Nice to Meet You!

Welcome to our new blog! We are super excited to get this blog off the ground and running.  How did we become two passionate teachers, friends, and #edtech buddies you ask?

Well....

JESS:

Hello! I am currently working as a 3rd grade teacher in St.Louis, MO.  This is my 10th year teaching. My first two years were spent teaching 8th grade ELA and 9th grade READ 180.  I then spent the next 7 years of my career teaching 6th, 7th, 8th grade READ 180, 6th grade ELA, and 7th grade ELA.  At this school is where I met Steph and we immediately became best friends. Like I have said, I am currently a 3rd grade teacher and have fallen in love with elementary school.  I love my sweet rockstar babies!

As an educator, I earned my Masters Degree in Reading Education. I adore technology, engagement, and leadership!  I am a Level 1 and Level 2 Google Certified Educator and am currently in the process of applying for Google Certified Trainer. I love to bring technology and engagement into my 3rd grade class as often as possible.  I am a #tlap and #setthestagetoengage super fan!

Two future goals of mine are to publish an educational book for educators and become an educational technology coach.

You can follow me at:
Twitter: @msschwarzkopf
Instagram: _lifein3rdgrade_

*******************
STEPH:
Hello! Nice to meet you! I am currently a high school social studies teacher in St. Louis, MO.  This school year marks my 8th year of teaching, the first seven years were spent teaching 8th grade American History in the same building as my lovely friend, Jessica.

As an educator, I am in love with all things technology, engagement and leadership!  I am striving to become an educational technology coach…#goals! I am a Level 2 Google Certified Educator and working on my application to become a Google Certified Trainer!  I earned my Master’s Degree in Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction a few semesters back and am beginning to look at other programs to go back to school (because of course I need more on my plate)!

I am a wife and have been married to my amazing, supportive husband Leonard for 7 years and we have two beautiful children, Zeke and Norah.  Dance is the other love of my life and I also earned a Bachelor’s in Dance… back in the day, but I still try to stay hip so my students can be amazed (or laugh) at my abilities!

You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter at @mrsdurantwhs

************

Our goal for this blog is to come together, from two different teaching perspectives, and show teachers how to use different tools and strategies at varying grade levels.  We will discuss how we implement new ideas in the classroom and challenge ourselves to think outside of the box for our readers. We are excited for this journey ahead and cannot wait to learn something along with our readers! If you like us, please share us!