Welcome to my world!

I’ve been creating research-based learning resources for my students since I stepped into my first classroom in 1998! I love researching how kids learn and applying the research to create engaging & effective activities in my classroom. It is so exciting to see my students learn and grow in leaps and bounds… because everything is rooted in research!

My teaching mantra is: I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. I have know idea how my students’ brains learn to read, or learn anything, for that matter. But the great news is that hundreds of really smart researchers in cognitive psychology, education, linguistics, and neuroscience have gone before me to find out, so I don’t have to know. I just have to ask the questions. How do students learn to read? And that’s what I’ve been doing for over 20 years… Asking the questions, reading the research, creating resources for my students based on the research, and seeing my students learn and grow.

My Teaching Journey

I started teaching a classroom full of 5th graders in Los Angeles fresh out of college. Title one. 95% Multilingual Learners. Ummm… HELP! was my first thought. The minute I stepped into my classroom I knew that I did don’t know enough to help my these students in front of me. I knew they deserved and needed better. They needed me to know, so that I could help them.

I was lucky. I started my Science of Reading journey early. My amazing principal sent me to a week-long intensive Reading First Training. It was like a Science of Reading bootcamp long before the term “science of reading” was ever around. I learned more about teaching reading in a week than I had learned in my entire teaching program. I was introduced to the National Reading Panel Report and Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science (if you haven’t read these, you need to!).

It made me hungry for more knowledge, more research, in order to help my students. I subscribed to ILA’s The Reading Teacher & Reading Research Quarterly back in the day when you had to wait for magazines to come to your mailbox! I would devour each article when it arrived in the mail.

I quickly learned that if I wanted to make an impact teaching students to read, I needed to start in the primary grades. I taught kindergarten for 2 years with the best teacher mentor ever. I loved it. I saw growth in my students and I felt like I was making a difference.

I had always wanted to see what it was like to live overseas. I didn’t care where. So after a few years teaching in Los Angeles I applied to international schools all around the world. I ended up teaching kindergarten and first grade at the International Christian School in Hong Kong. It was amazing. It was fascinating to teach a different population of multilingual learners from all different backgrounds.

After two years teaching and adventuring in Hong Kong I was ready to come home, to North County San Diego. After the teaching third, fourth, and sixth grade I finally got the opportunity to move back down to kindergarten for three more years, and then up to first grade where I have stayed for the last 15 years.

First grade is magical. It is my happy place. I hope to be here for a long time.
I’ve learned so many strategies, tips, and tricks in the last 24 years. From behavior management, to motivating students, creating a tight knit classroom community, or systematically teaching all students to make great strides in becoming independent readers…

I’m also learning how to do this job well, in a way that is sustainable and that doesn’t take over every aspect of my life. It’s not easy. I have had to be very intentional about managing my time, routines, and cognitive load in class, so that I can go home and have mental & emotional energy to give to my family.

It’s hard, but it can be done. I’d love to show you how to enjoy your teaching life in the classroom
and live your best life outside the classroom every bit as much.

Random Facts About Me

  • I am married to a great guy.
  • I am a boy mom, and I love it! My boys are 13 & 16 and being their mom is my greatest joy.
  • We have a HUGE golden retriever named Henry.
  • I love musical theater. All of it. Les Miserables is my favorite, but any live theater makes me happy.
  • I sing a lot. Like, a LOT. Too much, according to my boys.
  • I’m an artist. Long ago and far away, when the boys were tiny, I had a blog and sold my art on Etsy.
  • We got bikes last summer and we love to go for bike rides.

What can you expect to find here?

  • Tips for YOU, teacher friend! Anything that makes teaching more engaging, effective, or easy.
  • Engaging instructional routines & activities. If I’m bored, my students are bored. I’ve learned a LOT of different ways to infuse FUN into the most mundane classroom routines that I am eager to share with you.
  • Effective lessons and resources that actually work, because they are based on reading research. I can’t take credit. I just read the research, learn, and apply the research to the resources I make for my own students. I LOVE connecting the research to my students, and sharing it with you!
  • Easy. Okay, I don’t think this job will ever be easy, but how can we make this crazy job easier, so that it is sustainable? I want us both to be able to stay in the classroom, helping our kids, doing what we do best, for a long time. I love my job. I really do. But I don’t want it to be my life. I want to have a thriving life outside of my classroom without Sunday Night Scaries. I have worked really intentionally to create systems in my classroom that reduce my cognitive load so that I can be present, available, and light-hearted (read: not stressed out) with my students.

Let’s Connect!

I’d love to chat! My email address is: erin@primaryplaydate.com

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