How Did I End Up Here?

For quite a while I have immersed myself in the world of teacher collaboration. I've loved following the blogs of teachers, spent hours scrolling through Teachers Pay Teachers, and following the Instagram pages of other teachers. I loved getting to peek into other classrooms and would get inspired by the creativity of the teachers who ran them. All of these online collaborative sites encouraged me to create materials for my classroom. Then, I started posting a few of these materials in my own Teacher Pay Teachers store. I figured if I am making them for myself, I may as well put it up for others. And that's where my teacher collaboration ended.

And then....

Enter periscope:

Graphic Created by Glitter Meets Glue

All of these amazing teachers that I followed through IG, TPT, and blog-world were now live broadcasting themselves in a format where anyone following can interact through comments and hearts. And I was just taken in by the possibilities of the whole thing. So, I was inspired to create my own Instagram (separate from my personal use IG). Immediately I began to feel connected to other educators with the same philosophies as me. What a cool feeling!

And then something crazy happened...

Little, shy, scared me decided to do my own broadcast. It was TERRIFYING. I had no idea if anyone would watch, what they would think, and really what I would say. But I did it. And the feedback I got was in-cred-i-ble! Never before in my life have I so quickly felt connected to others in a way that was so genuine and real.

I realized there are so many teachers like me--new to the TPT, blogging, collaborative world. Wanting to dive in, but not sure how. And suddenly, there became this whole small-fish movement of small time teachers like me wanting to fully immerse themselves into the teacher-collaboration-world. There were so many in support of this idea, big fish, small fish, and everything in between--Christina from Hanging Around in Primary, Angie from Lucky Little Learners, and Janice (@1islandlover on periscope) are just a few who hopped right on board. Then Katie from Pop into Primary created the picture below,  and I was hooked (pun fully intended)!

Which brings me here. Blogging. Another time that I am jumping into something new (and maybe a little overwhelming and scary), but I know I'm surrounded by this wonderful school of people (fish of all sizes) and couldn't be more excited!