About Me

I love teaching and kids. I am passionate about literacy in the primary classroom. I taught kindergarten and first grades for twenty-two years. I recently left the classroom to become a Literacy Coach in a K-5 building. I feel blessed to be in a school in which I learn something new every day. My hope is to share with teachers ways we can bring the joy of literacy in our classroom practice. 

I named my blog Joyful Learning in KC because I love Bobbi Fisher book Joyful Learning in Kindergarten. In my first years of teaching, it was my go-to guide. I aspired to be like Bobbi Fisher. She left a comment on my blog, and I almost died!

I continue to blog because of the community I have met from blogging. I have met some amazing bloggers and teachers who I have never met but feel deeply connected to. I had years in my building where my wonderful principal left, and so did the professional develop. I had years where my blog was the only thing that made me feel connected to other educators who cared deeply about best practice. 

I blog because I want to be a better teacher. Blogging pushes me to think about my beliefs about kids and my beliefs about teaching. My blog has changed each year because I have changed. 

I blog because I want to be a better writer. Writing has always been one of the hardest things for me. I love to talk. I talk way too much. But writing is hard. I work at writing each week, just like I have my students do. Each day, we ask our student's to take risks in our classroom. I take a risk writing each of my blog posts.  I wish when I was a child I had the opportunity to learn about writing like we do now.

I blog because I care about what happens in the classroom, especially the primary classrooms.  I am fortunate to work in a school system with incredible leaders, and teachers that I learn from each day.

Teaching is hard. We need to be careful in our practice that we stay true to our beliefs about what is best in teaching our children.

Joyfully yours,

 Melissa