Kim's Teacher Blog

 Dear Parents: Please allow me to introduce myself, Kim Blake, and I will be your child's teacher this school year.  I am very excited to be working with you, your child, and this class of third grade students.  I am very passionate about teaching and guiding young minds in their educational journey. Here is a little background on me: I graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1992 and I am currently pursuing a master's degree in Elementary Education from the University of Minnesota.  I have been working in the Anoka Hennepin School District for the past 8 years as a substitute teacher in grades K-12 covering all subjects.  For the past three years I have been working primarily at Monroe Elementary as a long term substitute teacher in grades kindergarten, second, fifth and art. I have several core values as a teacher: high expectations, making a difference in student lives, and flexibility.  As parents/guardians of these third graders there are several ways that you can

I spent years thinking that meditation was complete gibberish and not something I would ever take in, part especially on a daily basis.  I would occasionally, take part in a quick 2-3-minute session here and there or when someone would send me a link to a new app.  I never felt any differently, so I never went back to it.  I was then given a task to do this consistently for 10 days.   Intentionally creating Headspace in my life has been a game changer in many ways.  Every morning when I wake up, I lay in bed and turn on my Headspace app for my daily meditation.  I feel that it has enabled me to be more grounded, motivated, focused, calmer, handle stress better and to be more intentional about myself when I am doing things. We are all so busy these days with family, work, school and life that we forget that we need to take time for ourselves to just relax and destress.  All of our issues will still be there whether we are stressed or not stressed about things.  I have learned to take th