Melissa from First Grade Smiles

Hey, hey!!!!  We are almost done with our introductions and I hope you've been able to enjoy some good reading about some amazing bloggers and snagged your freebies along the way.  We are just trying to make this adventure as SUPER as we can for our fabulous readers.  If you haven't already, follow us here, on Facebook, and on Instagram to keep up with the fun!!!

Now for some quick deets about me:

I am Melissa Machan and I blog over at First Grade Smiles.

This is my 13th year teaching (Lucky 13, right??? - I hope).  I taught 4th grade for 2 years, 3rd grade for 8 years, and am in my 3rd year of 1st Grade and I am TOTALLY staying forever if they let me.  Man, I just love these little firsties - runny noses, untied shoes, and all!  Most of all, I LOVE feeling like such an important part of their education and seeing SO much growth by the end of the year.  I did love 3rd grade (4th - not quite as much), but I really knew I wanted to be able to help lay a great foundation for my little ones and first grade seemed like the best place for me to do that.  

Here is my quick Primary Powers Bio:

My SUPERPOWER is not necessarily that great, but boy am I good at it!!!  Just about every single night I sit down on the couch, grab my computer to do some work, and oh, about 2 1/2 minutes later I am drooling and snoring (I don't think I really snore ;).  I try SO hard to get my work done, but after a long day of teaching and tying shoes (I probably do both of these an equal amount throughout the day) and then coming home to my wonderful family and doing family stuff - I am just exhausted!  

My SUPER FOOD is Chicken Riggies and if you don't know what they are then you are seriously missing out and I'm sorry about that.  This dish is amaze-balls (in the words of my fellow Superhero Molly)!  I think it's an upstate NY thing, but it should be an everywhere thing - just sayin'!  

And I do get my SUPER STRENGTH from my family (first and foremost), but also lattes and wine.  So what I mean is my morning strength comes from lattes (or just coffee is fine too) and my evening strength from wine (not every night and please refrain from drawing the obvious conclusion between this and my super power here), then the rest of the day is filled with strength from family.  I mean, look at these 3 - who wouldn't find strength in them???

I should also add that I get so much strength from my friends as well.  Not just my blogging buddies of course, but now is a great time to give a shout out to some of my inspiring fellow superheroes because without them you wouldn't be reading about me right now (and I'm so happy that you are).  

Here's to some Vegas fun where this whole idea of a blog came about!  

Can you name the superheroes in these pictures????

And more recently some fun in NYC with these great ladies.

Of course there are the other superheroes that I haven't had the privilege of meeting in person, but gosh darnit I will one of these days!  This is one great group of gals and I am SUPER lucky to be joining forces with them (see what I did there) :-)

Now are you ready for my superhero themed freebie?  I thought so.  This is a snippet out of an upcoming pack of mine.  I hope you like it!

Soooooooo happy you joined me here today - in fact, one might say I am SUPER happy (I just can't stop myself)!!!  Hope to see you back again soon.  I'd love if you introduced yourself to me in the comments - you could even share what your super power is (all teachers have them, ya know!).