Hello everyone! My name is Casey and I am very excited to be one of the contributors of this wonderful blog made for and by Australian teachers. 

You may be familiar with my blog, Little Lifelong Learners where I started posting during in my first year of teaching and then my TPT store was born!

5 Facts About Me

1. I have lived in Sunny Queensland for my entire life. I grew up on 12 beautiful acres with my parents and grandparents on the north side of Brisbane.

2. I met a boy in Grade 12 Geography class and we've been together ever since! 

 3. On the 27th of May 2014, I became a Mummy to a beautiful little girl named Lilly-anne. She was born 6 weeks early and is our perfect little miracle. I am really enjoying being at home with her, but I often get into trouble off my husband for being too 'teachery' with her already. Is that even a word?!

4. I have a passion for photography. I ran my own business while I studied teaching at University and photographed newborns, babies, children and families. I even photographed a few weddings! For now, I just photograph my own family =)

5. I have a serious obsession for slushies and chocolate. It's not abnormal for me to grab some chocolate from the fridge for breakfast or a Frozen Coke from McDonald's on the way to school. So naughty but so delicious.

 

My Teaching Career

As a child, my favourite thing to play was schools. My Mum got me a little blackboard and lots of blank workbooks. She even set up a little work table where I could teach my hesitant little sisters and cousins. I would set projects for them and mark their work while they napped.  It was the best fun!

I also came from a big family of teachers. My Great Grandmother was a teacher and my Grandfather was the Dean of Education and taught in many different positions at lots of different schools. My Mum taught for many years before I was born but stopped for 20 years to have children and started back when I began teaching at university. I also have two aunties who teach Prep and Grade 1. You could say teaching is in my blood!

My biggest supporter - Mum!

I finished my Bachelor of Primary Education with honours at the end of 2011 and began teaching Prep/Kindergarten at my local school in 2012. I stayed at this school for two years and absolutely loved teaching Prep. At the end of my second year, I fell pregnant and decided to become a relief teacher. I spent the first half of 2014 experiencing many different grades and schools. I feel like this time really developed my behaviour management strategies!

One of my favourite Prac placements in a Grade 1 classroom.

 While I take some time out from teaching, I am enjoying working on new resources for my TPT store. I have been running Sensory Play groups from my home and have been developing some teaching and learning resources for parents of young people. I'm currently working on my first board book. Watch this space!

Where can you find me?

 

Check out my Little Lifelong Learners website/ blog here.
Check out my Little Lifelong Learners facebook page here.
Check out my Little Lifelong Learners instagram here.
Check out my Little Lifelong Learners TPT store here.

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Casey

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to our new Australian Teachers blog! Thanks for stopping by :) 

I'm Chantelle and I am one of the teacher author/contributors of this blog. Today's post is a little introduction to tell you more about myself and who I am!

You may have previously read some of my posts from my personal teaching blog,                         Miss Jacobs' Little Learners. 

Me

Like most teachers, I wear many hats. Outside of school I am a mummy to 3 dogs, Toby, Mischa and Boston. I am a sister. A best friend. A daughter. A girlfriend to another fellow teacher - hopefully a fiancé soon!! (Ermmm Shaun!!!!!) haha

Anyways, as I was saying, I love to travel on the school holidays and I have been to Europe, Asia, America and Fiji. I drink waaaay too much coffee. 

I LOVE Thai and Vietnamese street food. I'm addicted to Pinterest, Facebook and my MacBook Air.
I try to fit in exercise as much as possible but I find myself donating to my local Fernwood gym rather than than attending.
I AM working on it though...
I am a perfectionist - which sometimes drains my life because it takes me soooo long to get things done as I'm forever trying to make sure things are perfect - that takes time and is EXHAUSTING! (Are all teachers like that????)

Me as a teacher!

I am currently into my 6th of teaching in the Early Years (Grade Prep/Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2). It's pretty much who I am. My life revolves around being a teacher. I'm passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic about teaching as well as the children in my grade! I find it very hard to switch off when I leave school because I'm constantly thinking about my next lesson, day, term, activity, assessment, student, deadline, resource, blog post... Exhausting yeah!? 

Well, I wouldn't have it any other way!! :)

I have had the once in a lifetime opportunity to live and teach overseas in both Thailand and London. One word. AMAZING! 

I would describe my teaching style as energetic, theatrical (I like to put on a performance), loud, fun, messy, hands-on and varied. I take pride in the way my classroom is set up and presented and I like order and organisation. I believe that behaviour management is one of my strengths. I build really strong relationships with my students and their families and this helps me set the foundation for my classroom management and for learning to take place. (See my classroom management styles and resources here).

So, why do I blog????

I have been blogging and making teaching resources for over 2 years now and I am loving the fact that there are more Aussie teachers out there, inspired and doing the same thing. When I first started out back in late 2012, there weren't very many of us around. Teaching students requires a TEAM effort. We all have so much to share and so much more to LEARN so having online forums such as this is a brilliant way for us to do our job - even better! (I personally consider reading teacher blogs, Facebook pages and Pinterest the BEST PD any teacher could ever get!)

 I honestly believe my personal teaching practice has improved from reading blogs by teachers who are willing to share their creations and teaching ideas with others all around the world!

My Teaching Products

I create resources that are fun and engaging for ALL ability levels within the Early Years (K/ Grade Prep -2) I know what it is like to have varying ability levels in your grade. I am forever adapting things for my students that need support and for my extension students too. In most of my packs, you will find a range of resources that have been differentiated to suit all your students needs. As I create things things from experience in the classroom, all my products can be used in Australian schools and have been developed in conjunction with the Australian Curriculum.

I create Literacy games, Maths games, Units of Work, Themed Products to cover your Inquiry or Integrated Units, Classroom Decoration and Organisation Resources, Templates and much more!

You can find my teaching resources at my Miss Jacobs' Little Learners TPT STORE. Make sure you are following by clicking on the 'Follow me' green star for product updates and freebies. 

Some of my latest and favourite products are below. Click on the pictures for the link.

        

              

For teacher discussion, ideas and resources for lessons along with product updates and competitions, be sure to follow my FACEBOOK PAGE. I usually post my new products up there first and offer them as a FLASH FREEBIE! 

For easy to find teaching ideas and inspiration, follow my PINTEREST BOARD - they are organised into categories :)

Visit Little Learners's profile on Pinterest.

I'm really looking forward to posting and sharing more teaching ideas and experiences with more fellow Aussie teachers! Make sure you stop and leave a comment from time to time! It's great hearing from you :)

Till Next time!

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Miss Jacobs Little Learners

Hello everyone!  My name is Stephanie and I am one of the contributors/authors here.  I wanted to create this blog as a way for all Australian Teachers to connect and learn from each other.

American Teacher turned Aussie!

First thing you should know about me is that I was born and raised in USA!  I graduated from the University of Central Florida and taught in Florida for 5-6 years before moving to Australia last year. It took a few months to get certified but after 6 months of living here I was able to start my Aussie teaching career.  I started out as a relief teacher for two schools in a regional area in WA.

I'm still currently working as a relief teacher and hoping to reach more schools, but I was hired on Prep teacher for one day a week as their regular teacher could plan their lessons.  I truly enjoy being with the Prep kids, even though I was worried since I didn't have any experience with students at that age.

My Teaching Style

I'm a big fan of hands-on activities and lessons that encourage students to develop concepts on their own.  I taught most my teaching experience in a grade level where it was all about standardise testing, which scared & worried the students and can cause lessons focused on test taking.  It was all about the data!

I focused on my attention on the students and what worked best for my students.  I found my students were most successful with developing concepts on their own.  For example, instead of telling the what a concept is I gave an example and described it.  I had students tell me what they saw, then showed another example and brainstormed what was common.  Eventually the students were able to tell me what the concept/skill was in their own words and this made information easily retained for the future.

I love lessons that focuses on student engagement.  I often referred to my students as explorers or detectives.  Through this I was able to create an environment that was full of knowledge, encouragement, exploration and nurture!

What You can Find at my TPT Store

My products started off as focused on USA education, but you can find more products geared towards BOTH Australia & USA.  Since working in Prep I will also be working on lesson activities towards that age group.  I'm a big fan of graphic design, so my products are usually clean with bright colours and easily read fonts.

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Steph