She Who Writes Her Own Story

I'd like to welcome and thank Arlene for being a guest blogger! She is an amazing lady with a heart of gold! I hope that you'll visit her blog and maybe even become a follower :)

I want to thank Jessica for this wonderful opportunity to guest blog for her today and tell you about myself and starting a blog at the age of 63!!!!! Married to a military man my teaching journey has taken me all over the U.S. and overseas in Seoul, South Korea. My last public school teaching job was as an Elementary ESL Resource Teacher/Specialist at a Title I school in a poverty and gang stricken area of Anchorage, Alaska. After my husband retired he took a civilian job so I could continue to work and try to make a difference for a failing school. With lots of hard work we succeeded. It was the most rewarding job I had ever had but Alaska isn't a good place to grow old without family and with our children married with children of their own it was time to leave.  When I left in 2007 my leadership team dedicated this poem to me. They were sure that I would begin to write the next chapter in my story.

I have had the most amazing 33 years of teaching Elementary, ESL and Special Education students around the world and then four years as an ESL Consultant for a Korean Company writing an on-line ESL Speaking, Reading and Writing Curriculum for Elementary Korean students. In 2006 I was recognized as the Alaska State Teacher of the Year which opened up so many new opportunities to train and consult. Finally at the end of 2011 I retired from the consulting world and my husband and I now live in Tallahassee, Florida close to our 2 children and 6 grandchildren.

At the beginning of January this year I decided to start selling on Teacher Pay Teachers. I had no idea where to start and as I'm sure many of you know it truly takes a lot of hard work and time before you get any followers or start selling. I checked the forum and found a group of teacher sellers ad bloggers and they all encouraged me to start a blog. WOW!!! I had no idea what I was getting into!!!!  I'm am soooo technology challenged and if it hadn't been for a wonderful blogger friend I wouldn't be here today writing about it. So this past February I finally wrote my first blog. Of course I wondered if anyone would actually want to read what I wrote about. Although I'm no longer in the classroom I wanted to share my knowledge and experience to help other teachers make a difference for students in their classrooms. It is still a work in progress but if just one person reads a strategy I have written about and it helps just one student then I have made a difference. I am so happy that each and every day I get more readers and followers and I get to share lots of strategies, ideas and freebies with so many more teachers than I ever expected.

I hope that this will inspire just one of you to start a blog if you haven't yet. I'm so inspired by all the blogs I read and know that there are so many outstanding teachers making a difference for students. I'm excited about making new materials to offer teachers and learning and growing as a blogger in the coming school year. I hope you will visit my blog LMN Tree (http://arlenesandberg.blogspot.com),  grab some freebies and let me know how I'm doing.

Thank you so much for making a difference for your students and letting me share my story with you.

What are your plans for the next school year?

Thanks again Arlene!! I love your spirit and energy :)

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!