Meet the Teachers!

We both have been working at the same school since the beginning of our teaching careers. Our classrooms are down the hall from each other with students of similar age groups and academic levels. We would exchange resources and helpful ideas from time to time, but at that time, in our school, you really worked mostly on your own. There was not much collaboration between teachers. The classrooms were quite different from each other and what we did within our own room stayed within our own room with the exception of special events, holidays and field trips. We both had a passion for pushing our special needs students academically. One morning, I remember Stephanie coming into my classroom for something and inadvertently mentioned how fun it would be read Charlotte’s Web with our classes! I had just got my hands on the book and had been planning on reading it to my students! This was the day that forever changed our classroom dynamics, our friendship, the rigor of the literacy within our classroom and both of our lives forever as we embarked on this amazing, fulfilling TPT journey together. Download our favorite Charlotte’s Web print here to put in your own classroom!

Immediately, we began staying after school to plan for Charlotte’s Web. We planned that every Friday we would get both of our classes together and read the chapter for that day and then would teach a comprehension strategy with a fun hands-on craftivity each week. At the end of the month, as a celebration for finishing the book, we would order the students (and staff, of course) PIZZA!!!! This monthly tradition with our classrooms is still going strong 3 years later. From there, our collaborative partnership continued to grow, and we realized even more how well we worked together. We wrote curriculum together, participated in the mentoring program together, started the first-ever cheerleading squad at our school together and used all of our planning time to things together that would benefit both of our classrooms. Over the course of time, we started depending on each other for all things education that also included creating materials, feeding into our office supply obsessions, our need for Starbucks and scented markers.

For the school year of 2015-2016, the curriculum at our school had us now teaching units at the same time as other classrooms in our grade level for the first time ever. This meant that we had to teach units that we did not have to in the past. There was one unit that was weighing on us that we did not know how we wanted to teach: Continents! We brainstormed ways to make it fun and systematic for our learners and decided to create a unit for our entire grade level. As we started using the materials, our struggling learners became highly engaged and were recalling information learned at a higher rate than ever. We realized that we were really onto something with this resource we created.

We decided to open a Teachers Pay Teachers store together and continue creating the units that we saw so much success with for our students. Everything we create is student-based, student tested, and SUCCESSFUL with our students!!! Check it out here if you are interested!! We are tremendously thankful for each other and the opportunities that working together has given us!!!