Hello Steemit!! Welcome to the Beginning of my Journey!!

Well, It’s been almost a month since I lost my Steemit virginity and one might say there was no turning back. When I first signed up I really wasn’t sure what to expect. What to expect of the platform and what to expect of myself and how I would engage with the platform. It didn’t take very long for me to realize that I was REALLY going to enjoy this. (Back to this in a moment)

My name is Daniel and I am a teacher living in Ottawa, Canada. I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and moved to Ontario when I was 26. I am a proud father of 3 children who bring me joy and pain every day and whom I adore immensely. I am a very involved parent in all my kids do. Being part of a two home family my children need to have a dad who is 100% engaged and in everything they do. I wouldn’t have it any other way regardless of our situation. I have an amazingly supportive and loving partner. We all live together, her and her three kids plus me and my three kids. We are our own Brady bunch for sure. We love to get out and do activities with the whole clan. Sledding, hiking attending fairs and hitting the beach during cottage season are just a handful of the things that keep us busy.

I have been a teacher for almost 15 years now and I love every minute of my job. My move to education was a second career for me. I was working as a restaurant manager and decided that with a young family I needed to make a change. I looked at what my favourite part of my current job was. It was training and developing new staff and coaching them. I thought to myself, well maybe I’ll be a teacher. I started to volunteer in schools and went back to University to get my teaching degree and the rest is history.

I have taught all grades throughout the elementary and middle school levels. I have enjoyed each level in different ways. With the younger kids I always find it fascinating how they have the ability to absorb information and the sheer rate of development. I remember my first year teaching when I was teaching a grade one class and being so nervous. I mean, I was responsible for these kids learning the basics of how to read and write and lay the foundation for strong mathematical skills. What if I mess that up? Working with special needs students and students with learning disabilities (LD) is always so rewarding. In many cases these are the students who give the most effort and work the hardest to succeed. I have said many times that I wish I could give the perseverance and work ethic from one of my LD students to all of my regular students. Oh the things they could accomplish with just an ounce of that fight in them. Over the past few years I feel as though I have found my calling as teacher. I have been teaching grade 8 for the past few years and have come to realize that working with older students is very rewarding. I am passionate about critical thinking and character development and I am able to do that at a whole different level with the older kids. The relationships that you are able to build with your class change because these kids are able to add so much to what you are doing each and every day. I enjoy how I can introduce discussions to the group that spark passion and emotion and allow kids to come out of their shells and express themselves. Seeing those transformations as you are helping them prepare for high school is something that I look forward to each and every day.

I have a few passions in life beyond my family and my job. I am a T.V and movie lover. My partner and I love to binge watch the latest great show. Netflix has been a dream come true in our household. We watch it all from Sci-Fi, to crime dramas to superhero shows and beyond. Nothing says relaxing like sitting in front of a program with a glass of wine after the dealings of the day are done and the kids are all settled. We love wine and although we are far from connoisseurs we do feel like we have some knowledge of the sweet delicious nectar. Our favourite way to enjoy wine is by finding random bottles with great labels and trying them out. We have found some pretty amazing wines this way and as you can imagine have found some real duds. Seven Deadly Zins is one of our all time favourites!

I am a big sports fan. I love to watch and play all kinds of sports including hockey, baseball, golf and more. I coach sports at school and run sporting events for our school board. I must say though that my sports passion is football. I am a huge football fan and to be more specific a massive Denver Broncos fan. I am deeply involved in fantasy football. Sundays during the football season are football days. The statistics of the game are something I can’t get enough of and the building of teams in dynasty leagues makes the fantasy leagues relevant all year and long term rather than just one season at a time. I am involved in leagues that have been going on for over 10 years with a committed group of like minded friends. I could sit and talk football and players with anyone and not even realize the time passing.

Over the past few years I have rekindled a passion that I had forgotten about since I was a kid. I have become extremely passionate about fishing. I used to fish as a kid sometimes but now I have learned to love it from a whole different perspective. I picked it up again while at a cottage a few years back and having the opportunity to take my kids out fishing. They absolutely loved the whole experience and my daughter actually caught the biggest bass I had ever seen. Now we go fishing all the time. We have a nice little boat that we use to get out on the lake as much as possible. From the relaxing on the lake to the excitement of the fish on your line we can’t get enough of the experience. As spring approaches I am already chomping at the bit to get the boat ready.

So back to my time here on Steemit so far. I have fallen hook, line and sinker into Steemit (see what I did there?) and I can’t imagine having not been involved in a platform like this before. I have always wanted to write, even thought I would write a book someday. Steemit has provided me with an opportunity to explore that passion. At the same time I am learning a great deal from some of the amazing bloggers here. If you take the time to look for it you can find some pretty incredible content here on Steemit. Another things that has drawn me in deeper is the community. Being a new user on Steemit it can be difficult to get yourself out there and known. The sheer number of posts going up every minute can be overwhelming. I learned that the best way for me to get involved in the community was through the comments on the posts that I was really enjoying. Through this I have had some great experiences that have made me feel more comfortable here. In my first couple of days I found the blog of a fellow Broncos fan. I made a few comments on his blog and he took the time not only to respond but to visit my blog and get me started with a couple of upvotes on articles I had created. Thank you @broncnutz for that introduction to the Steemit community. Around the same time I was also very fortunate to find a contest post by @bigram13. It was a joke contest and somehow I won. This led me to become a follower of his and his replies to my comments were very complimentary and encouraging. This meant a lot because it is just so hard to get noticed. Thank you for that.

Not too long after that I met someone on the platform who has changed my experience exponentially for the better. @hanshotfirst is also a teacher and someone who posts very informative and well written blogs. He is a self proclaimed “geek” who loves movies, being a dad and education. Through his posts I quickly realized that we had a lot of similar interests and experiences. I started following and commenting on his posts. He made me feel welcomed by responding and when he realized I was also a teacher he encouraged me to write about the stuff I know best. Education. He told me about @steemiteducation and suggested I check it out and try writing some stuff. I followed his advice and the response has been fantastic. I am enjoying writing these types of articles very much. Thank you very much @hanshotfirst for not only making me feel welcome here on Steemit but for helping give me the courage to start producing some of my own content and making me feel like I have a purpose on Steemit.

Well, I think that's enough about me for now. I am looking forward to all that lies ahead here at Steemit. This is only the beginning and with the potential of this platform and the passion it is building in me I can only imagine where we will go from here.

Thanks for taking the time to read my introduction and I look forward to seeing many of you along the journey.

@broncofan99

Sources Pictures Teaching,Wine,Netflix,Bronco,logo,Thank you