Hi and welcome to my blog.  Today I am going to take a second to introduce myself, why I wanted to blog, and what you can expect from blog.

First, my name is Ann.  I am a 5th grade teacher in the windy city! I have been teaching for 9 years now.  I started out as a 6th/7th grade research teacher (I now know this was a made up title), then made my way through 7th self contained, a 5th/6th split, then 3rd grade my second year.  My principal thought I could handle change well...he he he.  Then for 3 years I continued to teach 3rd grade.  I fell in love with this grade level.  Last year I was a 4th grade teacher for 6 months and transferred to a new school at went back to 3rd.  Last year I was placed in 2nd grade and have truly found the grade level for me.  I thought nothing would be better than 3rd grade but WOW I just loved those little kiddos.  Last year I taught 4th grade reading and math.  I know, so much change but you've gotta love the life of city teaching!  This year I was laid off and lucky enough to find another position pretty quickly.  I am currently the 5th grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at an AMAZING school on the Northside of Chicago!  My background also include 2 years of training through the Reading Institute at Teachers College.  I was also teacher leader at my last school and within my network (I think that is what they are calling it these days) in the district.  Along with many hours of professional development, an undergrad, masters, ESL endorsement.

As for why I started this blog, I wanted to share all my teaching and life experiences (the good and the bad).  I have been blog reader for a few years now.  I felt that so many of the blogs I was visiting provided me with so much inspiration that I wanted to try to do that for others.  I also like to share what works for me and things that I love.

Finally, I hope to provide inspiration for all of you out there in cyberspace .  I  will be sharing my classroom and activities.  I LOVE pinterest and get many ideas from there.  You can get a taste by visiting My Pinterest boards .  You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter

I hope that you enjoy reading my blog and please leave comments. This is my first adventure into the blog world, I could use any advise I can get!!

Until next time!
Ann :-)