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Together We Are Better: DAY TWO

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Hey hey, friends!! It is time for day number TWO of Angie and my 3000 TPT follower celebration! 
Tonight is all about who inspires YOU?!?! I could go on forever about who inspires me as a teacher and who I have leaned and depended on throughout my teacher career.  Beyond my mentioning them in my 2nd video on Facebook {which you can also view below!), I wanted to share in a bit more detail, a few pictures, and a bit more behind the inspiration that some of my most favorite teachers in the world have brought to me.
Emily and I became best friends when we got to teach 1st grade together – RIGHT across the hall from each other!!   As you can see in the picture above, we were known to wear a costume or two when we taught! 
Emily and are best friends and teaching teammates for LIFE, and I am SO so glad that first grade brought us together.  Emily is the best 1st grade teacher EVER.  Like, there never needs to be another first grade teacher EVER.  She is SO creative – teaches in the most unique and most REAL ways – and CONSTANTLY is teaching me something new.  Whether it was a new idea to teach word families, a new chant to drill math facts, or coming up with a new snack to teach each layer of the rainforest {green food dye memories}  – Emily STILL continues to inspire me each and every day.    There is so much today that is a part of my teaching and a part of my classroom because of Emily.  
A true team sticks together no matter the distance between them as we are now 4 hours apart! 🙁 Sad face.  Leaving her side when I moved away from home was the hardest thing I ever had to do! I hope hope hope that we get to teach together again some day. <3 Until then, Panera will see us together as often as possible, and, NOW, we are bloggy buddies, too!! Check out her blog Polka Dots Please to read more about my best friend and to see and be inspired by the ENDLESS amounts of fabulousness that she is.  
LOVE YOU EM!

Hashtag sorry not sorry if you’re sick of hearing how much I adore Angie Olson from Lucky Little Learners.  As Angie mentioned in our launch video that you can watch {HERE}, we actually only met for the first time less than a year ago in Las Vegas at the 2014 TPT conference and, oh my stars, we were thrown right up onto #cloudten, the conversation was endless, our passion found its match!, our ideas were unstoppable, and the smiles, squeals, and tears {in the best way possible} were WAY too many to count.

I can’t put into words how much I love this girl nor how much she means to me!!  She is hard working, sweeter than pie, POSITIVE, brilliantly creative and OH SO TALENTED.  I am seriously her number one supporter and fan, and I know she’s one of mine, too! She has been there for my highs and my lows and everything in between across the course of this amazing last year as we’ve been by each others’ sides on our parallel TPT and blogging journey {how did we hit 3,000 at the same time?!} that we love – this journey that has brought us together-  and this journey that has brought you to us and us to you!  Angie is a forever friend that I am so so thankful to have in my life.   LOVE YOU, ANGIE!! Thank you for inspiring me every single day and for being my fellow morning person and #realbloggybestie for life.  #isitjulyyet

Guys!! Do you know Sarah?!?! Sarah is another DOLL of a friend of mine who has the most sincere, most beautiful, and most HUGE heart ever.  This girl’s positivity is like NONE other.  Her words, encouragement, positivity, ideas, challenges, and MORE inspire me every single day! I was THRILLED to get to meet this sweet sweet girl in Vegas last summer and am even more glad to call her a friend.  
Sarah hosts Monday Moments on her Facebook page that are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.  They will fill your Monday Morning heart with JOY and INSPIRATION!! I promise!! Head to follow her blog A Rocky Top Teacher and her Facebook page ASAP to see her latest Monday Moments videos! She is the SWEETEST!! Thank you, Sarah, for all of the beautiful inspiration that you share with us!!

Meet Aunt Susan! And my beautiful sister, Jenna, too! Aunt Susan was a 5th grade teacher before becoming a principal and she was and still IS an AMAZING teacher.  She thinks outside the box, she brings EVERY single lesson alive, she teaches to every learner, she LOVES to teach, and she shares her passion with her teachers in her building every day.  As I grew up, knowing that I wanted to be a teacher, I watched her – watched how much she loved what she did, watched how much time and energy and money she put into her classroom and her students. I helped her set up her back to school bulletin boards in August. I helped brainstorm ideas or songs that would go along with that perfect lesson that she wanted to put together.  She inspired me SO much to take that same passion and love and enthusiasm into my own classroom one day – which is exactly what I did! Aunt Susan is always letting me know how proud she is of me and the teacher that I’ve become, and coming from someone who has been SUCH an inspiration to me as an educator, that means more than the world to me! Love you, Aunt Susan!!
SO…… Who inspires you?!? You can watch our inspiration videos below as well as hear what our DEALS are for you tonight!, and then comment below with some love about who inspires YOU ?!?  We love you all!! TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER!
Head to Angie’s blog, too, to hear all about who inspires her!!