Hello Blogging World!

11-1-11: I thought this was a good date to "officially" start my blog.  I've had the page for at least a month now, but it sat empty with only my About Me section filled in.  So why am I here? 


At the beginning of September my cousin introduced me to this fabulous site called Pinterest.  If you don't know what Pinterest is, you must go check it out now!  I'll wait ...........


Anyway, in discovering Pinterest, I found all these fabulous teaching blogs with the most wonderful ideas that I began pinning like crazy (I have over 1600 pins in just two months).  And most of these wonderful ideas were coming from blogs of other teachers out there wanting to share what they do in their classrooms (For that, I and my students thank you!).  The more ideas I pinned, the more I was inspired to share what I was doing in my classroom in return.  And so begins my blog -- Teaching is a Work of Heart.


So just who am I?  My name is Heidi and I am in my ninth year of teaching special education.  I have taught all grade levels from 1st-8th grade in resource and self-contained settings.  I currently teach in a self-contained cross-categorical classroom consisting of 1st and 2nd graders.  This is only the second year of this program in my district and I was the person to start it at the elementary level.  I now have a partner in crime who teaches the 3rd-5th grade classroom.  It's been a challenge to start a program from scratch, but I have loved being an integral part of starting something new.  In addition to being a special education teacher, I am also a certified Reading Specialist, but I use that knowledge to support my special education students.  I have a nine year old daughter in 4th grade and am blessed to be a teacher at her school.  It's nice bumping into her in the halls every now and again on the few occasions I am able to escape from my classroom (that's the one thing I miss about resource, the FREEDOM to move about the building on a regular basis).


After this post goes live, I am going to attempt to post my first activity that I have been dying to share.  I wanted to get it posted ASAP because the longer you have to complete it, the better.  Fingers crossed I can figure out how to share documents.


Well, off to share this wonderful new blog on Pinterest because I don't know a better way to get people to start reading this blog.  And if you just stumbled across this blog my chance, come follow me on Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/wtpntigger2/).