About Us

Meet Kelie
Hi! My name is Kelie Hall and I teach 3rd grade in sunny, Southern California.  I started teaching in August of 2012.  I was fresh out of college and had no clue what to do! Since then, I have had the opportunity to teach grades 1st-5th and have landed somewhere in the middle- teaching 3rd grade.  I have learned sooooo much along the way and have loved every minute of it!


I meet my hunky husband when we were 22 years young.  Life has been an amazing journey with him ever since!  We love to travel together and are always looking forward to our next adventure.  He works for Budweiser, doing data and sales analysis.  The perks of being married to a man who works for the beer industry are not too bad...


In August of 2007, we were blessed with our first son Brady.  He is he sweetest kiddo ever!  He is super creative and keeps us laughing with his sense of humor.  


Three years later, in December of 2010, we were blessed again- this time with out second son, Lucas.  He is our little firecracker!  He is a hands on type of guy, and is such a little helper.


I started selling resources for Teachers Pay Teachers in March of 2013.  I opened my store as a way to help teachers with what was then, the new "Common Core" standards.  For me, this was a huge change in my teaching. Before the new standards were put in place, I was mandated to teach strictly from the district adopted teacher's manuals. I love the creativity I have been able to bring into my classroom since then!  It makes me happy to be able to share the resources I have created with other teachers, and I get so excited to hear how they have helped others in their classrooms. 





Meet Karen

Me
Hello there! My name is Karen Busch and my store is Kinder Teamwork. It is safe to say I hate pictures and therefore don't have many... I am a wife, mom, landlord, resource creator, and ex-teacher. That's so hard to say... Let me tell you a little about myself.

I graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 1998 with a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Studies and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. I was hired in July 1999 by the Fontana Unified School District, in CA, to teach an S.E.I. (Sheltered English Immersion) Kindergarten class and was placed on an Emergency Teaching Credential. Ah, the good ol' days of CSR (Class Size Reduction) when teacher jobs were seemingly everywhere you looked. I was nervous because although I had two years of Spanish in High School and two classes of Spanish in College.... well... no hablo mucho espanol y no es muy bueno... or is it bien? See what I mean!? The principal assured me I would have a bilingual aide (again, the good ol' days before nasty budget cuts eliminated the "unnecessary" positions -insert eyeroll here-). It was a great year! I learned a LOT. I had a wonderful partner named Susan Lopez whom I learned SO MUCH from. I went on to teach First Grade, Second Grade, Fourth Grade, and Fifth Grade and even did a 1/2 combination class and a K/1 combination class (thumbs down on combos; parents, just say NO). But, I spent the majority of my years in Kindergarten where I felt happiest and most effective and appreciated.

In the 2014-2015 school year I was nominated by my school as Teacher of the Year. I then won against 44 other stellar teachers from other school sites throughout the district ranging from elementary school through high school. A kindergarten teacher; imagine that! 

When the 2014-2015 school year wrapped up my family and I picked up and moved to Missouri. Sadly, I am not qualified to teach my favorite grade, Kindergarten, here. I am now a stay-at-home mom, wife, landlord, and resource creator.

My husband and daughter
I met my husband in my second year of teaching in an online chatroom (pre Match.com or the likes), yes really! He was in Missouri. He got a round trip ticket to come and see me in person and never went back. :) He is a software engineer and works from home. I love him very much; even if he IS the reason I left my teaching career behind that I miss SO very much. But, what can I say? Relationships are give-and-take, right? He sacrificed for 13 years by being so far away from his family. He hated living in California; in fact, he hated EVERYTHING about California.  

My son & I at an Angel's Game
In February of 2002 we were blessed with a son. Zach is a sweet, fun-loving boy. I can't believe he is going into High School in the fall! He's also quite the chicken-whisperer. More on that later. 

My spunky daughter
In December 2006 we were blessed with a daughter. Aubrie is, as my aunt calls her, a pickle. Pictured above in one of our apartment units during renovation. She has ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder. She is very, very loving and loves to snuggle, even still at the age of 9. She is also very silly and funny. At times she creates so much drama and stress in our house, but we love her regardless. 

The Chicken Whisperer
In February 2016 we ordered 15 baby chicks (pullets = hens) from an online hatchery. They sent 17 but two didn't make it. This one grew up to be a beautiful rooster, much to our surprise. We call him Tails because when he was a little guy he didn't have any tail feathers. Ha! Tails hates me; he really, really hates me. Thank goodness for my son! He is able to tame the beast... for now anyways. We should have fresh eggs any day now and these guys will lay blue, green, or even pink eggs! I'm just a city girl trying to make it in the country now...


I started selling teaching resources on Teacher's Pay Teachers in January of 2014 after creating things for my own personal use and being urged by my husband and colleagues to take the leap to seller. I started out as Luvs2TeachinCA and changed to Kinder Teamwork with Laine from Little Peace of Africa's help. I enjoy making things to help teachers and their students. Some of my favorite Fontana colleagues keep me in the loop and send me requests for resources that I then share with everyone else via my store. I try my best to keep my prices affordable while realizing that my time IS worth something and that I have quite a bit of cost involved in creating the resources for fonts and clip art. Oh the clip art! I am quite an addict. In fact some months I have spent double my earnings in clip art. I MIGHT have a problem.... Ha!

My sister Brenda & I
In the summer of 2015, after settling into our new home in Missouri, I teamed up with Kelie. Kelie and I became friends through my little sister Brenda who teaches 2nd grade in Colton, CA. Kelie and I now share a collaborative Facebook page as well as this collaborative blog. I love having Kelie as a partner; she is truly an amazing and inspirational person...inside & out! ;)  I think it's safe to say you will know who wrote which blog post because I am the wordy one... I can't help it, honest! LOL. 

Thanks for reading my first post!





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