Welcome to Teacher Doodles!
Hello! My name is Kelly and I am the Owner for Teacher Doodles. The goal of Teacher Doodles is to make life easier for Kindergarten and First Grade Teachers. Before I get into all of that, I should probably tell you more about how I got here…
I am from a small town outside of Dallas where I spent most of my days playing sports and crafting in my spare time. I went to the University of Houston for one year as a bilingual education major and then transferred to Texas State University where I became a general elementary education major.
I graduated in fall of 2011 and got married in the fall of 2012 to my wonderful husband Nick! Together, we have one dog, Koopa! In the spring of 2013, I FINALLY got my first teaching position. 4th Grade! I was NOT ready for what was to come but I fought it out and finished out the year.
Then I was moved to first grade. Thank God for a team full of vets because I had no idea what I was doing. They were so helpful and I couldn’t have asked for a better team! 5 weeks later, I was moved to Kindergarten. I never thought I would ever teach anything under 3rd grade yet here I was. I spent 2 years teaching kinder before making the decision to teach closer to home. I got a job teaching 5th grade…. only to be moved again to another school teaching first grade due to low enrollment.
During this entire process of picking up and moving and learning to function in new environments quickly, I picked up a skill. I didn’t have the money to continue buying new worksheets, graphic organizers, and resources for my kids. I could never find exactly what I was looking for so I started making worksheets and resources that were visually appealing and “rigorous” enough for my kids. Word started to spread and I started creating for other teachers as well. I loved the creative side of education. I also started to realize that teachers were not getting everything they needed so they were having to spend their own money finding what they were looking for.
After 5 years in the classroom, I decided that it was time to retire. My passion for teaching children never went away. However, there is a new focus. That new focus is helping teachers in anyway that I can. I would love to say that I came up with the idea to create my own website but that is not the case. My husband gave me the idea. I sat on the idea for over a year before finally warming up to the idea. After months of preparation and creating, Teacher Doodles was born on February 2, 2018.
Since 2018, I launched another company called Courtside Homeschool Academy. We provided one on one elementary homeschool teachers for the children of professional athletes. I am so grateful to be still be able to help teachers along the way!