2nd Annual Teacher Blogger Interview {with Lauren from A Teachable Teacher}

I am honored to introduce you to Lauren, blogger and teacherpreneur from A Teachable Teacher. I connected with Lauren early in my TPT journey and had the pleasure of meeting her in person last year. I must confirm she is as sweet as she looks. :) Her Teachers Pay Teachers store is stocked with quality literacy resources for primary grades and classroom organization and management tools for all. Read on to learn more about what inspires her to blog and create. 

When I was getting my teaching credential, I would read teacher blogs.  I enjoyed getting to “know” other teachers and their classrooms!  I waited a long time before starting my own blog because I didn’t think anyone would care to read what I had to say since I was young new teacher.  Thankfully, my husband encouraged me to start one anyway. =)

Blogging has really challenged me to constantly growing in my teaching (hence the name, A Teachable Teacher).  I never want to think that I know it all or that I have it “down.”  I can always know more and do better.  I only want to teach/write about/post the best of the best...so I’m always reading and researching.  More importantly, all the tips, tricks, skills, and ideas I’ve learned from other bloggers have vastly impacted the way that I teach and run my classroom!

Let’s be real...I DON’T keep it all balanced.  I know that I don’t blog enough.  I put God, my family, church, and my students first, which means that blogging is often the back burner.  Because I spend so much time making resources for my students, I end up spending a lot more time creating and posting on TpT than I do blogging.  One of my goals this summer is to develop a good “rhythm” of blogging so that I can keep it up next school year!

As far as family goes, I do think it is easier for me because I don’t have kids yet.  My husband commutes a long distance each day for work, so I have a lot of time home alone on weeknights.  When I started blogging and creating resources, I realized that I was ALWAYS on the computer.  (To say I got addicted would be an understatement).  I told my husband that if at any moment he felt like I was ignoring him because I was glued to my computer screen, he needed to let me know.  It’s been almost three years and so far, he’s only asked me to close my laptop twice.  It’s a great system because I never have to feel guilty for “working”!

I would encourage you to blog and create about the things you are passionate about and the things you need in your classroom.  I remember when I created my December Behavior Incentive and showed it to a friend.  She encouraged me to blog about it, (I originally wasn’t planning on it), and I did.  The post was written on a whim and I’m ashamed at the quality of the images, but that is one of my post popular posts to this day.  Every teacher needs behavior incentives during that crazy month!  Chances are, if you have need, other teachers do too.  

My all time favorite resource is my All-in-One Reading Passages Bundle.  I was teaching first grade at the time and my students were not applying our phonics skills in reading whatsoever.  I was so discouraged!  I created one page (for the vowel team, ai) and “tested” at school.  It was so neat to see them actually read words with “ai” in the context of a story!  More importantly, they felt accomplished.  I knew I had to make more!  Now I teach reading intervention and I literally use them every day.

You can follow Lauren from A Teachable Teacher at her Teachers Pay Teachers Store, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin', and Pinterest. You will absolutely adore getting to know more about this talented teacher.