Meet the Teacher

Hi there! I am Elizabeth and I am a Kindergarten teacher working in an urban school in New Jersey. You may know me from here: Life with Elizabeth.

I am originally from South Carolina and relocated to New Jersey just a few months ago. I attended college in a beautiful part of South Carolina and student taught in a fabulous school district. While working on my master's degree, I taught first grade at a Title 1 school. It was a great experience and I definitely have some fun stories from my time teaching first grade. I also had some heart breaking moments and sleepless nights worrying about whether several of my students were getting anything to eat over the weekend. I learned a lot about classroom management and there were moments when I wanted to pull my hair out (like when one of my seven year olds made a bomb threat!). Being on my own in a classroom for the first time since graduation was fabulous and I was able to put into practice so many of the strategies I'd learned during college. It was an opportunity for me to grow as a teacher and a great learning experience. My first class will always hold a very special place in my heart.

I faced a number of classroom management challenges while teaching first grade (more than I ever expected with such a young group of students) and faced many surprises in my classroom however nothing prepared me for my next job as a Kindergarten teacher in an extremely urban charter school in New Jersey. Every day when I come home from work, I have at least one (usually more) exciting stories to share with my friends and fiance. Some of them make me laugh because they're so ridiculous and others make me cry. Regardless, I want to remember this year, document the challenges, capture the funny moments, and have a record of how far I've come with my class by the end of the year. I also love reading blogs by other teachers and finding fun ideas or routines to try with my class. I hope this blog will help me reach out to other teachers.

Lipstick, Lattes, and Lesson Plans is my attempt to document the adventures I'm having while teaching Kindergarten. Teaching doesn't have much to do with lipstick and lattes (except that I couldn't get through the day without my coffee!) but those are two things I love! I'm looking forward to sharing some of the lessons I'm teaching in my classroom but also the lessons the kids are teaching me!