Over the years, being a teacher has had it’s ups and downs. I have loved so many moments and also had those moments when it was so challenging that I cried and wanted to quit (daily). However, I always knew in my heart that I was meant to be a teacher.
A school district hired me as a teacher working with preschool students in a special education classroom – 2 weeks before the first day! Talk about stress. When kids turned three, they could join our class. Some kids were pulled out of kindergarten or stayed with me for one more year before heading to kindergarten. This job was definitely a learning experience… for me.
After 19 years, I applied for a looping position. I would teach 1st grade and then loop up with that class of students and teach them for 2nd grade. Then I would go down to 1st grade to start with a new group of students. At the completion of 2 loops (4 years), I stuck with just teaching 2nd grade. During this time, I also went back to school to obtain my Masters in Reading. A few years ago, I applied for the RtI position as a Reading Specialist in my district. I currently work with K-2 students. The rest is history.
Oops! I think I might have left out a few details. My husband and I met at college and we married two weeks after I graduated. Following some unpleasant years of trying to have a child, I finally gave birth to a daughter. After 5 more years and some help from doctors, my son was born. We loved a cat her entire life and currently have a cuddly dog who is finding it harder and harder to jump up onto the couch with us.
When my daughter was a junior in high school, a fellow teacher encouraged me to sign up for a store online with Teachers pay Teachers. She knew that I was good at creating things on my computer. When I couldn’t find something to help my students learn, I would create it. So I started thinking about all of the things I had wished for as a teacher. The list of all of the resources that I wished for started to grow longer and longer. I thought, “If I have wished for this, there must be other teachers who have wished for it too.” Maybe, just maybe, I could open a store and share my resources to help out other teachers. . . and earn some extra money to help pay for my daughter’s college bills.
So my store, Wendy Wished, began.
And the rest is history. . . really this time.
There have been many occasions when I have been challenged by students, administration, teaching philosophies, trends, laws, students’ parents, and life. In response, I have challenged myself and pushed myself to learn even more so that I could differentiate for the students I have taught through the years. I have been a life long learning teacher.
Watch my teaching adventures continue via Instagram, Facebook, and now my blog!
