Who am I?

Who am I?  So many different words describe me, but anyone who meets me quickly learns of my genuine passion for teaching, educating, and children.

Teaching and educating are two different things in my opinion.  I believe teaching includes academics and social skills, while educating includes helping anyone - young or old - to learn how to contribute to our world and make the world a better place.  Maybe this is teaching children how to think for themselves and solve problems.  Maybe this includes teaching fellow teachers effective methods so they can help their students.  Educating is a deeper level of teaching - but that's just my opinion.

I mention both of these because teaching and educating is a big, HUGE, part of me.  I never imagined when I was a baby teacher, right out of college, that 15 years later I would truly be an educator.  I educate children with passion and excitement through technology integration, hands on games, classroom transformations, and so many other innovative practices.  Take a look at a few examples of my passion...

Dinosaur day classroom transformation to review rocks, shapes, measurement, sight words, and so much more!  I even hand painted each child a shirt.

Pirate themed review day

Student built space station during STEM time to practice and review objects in the night sky

Click here to see this in action on Twitter.

Here is our 100th day of school spy lab to review number and counting concepts and rescue our kidnapped Zero the Hero!

The wedding of Q and U - never write a Q without a U!

We love tech tools to Show What We Know!  Many of these apps include:

iMovie to create our iMovie alphabet wall, which includes QR codes to each letter's movie so students can scan them and review that letter's sound.

Green Screen is used to create so many story retells!  Check out our Stellaluna retell in October!

Chatterpix is our all time favorite!  You can turn anything into a speaking object.  We love this for sharing facts about our learning.  Check out our shape hunt in which we used Chatterpix to tell the attributes of the shapes we found.

We also love Adobe Spark to tell things we have learned.

For example our knowledge of prefixes, pumpkin life cycles, and how to care for the Earth.

We share alllll of these awesome learning adventures in our digital portfolios that go straight to our parents in Seesaw!

And the robots..... we use them for sight words, numbers, map learning, contractions, counting money - so much!

Anyways, if you need anymore examples of my passion, just read my blog

or check out me out on Twitter

or on Instagram

or my Facebook page

or my TPT store.

Educating educators is another HUGE passion of mine and a big part of who I am.  I have presented for Abilene Christian University for the Alumni in Action conference.  I have worked with three school districts in Texas to help with Daily Five and Writer's Workshop learning.  I have mentored 8 new to the profession teachers and I present for Staff Development for Educators.

I absolutely, positively love to share ideas with other teachers.  That's a big reason why I started this blog and my TPT store, which led to other social media platforms that allow me to share ideas.

My passion for education has allowed me to be named the district teach of the year in Pflugerville ISD

Aldeo ISD

and the Texas Excellence in Education Teacher of the Year

 

 I am thankful for these honors, but they're only achievable when I place my students first in all I do to prepare for each school day.

But my number 1 passion is simply children.  I CANNOT believe that each day my JOB is to be with children!  I have always been passionate about children and have tried to find ways to make the world a better place for children.

I have traveled the world to help children....

Africa

Peru

Ukraine

I have also taught in 3 states - Texas, Ohio, and Utah.  Every country and every state has taught me so much about becoming an educator - an educator that I never imagined I could be.

All of my passion for teaching, educating, and children has made me realize more and more each day how much more I want to learn to become a better educator for children and adults.  I love attending professional development conferences and classes.  Here are some fun snapshopts of past trainings, including I Teach K and Get Your Teach On.

I just always want to remember this motto as I teach, educate, and fulfill my passion.  It comes from Get Your Teach On.

What an awesome time to be an educator.  We have so much to learn and so many ways to learn!

Tell me more, tell me more

I decided to link up with Amy at Step into Second Grade and share a little more about me. 

Here I am with one of my second graders, Nathan, in the 2010-2011 school year.

1.  I am crazy obsessed with red pandas.  I think they are precious animals.  Here is my most recent visit to the Houston Zoo - which is the closest location to red pandas.  It takes three hours to get there from Austin, but we go at least once a year.

I love them so much that my hubby sponsored one in my name for Christmas last year.

Side note - my hubby is so sweet to go with me to zoos.  I love animals and enjoy zoos a lot.  Here we are at the San Diego Zoo.

2.  I love Audrey Hepburn movies.  My favorite is Funny Face, but I could watch Audrey Hepburn movies all day.

 

3.  I love the color pink.  I have so many clothes that are the color pink.  Here are some of them.

 

Pink shoes

Pink purse

Pink coat

4.  I wear dresses all the time.  I would rather wear a dress than jeans or shorts any day.  I have about 50 dresses and they are all worn.  In fact, I wear pants so little that the first time I wore pants this past year one of my students said, "Mrs. Crowder - why are you wearing pants?"

5.  I love Paris, France, more than anywhere in the world.  I have been once and just might get to go back next summer with my hubby's aunt and uncle.  

 

6.  I could eat watermelon ALL DAY LONG.

 

9.  I started college as a pre-med/chemistry major.

10.  My two favorite shows are Jeopardy and So You Think You Can Dance.  We don't have television, though, so when I watch these shows, I go to the gym and pedal a bike the whole time.  Our gym is set up so you have to be working out in order for the tv to come on.  It makes me not feel so guilty for watching tv this way.

11.  I was blessed to be named District Teacher of the Year for my district in 2010-2011.  I went on to be one of three finalists for Regional Teacher of the Year.  I was quite shocked to be given the honor but I am very grateful for the chance to have represented my district in many ways.  This plaque hangs in the lobby of our administration building.

12.  I love my fabulous hubby!  We laugh all the time.  He is my bestest friend and I love him oodles.  Our foundation and hope is in Jesus.  We love going to church together and doing service projects.  Here is a pic of a pic of us as Mary and Joseph for our church's live nativity at Christmas.

  

13.   We sponsor a child through World Vision.  I learned about this organization at a Women of Faith conference in 2005.  Since then, I have become a regular volunteer for the organization by being a representative at events.  I tell people about the organization and try to get kiddos sponsored.  Click the pic below to learn more about it.

 

Thanks for being kind enough to read a little bit about me and my life.  :)

And while you're all here, I just had to share the updated burlap bee that I made.