Budding Bloggers Showcase {Learning to be AWESOME}




Hey everyone!! I'm so excited to be here today sharing a little about me!  Thanks so much to Amanda for this opportunity!!

My name is Erin, and I'm over at Learning to be AWESOME.  I got started blogging at the start of 2013 as a way to get my class more excited about writing.  What started as a simple look back each week at what we had learnt, quickly turned into an amazing resource that has connected me with so many wonderful teachers out there!  I have learnt so much in this past year, and I can't wait to see where this adventure takes me in the future.

Alrighty then!  Let's get to know me.
Amanda has some questions for me - so I'm just gonna go right on ahead and answer them!

Personal Info (state/family/pets/interests) - I am from a little country at the bottom of the world (or the middle of the earth, depending on who you ask), called New Zealand.  I grew up in a beautiful town called Taupo. My parents still live there, right next to the Waikato River - awesome for swimming in the summer!!  And the mountains are about an hours drive away (the same mountains as in the LOTR's).  It really is an outdoor paradise.  I am the eldest of 5 kids - two brothers then two sisters.  One of my sisters is in her final 6 months at Oregon State University - GO BEAVERS!! (hehe)
I love everything about music, drama, and the arts.  I play and teach the piano in my spare time (what is that?!). I also have one cute dog called Ollie - She lives with my parents because I live 3 1/2 hours away from paradise in the big city of Auckland.

Most of us kids (and my brothers GF) at a cousins wedding earlier this year.

I'm totally legit famous.  You should get to know me for sure!

Aunty, brother (about to do Ironman New Zealand), ma, pa, other brother and me

Three crazy sisters

Literally the ONLY family photo I could find with all of us in it - about 20 years ago.
Grade you teach/How long have you taught? - This coming year I have a class of year 5/6 students. MOST of these kids are year 6, with just a handful of 5's. (Year 5/6 is the same as grades 4/5 in every other country.  Here in New Zealand, school starts at age 5, and they have 13 years of school).  I have just completed 7 years of teaching, and in that time I have taught ages 2-18.  I have only had my own class in years 4-8 (g 3-7), but have relieved in a range of schools from ECE to high school.


What is your favourite subject to teach? - With out a doubt, it would have to be literacy.  I love teaching writing in particular.

What would we likely see if we popped into your classroom unannounced? - Depends on the day and the time!!  No really you would see chaos.  Organised chaos, but chaos none the less.  Kids would be everywhere - under tables, upside down, curled up on the beanbag.  All learning, but where ever they wanted to be.  I would be hard to find, and it would be pretty noisy!  I have music playing in my class as often as I can.  I love it!

What gets you through one of "those" days? - Laughter.  I have "those" days reasonably often at my school, they are tough cookies!! But I just find that they are so weird and wonderful that it isn't hard to find something to laugh at!!

What is one "can't live without" teaching resource? - Oh gosh! I can't live with out my iPhone.  It documents our learning through photos, keeps the music playing, has class dojo on it, and picks the next student for answering plenary questions - among other things.

Give us a glimpse of your teaching style by sharing a brief summary of a favourite classroom activity/project. - This is a hard one.  I think the best thing to share would be my Friday afternoon "Free Art" time.  For the last 30 minutes of most weeks I give the kids free reign of the art supplies (within reason) and let them go for it.  Most of them go back over what ever it is that we have been learning in art at the time, or copy something that they have seen somewhere.  I love the unrestrained creativity of it all!  The kids love it, so do I.
What is one of you blogging goals for this year? - I love blogging, and learning from other people.  My blogging goal for this year is to find something that I really love in my teaching programme and get it out there to the world.  This will probably be in integration, or assessment for learning techniques, as these are the big driving forces in our school at the moment.

Thanks soooo much for stopping by and seeing a little bit about me here!  Check my blog out by hitting the button below.  I'd love to see you round and get to know you a little bit!

Learning to be Awesome





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