All About Me

Well..I jumped on the bandwagon! I love getting on blogs, pinterest, tpt, etc. and I figured that starting my own blog would be a great way to share some of my ideas with the world. I have to admit, I use the easy way out and "take" a lot of the ideas that are already out there. I am so thankful for those extra creative teachers that I learn so much from. You have made my job easy!

If you are wondering why I decided to call my blog "Stories, Sparkles, and Smiles", it's really simple. I have stories everyday that I take home to share with my boyfriend or my family. I could write a book with the stories that I hear from kids, or just the experiences that we share together. If there is one thing that defines me, it's sparkles. I love ANYTHING sparkly. I have a sparkly lanyard, shoes, jewelry, double layer cup for school, headbands, etc. I'm kind of a kid at heart. I see a little twinkle and my eyes LIGHT up. Lastly, smiles. The kids really do know how to put a smile on my face each and everyday and I hope that I am also make them feel happy as well. We have a lot of fun in my room and in my few years of teaching, they have really responded well to what we are doing in my class. I can't help but smile when I see their faces everyday.

Anyway, back to a little bit about me. This is my 3rd year teaching at my school. My first year I was a Title 1 Teacher, last year I was a Kindergarten teacher, and this year I'm a mix of both! I have the English speaking Kinders (other K class is bilingual) in the morning and I will be helping other classrooms in the school by providing interventions. I just recently moved in with my boyfriend of 3 years, Tyler, into our very own house. It was an exciting experience, but now I'll have to find time during the school year to get some things done! We'll see if that happens :)

Another thing that I am very much involved with is dance. I started dance and tumbling when I was 6 years old and danced competitively until the age of 19 at a local dance studio. Now that I'm "too old" to be apart of it, I am now the coach. I absolutely love dance just as much as I love teaching. I feel that they come pretty hand in hand, although I teach mainly high schoolers there. It's nice to get a little dose of every age! Sometimes it's nice to teach the high schoolers at night when I've had a long day of 5-6 year old conversation.

My family is very special to me. I have a close knit family that all live fairly close. I can't complain! My mom and dad live only 3 blocks from me, my brother Alex lives 2 blocks away, my older brother Matt lives about 2 minutes away, and my brother Andrew lives about 10 minutes away. I feel lucky that they are so close and I'm able to see them whenever I want. Something special that many people might not know about me is that I'm a TRIPLET! Kinda crazy, huh? Everyone always asks, "What's it like being a triplet?" Well..I guess I don't know any different. We were in the same class in grade school because there was only one section for each grade at our school. Our lockers in middle school were all in a row. In high school I was about 10 lockers down from Alex and about 6 lockers down from Andrew. We all attended a community college together before moving onto a university. Alex and I graduated from Illinois State University and Andrew graduated from Western Illinois University. As you can see, I haven't managed to get away from them, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Last but not least, I have a dog named Megatron. For those of you that aren't sure where that's from, it's the "bad guy" from Transformers. Man, do my boys get a kick out of that! Here are some pics of the people that I've been talking about!

My family dog, Megatron

Tyler and I

My family (Mom, Andrew, Matt, Alex, Me, & Dad)