About Me

I share Aristotle's belief that, "Educating the mind without educated the heart is no education at all." Therefore the key's to successfully reach an entire classroom full of unique individuals are provided in my products.

My Background
I graduated from Doane College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English/Language Arts, certified to teach 7-12 graders.

Immediately after graduating I began working in a Title 1 school, focusing my attention on failing readers. Most of my students came into my classroom reading below grade level. I also entered my first year of teaching without a curriculum, so I created one. During this time I was also going back to school to receive my Masters of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and I was getting married. 

Needless to say it was a busy time of life.

Three years after graduating from Doane, I graduated from the same school with my masters, spent 5 years in the classroom, and then decided I was going to spend the first five years of my children's life at home with them. Being a wife and mother is most important in my life, but I will always be a teacher. I'm a teacher-mom first and foremost, but this calling to be a teacher began as a little girl and the training for it began over a decade ago already!

Since graduating I've worked as a...

• junior high reading teacher for 5 years.
• high school track and field coach.
• speech coach.
• tried my hand at directing a musical.
• junior high basketball coach.

Immediately after taking a sabbatical from the classroom I worked in education by...

• tutoring struggling readers from my home.
• taught my own kindergartner how to read.
• pursued the classical education approach to learning.
• pursued my Reading Specialist degree.
• pursued becoming a certified Apple Teacher. 
• took on a part time job in the library as the cataloguing and technical librarian.
• became a 5th-6th grade bible study teacher, to teach them about what the Bible says about God, and who He created them to be.

All of which have made me a better teacher, especially since becoming a mother. I've learned more about being a teacher in the last six years of motherhood, than I did in the classroom. To me that is significant. Perhaps it's the blessings of motherhood paired with my own personal professional pursuits listed above, but I feel the gains made as a teacher while out of the public school "classroom"  cannot be discounted. I've never left my calling, I've just accomplished it differently.

With that, I feel blessed to share what I created to help my students succeed, with you.

Why RafiKey's to Success?

My brother's nickname for me is Rafiki (and has been for many, many years). He says I'm wise. (Thank you Matt!)

I also had a classroom expectations bulletin board in my room that was titled "Key's to Success", which contained the following expectations:

• Be kind (even if you don't feel like it).
• Be respectful.
• Treat others as You'd Wish to Be Treated.
• Work Hard.
• Know that Learning is a Life-Long Process

These truths embodied what I believe to be life's key's to success. We spent the first two weeks on these expectations using a unit on bullying. (See my TeachersPayTeachers page.)

Perhaps this is my way of sharing a bit of teaching wisdom.

Want to know more about me?

• To learn more about me personally and my family, visit: beckylelowery.blogspot.com
• To learn more about what I create in my "free" time (using old books) visit my Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RebeccasReReaders or my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/rebeccas_recycledreaders/ 

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