About Me

Recently my students were asked, “What does Mrs. Foxwell like to do?”

Their response: “Well, that’s easy! She loves to teach, read, and spend time with Mr. Foxwell!”

When you are passionate about something, it isn’t hard for the people around you to notice. My first graders know me pretty well and it made my heart smile that they could summarize what I like to do so succinctly.

 

I LOVE TO TEACH

The desire to teach began to grow in my heart from an early age. Much to the dismay of my poor little brother who regularly became my “student” I grew up playing school with the leftover papers from my teachers who loved to clean out their classroom and send them home with me! I will never forget how excited I was in elementary school when one of my teachers gave me a whole box of “teacher treasures” on the last day of school to use! (sorry brother!) Since those early days of playing school, I I have been blessed with many experiences throughout the years with children both in and outside of the classroom. This has included many cross-cultural trips, including a trip to Macedonia where I taught English for two weeks. And in 2010, upon graduating from college with my B.S. in Elementary Education K-6, my dream of being a teacher became a reality when I was given my own classroom as a first grade teacher!

To say that I love what I do, would be an understatement.  To have the opportunity to daily invest in the lives of students is an absolutely awesome privilege. Students are the heart of education and I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else! I love being able to creatively engage students with hands-on learning experiences and am so passionate about instilling a love of learning in each of their hearts as I help prepare them for 21st century success!

Not only do I love teaching, but I also enjoy sharing my passion with others through my blog, by creating engaging resources as a TPT Teacher-Author, and by traveling and speaking with educators! In December 2015, I was also named the 2016 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year and I feel so honored and humbled to represent this amazing profession!

 

I LOVE TO READ

Books are one of my favorite pastimes and it doesn’t take long for my students to discover that I have a deep-rooted love for the written word! If collecting children’s literature could be an Olympic sport, I would definitely be bringing home a medal. The children’s book section at any bookstore is my personal Kryptonite–I can’t resist. Just ask my husband–he knows we are walking out with at least one new addition to the classroom library!

I think that readers are born on the laps of their parents and on the carpets of their teachers!

I love bringing books to life with my first graders and opening up their world to the wonderful word of literature! I am so passionate about reading and teaching reading that I continued my education by getting my M.Ed. in Reading and am a certified PK-12 Reading Specialist. A love of reading and a love of learning go hand in hand!

 

I LOVE TO SPEND TIME WITH MR. FOXWELL

Teachers have a life outside of school? It’s true, we do. Even though my students are always surprised when they first realize that I eat lunch (“You eat lunch too!”) and go to grocery stores (since I need to eat lunch too!). But in first grade one thing that is always an important topic is friendship. Once one of my students introduced my husband to her mom by saying “Mom, this is Mr. Foxwell. He’s Mrs. Foxwell’s best friend!” It’s true–I am so blessed that my best friend asked me to be his wife and that I get to do life with him!

So when I’m not teaching I love spending time with my hubby (and best friend) :)! We look forward to our weekly date night and enjoy perusing local thrift stores for our next DIY project to add to our house!

We also love catching the latest episode of Fixer Upper and getting together with friends for game nights.