Greetings, and welcome to the new abcteach blog!
My name is Sandy Kemsley. I am a former teacher and the owner of abcteach. As a teacher, I always loved brainstorming new ideas to help teach a lesson and make learning fun for all learners. During my first year teaching, I was asked to go to the local university to speak to college professors about our “new teaching methods”. I had had a study abroad in England and had learned about theme units and differentiated learning decades before they became the norm in American schools. That trip to the local university was a scary ride. What would I have to offer? I was a new teacher; what could a professor learn from me? After a nervous start, I relaxed… and the joke for many years to come was that I couldn’t shut up once I started talking about teaching. Teaching was my passion, and my excitement easily overcame any nervousness, whether I was talking to a classroom of fourth graders or a group of college professors.
When I started abcteach eight years ago, I wanted to share ideas with student teachers, teachers, and parents. abcteach has grown a lot, but my staff and I have never lost sight of the initial goals: welcome new ideas; help teach lessons; make learning fun. Until now, we have primarily focused on printable, straight-to-the-classroom materials.
I have decided to start a blog to communicate new ideas that don’t always fit into a pdf document format. These are all ideas that I hope will be helpful and that may even inspire new ideas from you. My staff and I will share tricks for creating custom pages with our abctools, ideas for lessons using our worksheets, and helpful hints for differentiating your teaching.
As with everything on abcteach.com, this blog will evolve as needed to become a helpful resource. We look forward to communicating new ideas on a regular basis. Check back, or subscribe to our RSS feed and never miss a post. I look forward to your company on this new blog adventure!
Posted by Sandy Kemsley, Founder