It's been a long time coming...

Aloha and welcome to my very first blog post! This post is LONG overdue. Thank you to everyone in "my teacher tribe" including, but not limited to: Christie from My Mum the Teacher, Michalene from The Teacher in Me, Colleen from Totally Terrific in Texas, Michelle from Teaching Super Kids, Ashley from Sharp in Second, Ellise from Sister Sister, and my lovely friend and colleague, Megan (Instagram - @mrsmatsuzaki) for all the wonderful and varied ideas to use to help me get started with posting!!! <3

It's CRAZY and AMAZING how technology has provided us with so many opportunities to collaborate, share, network, and connect! The teachers I had growing up had nothing like what we have available today at our fingertips.  Social media platforms such as periscope and instagram instantly connect names to faces and locations from one part of the world to another.  One minute I can watch Maren from MalimoMode.com take a road trip in Norway, and the next minute I can watch Lindsey from Miss Johnston's Journey keep it real from the comfort of her own office on the mainland!  Doesn't this just. blow. your. mind?

One thing you need to know straight up is that I'm like Hermione... I write a lot.  Writing is one of my biggest strengths.  Also, I tend to ramble. I tend to think and talk... and walk way too fast.  Sorry if that doesn't float your boat, but I'm the girl that used to struggle to keep to a given maximum word count in school.  I know my blog won't be any different and with no given maximum... woohoo! I'm going ALL. OUT.

Many of you said I should simply introduce myself and give fun facts about me.  I don't want to give too much away in case I need some material for my first periscope! Ha!  But here goes..  My name is Cherilyn, but I go by Cher.  My mom was a "Cher" fan in the 1980s and when they adopted me from South Korea when I was a baby, mom wanted Cher to be short for something and so I became Cherilyn.  Come to find out later that my namesake is actually named "Cherilyn Sarskian."  Google it!  

As you may already know, I was raised in Hawaii and I will hopefully live here forever.  I have a younger brother who is a mechanic.  I am married to a wonderful man named Patrick and I have two fur babies at home.  Here's a picture from our wedding on October 4, 2011.  Yep, 10-4.  Can anyone guess where we are?  We got married in Las Vegas, but we held our reception in a hotel restaurant.  Where are we?

As for teaching, I have been a full-time classroom teacher since the 2010-11 school year.  I graduated from the University of Hawaii with a Bachelors in Elementary Education in 2009 and the following year, I substituted and taught K-6 music/drama part-time at the school I student taught at.  I was so fortunate that I had a strong, caring mentor teacher in the Spring of 2009 who let me spread my wings and helped me get my first job as an educator.

This will be my 6th year teaching and my fourth year in first grade.  I have taught at two different schools so far, but I hope I can stay at my current one to watch my kiddos grow up! :)

I've been saying that I want to blog for a couple of years now, so I'm glad that I am finally taking this opportunity to at least say to the world that I'm here on this little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

It's getting late and this post is getting too long so I will stop here.  Is there anything you want to know about me?  What should I blog about next?  Do you know about any link ups happening that I can join?  Anything you want to say?  Leave me some love and comments below.  Mahalo! <3