Greg Smedley-Warren
β"Mr. Greg"
Howdy! I am Mr. Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard. I am the co-founder and co-host of ELEVATE! My real name is Greg Smedley-Warren. I have been teaching for 17 years. I spent a year teaching fifth grade, two years in second grade, and am now in my 14th year in Kindergarten. Kindergarten is my passion and my calling but honestly, that wasn’t how it started. When I was moved to Kindergarten (not voluntarily!) I called my mommy and cried. But on the first day, I fell in love and knew that Kindergarten is where I belonged. I have remained in Kindergarten ever since. I plan to never leave the classroom as the kids are what drive me to continue my growth as a teacher and person.
I received my bachelors degree from Indiana University and received my ELL certification from David Lipscomb University. At the beginning of my career I spent two summers teaching in Ecuador which only helped to fan the flames of my passion for teaching. In 2015 I was selected as Teacher Of The Year by my peers. I have a monthly broadcast on YouTube called Submission for Smorgie LIVE. I enjoy blogging, creating curriculum and resources for my classroom and conducting professional development sessions to help teachers around the world make their classrooms a more fun, effective and interactive place to teach.
When I’m not in the classroom, blogging and doing all things teach, I enjoy spending time with my family. I live in Nashville, Tennessee with my husband (known as The Mister on my blog) our daughter, Adelynn and our dog, Butters.
Jason Warren "The Mister"
"Hi, I am Jason, otherwise known as "The Mister." I handle all things behind the scenes at The Kindergarten Smorgasboard. I am the co-founder and co-host of ELEVATE! I graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in Finance. I worked in finance my entire career until the summer of 2016, when Mr. Greg and I determined that TKS needed a dedicated full-time person.
Since then I have worked tirelessly at helping to spread Mr. Greg's teaching style, resources, strategies, techniques, tips & tricks far and wide. When you send an email or communicate with TKS via social media, it is likely me that you are communicating with. I also assist Mr. Greg with planning and brainstorming ideas for classroom resources and activities.
βLast but not least I develop, plan and coordinate our ELEVATE! Conferences from the ground up. This allows Mr. Greg to focus on the workshops and sessions to make sure they are glitterific. Since education was not my field of study or expertise it has been an amazing adventure learning from all the interactions that I now have with educators. I look forward to each day knowing that it will bring with it another exciting and fun-filled experience from classrooms around the world."