Welcome to Nurtured Potential!

I am Allison and I’m so honored you are here. I am a teacher at heart who can never pass up an opportunity to share information with someone – from my first grade students to the person in line behind me at Target.  Luckily, that teaching compulsion comes in handy — I have been a first grade teacher for over 15 years, and also previously taught 5th grade and subbed in grades K through 5. I have especially strong passions for early literacy learning and classroom libraries, creating a love of learning and reading in my students, classroom management and building classroom communities, working with ADHD students, child development and parent education, and purposeful teacher and parent word choice when working with students.

Along with being an educator, I have a degree in Rhetoric and Media Studies – my alma mater’s fancy name for communications and public relations. I love combining my background in communications and my love for using the right words in any situation to enhance my teaching and my work with children, including my own children at home. I have seen time and time again that even a slight tweak in the way you say something to a child can make a HUGE difference in their response, their mindset, their self-esteem, their compliance and their behavior. I love finding the perfect phrasing in all kinds of situations to help children grow and embrace learning! 

After a crazy hectic day in the classroom or at home, the one thing that can always soothe me is organizing something… Ahh, the bliss! From organizing a concept I’m trying to teach my students, to organizing the linen closet, the construction paper drawer in my classroom, my son’s sock drawer, the staff room fridge or anything else, when I’m organizing I’m in my “flow”. After a bit of me-time and with a newly functional organized space, all is right with my world again. It makes things feel like at least one little part of the world is under control and organizing is certainly my favorite diversion during report card season. 🙂 (Anyone with me here?!?)

My husband, Tim, is a cheerfully optimistic and playful guy who loves art, sports and connecting with children – and is an amazing Dad. He is an animator and character designer who knows how to have serious fun and draw some awesome stuff. Ever seen an esurance commercial with the animated spy-girl with pink hair, flown Virgin America Airlines a few years ago and watched their animated, in-flight safety video, or have a child who watched Sheriff Callie’s Wild West on Disney Junior? All projects that Tim animated or created the characters for! Tim is known for his ability to create “cute” in his character designs and is bringing that to our blog, freebies, Teacher’s Pay Teachers products and clip art. Tim is passionate about teaching people that they CAN draw, and I’m a testament to his success in imparting the simple ways to approach drawing with doable, step-by-step strategies — and without freaking out!

Tim and I are always eager to grow, have fun and try something new together. We’ve done everything from taking gymnastics classes with friends at age 30 and playing co-ed adult soccer together, to designing our own holiday cards and figuring out how to create a blog and online business. Both of us enjoy seeing the potential in things and doing DIY of all sorts -from my pottery, photography and pinterest crafting, to Tim’s animating, drawing and painting to our joint love of throwing elaborate birthday parties, creating amazing halloween costumes, using power tools and tackling home renovations. We also love finding little ways to de-stress and add fun to our daily work and family life – Such as doing our family “horfy-dorfy” dance together, writing silly names on the bags of food in our freezer and finding small ways to bring awe and joy into our lives.  We live in the San Francisco Bay Area with our two young sons — Ry-guy, who is almost two, and G-man, our eight-year-old. 

For over 10 years, I’ve been navigating autoimmune disease. I’m a researcher at heart and never settle for “somewhat acceptable”, so I’ve pulled from western medicine, eastern medicine, functional medicine and other approaches to find the best ways to manage chronic illness and massive fatigue without horrible side effects that further ruin my body — always with hope and faith that there is improvement, remission and/or a cure right around any upcoming corner. Many people who know me well consider my will-power to be a strength — The cornerstone of managing autoimmune disease and food sensitivities over the past 4 years has been a drastic elimination diet of everything I react to, but that is absolutely worth it when the trade-off is not having to take medications with horrible side effects. I have stuck to it like glue and am so proud of my efforts and the resulting outcomes for my health! It must be noted, though, that my will-power does not transfer to my ability to get to bed on time. As a night owl, I lose that will power battle most days of the week.  🙂