Sunshine Blogger Award

I’m so excited and thankful to announce that I was nominated by Kayla Shook from Texas Teaching Fanatic for the Sunshine Blogger Award.  Big shout out to Kayla for thinking of me!

The rules for the Sunshine Blogger Award are:
Post 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.
Nominate 11 bloggers you think bring sunshine to the world.
Make up 11 questions for your nominations to answer.

11 Random Facts about Me

1. This is my fifth year teaching, and I’m an elementary emotional support teacher (K-5).
2. I taught myself to play the ukulele.
3. I just got married three months ago. Our officiant announced us for the first time in public by the wrong names, lol! The good news, though, is that we look super happy in all of our pictures, because we were laughing so hard. All of our friends now call us Dodd, which isn’t even a real first name. Bahaha.
4. My husband and I are looking for our first home. We think we may have found one, after almost a year of searching. Fingers crossed!
5. Chocolate. Me likey. Very (too?) much.
6. The sun makes me sneeze. Maybe this means I’m distantly related to Edward Cullen. Too bad I don’t sparkle. That’d be cool.
7. I love fall! I just bought a giant sweater, hot cocoa, and pumpkin spice to add to my coffee. Pumpkin patches, hayrides, scarves, boots, hats, pumpkin cookies, Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie, Dunkin pumpkin spiced lattes. I hope we can get into our home by Halloween so I could pass out candy to trick-or-treaters.
8. I’m thinking of applying to become a narrator for Audible or another similar company. People tell me all the time that I’m a fun reader.
9. I’m pretty awful at drawing (and it drives me nuts when people say “drawling”), but I can cut out realistic-looking patterns with scissors. If I have to make templates, I cut them out freehand from plain paper and then trace them onto a new paper to make a pattern. I lead a backwards kind of life.
10. I recently started some components of using Whole Brain Teaching (Mirror, Hands & Eyes, Teach-Okay, Rules, 10 finger woo), and it’s going well with my class!
11. I have dreams of becoming a professor or education consultant one day.

My Questions from Kayla

Where are you from? Pennsylvania. Did you think Georgia because of my blog name? Everybody does! Haha!
What is your favorite animal? Pigs are adorable!
What is your favorite thing about teaching? Turning around somebody’s day—or life. I live for the lightbulbs, a-ha moments, child’s laughter, and helping kids overcome obstacles.
What is your favorite children’s book? Um, I have about a bajillion. Anything by Julia Cook, probably!
Why do you blog? There really aren’t many blogs out there for emotional support classrooms, or for teachers who have students in emotional support programs. I hope to share my ideas to help challenged teachers reach the kids who likely need the most love.
Who do you look up to? Rick Lavoie <33333333 lol He’s the special ed guru! Also, my parents and grandparents
When did you become a teacher? 2010, two months after graduating college. My first year was in K-2 Learning Support, and it was truly my dream job.
Would you rather: Have a side soup or a side salad? Hmmmm… depends on where I am. At a diner, give me a soup! At the Olive Garden, give me 700 plates of the salad!
If you could click your heels together and be anywhere, where would it be? Oh, I have so many places! My first place would be back in time a bit so I could talk with my grandfather one last time. Second choice would be a bungalow in Bora-Bora, Tahiti! Third place would be in an airplane embarking on a trip around the world!
What is your favorite quote? “This, too, shall pass.” It always helped me when things got tough. Things always tend to work out, and problems that seem so big in the moment don’t usually matter in five minutes, five days, five weeks, or five years.
If you could read minds, whose mind would you love to read? The mind of a child who aggressively avoids work. I’d love to know the real reason why so that I could better help him.

My Questions
1. What’s your educational background and teaching experience?
2. What’s your favorite season?
3. What do you like to do for fun?
4. What made you want to be a teacher?
5. What’s your best childhood memory?
6. Who was your favorite teacher, and why?
7. How do you think your teaching has improved over the years?
8. Where would you like to travel?
9. What is your favorite thing about teaching?
10. What was your funniest student quote, moment, etc.?
11. What would you do if you won the lottery?