peeps!!  I stay up WAY too late... often run a step behind... and I LOVE my MacBook Pro!!

How long have you been teaching?

I can't believe I am actually going into my 12th year of teaching!!  I taught Kinder for 2 years and looped up with a great class my 3rd year. Before I got paid to teach, I was in an AMAZING program at Arizona State University.  The Apprentice Teacher Program (ATP) was designed for Post Bac peeps like me who found their passion for teaching a little later in life. We did our coursework in a school, worked with students daily, did internships in 3 different schools and 3 different grade levels, taught a whole summer school program, and student taught for 12 weeks!!  It was HANDS ON and AMAZING!!   I love the challenge of teaching First Grade and how there is NEVER a dull moment!!

You might not know...

I never dreamed of being a teacher.  I was never the little girl who played teacher with her stuffies or always aimed to please in elementary school.  I was a bit of a stinker, always in trouble for talking, and was never the neatest kid!! I wanted to be a rock star (yes... I said it!) or a veterinarian, and later in adult life I was going to be a Criminal Psychologist.  I got a BS in Psychology and Sociology from Central Michigan University.  I happily went on to work in a boy's correctional facility, where I knew I would change the world!!  It was there where I worked in a classroom everyday and found my love for teaching.  I had a boy in my cabin who could not read at 16.  The day he looked at me with tears in his eyes after reading a book was the day I knew I was destined to teach.  SO.... back to school I went!!!

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

A fresh start.  Although our class sizes are enormous compared to years past, I am looking forward to fresh faces, clean desks, happy campers, and implementing some fun new things I have learned this summer. (thank you teacher blogs!!)

What do you need to improve?

My organizational skills!! That has been a FOREVER problem for me! I am the teacher with piles here and piles there.  It is an "organized" mess, and my kids even know how my system works, but it just frustrates me to see other rooms so clean, neat, and inviting... SO...if I can organize a little each week.... let's hope it sticks!!

I also have to learn to let go of "things"  I am also the teacher who saves random stuff in hopes it will come in handy someday. It is great for the teachers who need egg cartons or boxes (I have a thing about saving boxes!LOL) but does not work so well for the space I have to work in!  My dear friend Julie helped me organize on year and she found 3 golf balls in a corner somewhere... golf balls?? really??

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

Apparently I can live without those golfballs cause they have been gone a year and I did not miss them once!! haha!!

First and foremost... I can NOT live without my APRON!! It is my old faithful 3 holer from the days of waitressing, but I love it.  I keep everything and anything in that puppy and feel naked without it!!  I also really dig my Sharpies, chart paper, mechanical pencils, and post-it note tab thingies!! 

I also use my IPhone for a lot of stuff.... SSSSHHHHH... it is a bit of a policy that we are not to use our cell phones for anything but that's ok.... my little lifesaver  isn't a cellphone... its a SMART phone!  and boy oh boy! Do I need it for scheduling meetings in the hallway, answering email on the way to the copier, and timing all the ridiculous things we need to time these pumpkins on!!

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Well... that's me in a nutshell!!