Hi! My name is Neelly and I am completely new to the whole blogs, but am excited to give it a try.  I am running head first into this blog because I am currently working on my master degree through Western State Colorado University.  I graduated from high school a few years ago.  I immediately knew that I wanted to become a teacher.  I worked hard to get through my undergraduate in four years.  I had a few horrible experiences in my undergraduate the made me rethink becoming a teacher a few times.  However, the kids always brought me right back to it.

 Once I graduated from my undergraduate program, I decided that maybe I wasn’t ready to have my own classroom, yet I knew I still wanted to be working in the school and with kids.  This is how I found the master’s program at Western. I did an internship in special education in Gypsum, Colorado while working on adding my special education endorsement through the coursework.  Through my internship, I applied for, interviewed, and received the opportunity to work as a paraprofessional one on one with a student.  This was a challenging assignment, but one that I fully enjoyed.  The best part of this job was having the opportunity to go back and visit this particular student this year and seeing his successes continue.  From that experience, I knew that I immediately wanted to get a job where I could spend an entire year working with students.  I am now teaching 5^th and 6^th grade students in a small school in eastern Colorado.  I love these students although, the job can be challenging some days.

I am constantly looking for new ways to help my students.  I have a passion for finding something that helps each and every student.  I want them all to be as successful as possible.  Because of this, I was lead to my action research project.  I have chosen to look at the different aspects of spelling that could help or prevent students from achieving.  I noticed that some of my students are still struggling with spelling, often other areas of literacy too, even the most basic of words going into 5^th and 6^th grade.  This made me wonder how effective our spelling program was for these students as this is what they are accustomed to. This is where I will be focusing my attention for the next few months.