About Felicia

Hello there!  My name is Felicia Atwell MacFarland. I am a third-year teacher with a little bit of creativity and a whole lot of insomnia. This blog and photography are my outlets when I'm not in the classroom. I teach elementary ESOL full-time this year in Roswell, GA near Atlanta. My first year, I taught ESOL and EIP reading and math. In two years, I've taught every grade but 3rd. I love my ESOL students, and I love their journey. It's certainly not easy for them, but one day, they will be able to say they are fluent in multiple languages.

So, I guess I was a ham.  Here I am with my beautiful mother and grandmother in Tennessee. I saw the States and the world with them. These two are my heroes, and their stories are pure inspiration. This photo was taken by my dad, God rest his soul.

My grandmother, mother, aunt, and cousin are also language teachers. Thinking I had to be a pioneer, I first veered off the path and became a landscape architect and urban planner. That has since been left behind with no looking back. I also have and maintain (miraculously) a photography business, Atwell Photography. Teaching takes priority, and my students are my most important clients, so I'm trying to incorporate all of my crafts with this blog.

I almost gave up on snatching up a good one, but I'm glad I didn't.  Not all the good ones are taken, but I surely left one less good bachelor in the world. On the right is our four-legged baby, Diesel. He's either smiling for the camera or just enjoying the bliss of being on the beach.

I am married to my greatest cheerleader and my perfect partner, Jeff. We have a dog named Diesel whose name suits him... not at all. I'm an only child with a close-knit (most of the time) Vietnamese family in Alabama. That's where I get my love of language from since I learned Vietnamese at age 4. I miss the beach!! I would love to road trip aimlessly more often. I've been to nine countries, the latest being Liberia where I was blessed to student teach. Discovered recently that I hate weather (this was written in the middle of Atlanta's ice season, which I guess we have now). My guilty pleasure is celebrity gossip and crime stories. I'm a Mercer Bear and an Auburn Tiger. War Eagle!

As many photographs prove that I was there, I still have trouble believing that I was in Liberia, student teaching and being amongst such resilient and beautiful people. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm so glad I had zero qualms about going. The experience was unbelievable.

As worldly as I can be, I'm still a southern girl at heart that loves some SEC football. These boys were superstars during the years I attended Auburn University.  My husband was training them during the NFL off-season. I begged him to let me come and photograph the action. He said yes!!!! Jealousy from friends and family ensues.  =)

Blogging is my goal for 2014. So far, so good! I have loved sharing ideas and hearing ideas from fellow teachers. I think there is still room to teach students in a creative way. Some theories for teaching that are woven into my classroom and my lessons are from SIOP, multiple intelligences, cooperative learning, and play!! As a creative person, I recall how difficult it was to show that I'd mastered what I had learned, so I try to use as many best practices as possible. Testing was never my forte either, but at least I can make the learning part easier, accessible, and more fun for my early language learners so they have multiple opportunities to feel successful. Any of these practices will work for all students, which is the beauty of all this sharing business. =)

Am I a good teacher because I could hang out with these kids all day and just simply love to see their growth as young people and in their language acquisition? I sure hope so. At the very least, it's a good start, right?

So, please stick around for a while and look through the posts. It's great to have you here, and I hope that 2014 - 2015 is a year for meeting new readers to my blog and even other bloggers. It's great to have a network of happy and inspired teachers. My goals is to make it to the TPT conference this year. I've opened my store, but I know I can do better! We creative types need each other, and I look forward to being inspired and motivated by y'all.