My Identity Revealed

I admit it, I have been a stalker of teacher blogs for over a year now. That's right, I have quietly sat in the comfort of my home (often times in my pajamas) or classroom, frequenting many of your TPT and TN stores, re-pinning your Pinterest pins, figuring out what creative idea I could borrow for the next day's lessons, and printing more freebies than I can count. I used to feel guilty, but then I realized it wasn't such a dirty little secret. In the name of full disclosure, through my purchases over the past school year, I have probably helped fund more adoptions, missionary trips, weddings, and college tuition payments than I care to know about (o.k., I'm probably exaggerating, but you get the picture). The point is (I know you might find this shocking, NOT) as a first year teacher, in a Title I school, I was often struggling to keep my head above water most days. As a matter of fact, it was all of you in teacher bloggy land who unwittingly carried me through my first year. For that, I am more grateful than you know.

As I prepare for my second year in the classroom, I have continued to stalk your blogs, and I have continued to be indebted to you all for your willingness to share. Although I have contemplated starting my own blog a million times over, the more I stalk, the less worthy I have felt to actually take the step. After all, I borrow and purchase your ideas, I don't create my own cute and fun stuff. Then, something occurred to me as I was spending this past Monday morning obsessing over all of the super cute Monday Made It ideas over at 4th Grade Frolics...I really am not so unlike many of you. I see an idea, make it my own, and run with it. It dawned on me that although the ideas aren't necessarily originally mine, I do create original stuff for my classroom that I should in fact be sharing. I guess I had assumed that because I follow so many different blogs that everybody else in bloggy land sees all the same stuff I do. Then, I considered the hours, the days, the weeks...that I have spent perusing blogs, trying to find just the right lesson ideas, and realized I was wrong. There would be value to others in sharing what I do in my little classroom too! You have no idea how exciting that epiphany was for me. Finally, there was purpose to starting my very own teaching blog!

My goal with this new venture is to share with all of you how your original ideas come to fruition in my classroom, some of the ways I have made ideas my own, and to just have an outlet to share all the wackiness that comes with being a new teacher. Let me tell you, last year, each day seemed to hold something new and exciting. I could tell you stories that I wouldn't believe if I didn't live them.