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All About Me

I am a mom, wife and teacher. I married my high school sweetheart in 1995 and we have three awesomely amazing kids. Beth (16), Abbi (13) and Logan (9). In this picture, Richard and I are at Nick Universe in Minneapolis. It isn't the best picture but one of the only recent ones I have of us...

I am Canadian and teach at a small school in rural Ontario. I can't imagine doing anything else and LOVE being a teacher. I have been teaching since 2003 and have taught grade 2/3 for three years. Prior to primary, I taught junior and intermediate grades (5-8). Although I loved the older kids, my heart is in primary. I have specialist qualifications in Reading and Technology and am working on a Math specialist. I have also been very fortunate to be involved in three action research projects. Our latest one, Decreasing Anxiety-Increasing Engagement, has brought Emotional Literacy into the classroom in an exciting, engaging way.


This is my first ever attempt at blogging and I am really liking it. Teach Play Smile started as a way to keep track of my ideas and things that worked last year in my classroom. I have benefited from the teacher blogging community so much. I love seeing what other teachers are doing in their classrooms and learning from them. If anyone takes an idea or lesson from my blog, I will be so happy ecstatic that I helped them, too!

My interests include reading; Mysteries (Jonathon Kellerman, Patricia Cornwall...), History (especially about the Tudor Period), Light & Fun (Janet Evanovich...) and Resource (lol, of course). I also love gardening, even though we have a relatively short growing season in NorthWestern Ontario (3-4 months TOPS). My most recent obsession is putting in a perennial flower bed in my front yard. I started last summer...hopefully the plants will look less like little green sticks this summer and more like flowers. I am somewhat addicted to Pinterest (who isn't??). Currently, The Mentalist is my favourite TV show, although I also enjoy House, Mike & Molly, The Big Bang Theory, and Modern Family. Yup-I am a sucker for comedies...they help me de-stress.

(our front non-perennial flower bed last summer)

Hmmm...well, that's about it...the most interesting parts about me and my life. I hope I haven't bored you to tears...and a zillion thank yous for sticking this post out :-)