Meet the Teacher Monday

I'm so excited to participate in Teacher Week over at Blog Hoppin'!  Today is Meet the Teacher Monday!  So.....here I am!!!

Tell us a little something about you...

I'm Caitlin and I teach primary math.  I'm not married.  No kids.  Just me, myself, and I.  I like it that way; it's quiet and no one bugs me when I come home!  I do love spending lots of time with my friends and family though!  When I'm not teaching, I love to shop.  Seriously.  It might be an addiction.  I'm pretty sure I keep JCrew in business.  When I'm not teaching or shopping, I'm probably watching tv.  Love me some Chelsea Lately, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Criminal Minds, oh I could go on and on.  My DVR gets pretty full and I love Sundays because that's my DVR clearing out time.

How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching for three years.  I have a second grade homeroom, but teach math to kindergarten, first, and second grades.  My school is a Project CHILD school, meaning we keep our kids for three years and we are all content area specialists.  It's really a great way to teach; I get to build amazing relationships with my students and their families and I can concentrate on teaching one subject area well.  I can't imagine teaching any other way.  Outside of my elementary classroom, I have a couple of other teaching gigs: I'm teaching an introduction to education course for my local community college this semester and I recently opened an early childhood enrichment center (think: Mommy and Me, mini-camps, baby sign language).  I stay pretty busy with teaching-related stuff.  Good thing I love it!!

You might not know...

This summer I went with my family to Discovery Cove in Orlando.  And I swam with and kissed a dolphin!  I wish I could just completely and totally gush about it, but I was scared to death.  This grown, 23 year old woman was clinging to her daddy like a 3 year old!  But once I got over my fear (and got used to the freezing water), I had fun.  And I would probably do it again.  Probably.  I told my kiddos about it on the first day of school and that afternoon, one of my little friends brought me a picture she drew of me kissing a dolphin and the dolphin was saying, "I got kissed by a teacher!"  Here I was the one freaking out about kissing a dolphin; I never even considered that the dolphin could have been freaked out about kissing a teacher!

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

Getting a Smartboard!!!!!!!  Any day now, I've been told!  I'm so stinkin' excited.  I'll be at school constantly working on lessons and figuring out all kinds of cool stuff to do with it!  Can't hardly wait!

What do you need to improve?

Spending my time wisely!  I love to talk and spend most of my time before and after school in other teacher's rooms chatting it up.  I should be spending that time in my own room doing lesson plans so I'm not there until 8:00 on Friday nights.  It's just so hard to teach with your best friends!!

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

I think I would die without my iPod!  I sing ALL.DAY.LONG. and use my iPod to make playlists so I'm not shuffling through CDs all day.  Makes my life so much easier. 

I completely and totally rely on my cutesy clipboard.  Since our kids rotate classes, we keep our behavior chart on a clipboard.  Mine is pink, polka dot, monogrammed, and adorned with grosgrain ribbon...of course!

I also need my Mr. Sketch markers, my black ballet flat house slippers (you know, for those days when my superfab shoes start killing my feet), and my Tervis tumbler to keep my Dr. Pepper cold all day long.