Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie Olson.
Hi Angie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. My career started with teaching kindergarten. Evenings and early mornings were spent creating games and activities in an attempt to get students excited about learning. It lit me up inside when an activity helped my students master their skills and have fun at the same time. A move to first grade in 2010 had me online trying to find as many ideas to help in this new grade level. Teaching blogs had just entered the scene and I felt like I hit the jackpot. I spent hours reading what other teachers were doing in their classrooms. This led to opening up my own blog to share ideas. The blog was titled Lucky Little Learners because I knew my focus was the younger elementary grades and the ideas would make students feel lucky to have the teacher they had. A whole new fire had ignited as the comments from teachers started to roll in on the blog. As the popularity of the blog grew, more and more teachers were asking for the lessons and activities that I was blogging about. In 2011, I opened up a storefront on Teachers Pay Teachers- a website for teachers to search for resources to purchase for their own classrooms. Again, that fire inside lit up even bigger as emails started coming in from teachers all over the world who were sharing photos and videos of my resources being used with their students. The impact reached past the four walls of my classroom and I got laser-focused on my hopes and dreams for continuing this. Fast forward to today, and we now serve and support thousands of teachers from all over the world with our curriculum-both on TPT and our All Access membership on the Lucky Little Learners website.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The pandemic was a huge hurdle for everyone, especially teachers and students. As teachers found themselves having to pivot over to teaching their students from home on Zoom, we immediately were faced with the unique struggle of having to turn our curriculum into a digital version that would work for young students. Team Lucky Little Learners started with our most popular product line- Toothy. Toothy is an activity where students solve a problem on a card, check their answer by turning the card over, and if it’s correct, they draw a tooth in Toothy’s mouth. We turned this activity into a digital activity that students could use in Google Classroom and Seesaw. Some teachers would use it on Zoom too. We figured out a way to bring animation and audio to the digital Toothy activities. Teachers (and parents) expressed appreciation and relief for having these digital Toothy games. This led to transforming most of our curriculum over to a digital version in addition to the printed version. In a challenging period of time, it felt extremely rewarding to be able to show up to serve and support teachers in this way.
As you know, we’re big fans of Lucky Little Learners. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Lucky Little Learners is a company made up of master teachers who have a desire to make a positive impact. Our #1 goal is to serve and support primary teachers. At Lucky Little Learners, the community is part of who we are and the heart of what we do. It is in this sense of community that we find our true power as teachers. Teachers who care, who show up, who work hard and who lead from kindness. Teachers who seek and find something that’s just a little bit more than our own classroom.
It’s a deep connection rooted in the heart of teaching and the human, compassionate side of a profession. We move beyond teaching as a technique and create a community connection that inspires hope and a love of teaching. We support one another, we connect with one another, we pass along our knowledge and share our passions.
We know teachers have the biggest hearts. And they spend their days giving all their heart in their classroom to not just help inspire their students but to build a future for all.
It’s why as teachers, we teach the whole child, not just the brain, as we draw from our personal heart-mind connection to teach students on a social-emotional level. But we also believe learning should be fun and teaching enjoyable for both the student and the teacher. With the right resources, teaching can spark a sense of hope and excitement that defines a better learning environment and a brighter tomorrow.
Because we are teachers, we know teachers and are the business that helps teachers. So, we bring teachers the quality resources they need to teach and lead from the heart to make an impact on our kids and hit every standard every time. It’s why Lucky Little Learners shows up. To help our helpers as we strive to be the very best community support in everything we do, and to provide those we empower with both teaching resources and a teaching community that truly is second to none.
We lead by example because our behavior, matched with our expertise, lets others see, hear and experience the true power of community empowerment. It is in this community connection that we inspire hope. In this community, we don’t just survive but we thrive. We are teachers.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Our team has been trained in current best practices and educational research. Every resource we create is carefully researched and intentionally designed to engage students and make an impact on our students’ abilities to master their learning targets. We design our curriculum to be aligned with the research from the Science of Reading, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.luckylittlelearners.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luckylittlelearners/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrsolsonluckylittlelearners
Image Credits
Amber Langerud Photography
