As I Went Along…

Dear Readers,

Yesterday, the first day of school, I did something I’ve never done before. I completed the day’s ppt. as I went along. The problem was that I had to unexpectedly do my braids. Usually my sister braids my hair, but she was really tired and I didn’t want to burden her. The problem is that it took about 6.5 hours to complete. After I finished braiding my hair, I still had to complete my powerpoint. Another problem was that I did not have it in me to complete any ‘real’ work. I was trying, but it just wasn’t happening. So, what I did was complete the first half of the presentation and went to bed at 2:30 a.m.

This is how it all went down. I planned for the students to complete:

• a Silent First 5ive (It’s basically a MUST DO)
• agenda & objective review,
• Syllabus review,
• Resource Lab Mission Statement, Purpose, Structure, & Focus
• Learning Styles Survey
• S.M.A.R.T. Goals video & worksheet
• 3 Reasons for Plan Failure (No plan, No follow through, Taking too long to follow through)

I knew that I had the information on one of my previous power points, but was out of time and too tired to look for them. So, I made the power point with the Silent First 5ive handout, readied the syllabus, learning style survey, smart goals, & 3 Reasons for Plan Failure for printing the next morning, I cut and pasted the Resource Lab Mission Statement, asked the question: What is the purpose of Resource Lab, the new structure & focus of the Resource Lab. I did not have the S.M.A.R.T. goals video or a real plan for 3 Reasons for Plan Failure. As the students completed the activities, I disconnected my laptop from the projector, went to my desk and finished and/or refined the presentation.

I’m not sure if this would have been stressful for you, but it was stressful for me. I like to have everything completed before I step into the class. As a matter of fact, I like to plan at least 2 weeks ahead of time. Here’s a link to my Weekly Focus Plan (click here).

I will NOT be doing this again anytime soon. As I type this, I’m finishing up my lesson plans for the next 3 weeks.

I’ll keep you updated. Bye for now!

Find Your Marigold by Jennifer Gonzales

Dear Readers,

I found this great article extolling the virtues of staying positive and away from negative nellies at work

It’s entitled, Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule for New Teachers. Here’s the link: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/marigolds/

The article is long, but well worth the read. Here’s the article in its entirety:

You Know You’re A Teacher On Summer Vacation If… by Melanin Kidz

Hey Dear Readers,

I read this post on Melaninkidz. Here it is:

You Know You’re A Teacher On Summer Vacation If…

Monday, June 26, 2017

During the school year, you’re standing and raising your voice much more often than you would at home. Bathroom breaks are few and far in between and when you finally coerce a fellow teacher to watch your class while you sprint to the restroom, the chances of you coming back to a chaotic classroom are much exponentially higher.

If you work in a special education classroom like I do, strong vocal chords are imperative to restoring order when Maria decides to mercilessly taunt Joshua for all to hear when they’re supposed to be doing a quiet activity. However, this is June and you’ve gone back to civilian life where you can sip on your coffee in complete serenity right? Well here are 17 off-the-clock teacher moments that haunt Sped and Gen Ed teachers alike:

1. You’ve gotten used to fighting the urge to use the restroom so you sometimes still hold it while you’re at home.

2. You’ve organized all your summer plans in your calendar down to the hour.

3. If you don’t eat lunch during your school’s lunch time, you feel like you’re starving to death.

4. You wake up at 6:30 am every day because your body’s natural clock won’t update

5. You are extremely tired around 9:30 PM.

6. You’re directing your significant other/spouse around to do tasks around the house as if you were delegating tasks out to your students.

7. You begin to feel so unproductive and restless that you start lesson planning two months in advance.

8. You read books focused on teaching/education in the summer because you can’t help it (if you’re lucky they’re mandatory reading from your principals lol).

9. You see kids misbehaving in public and get sudden urges to give them consequences.

10. You refuse to go to any event that may have a lecture/Q&A because of the trauma you’ve experienced from attending too many PD’s.

11. You aren’t obsessed with using as much Lysol and other germ prevention chemicals.

12. Unless you have children, you rather not go to any event that has too many kids in one place.

13. After you’ve been on your laptop for about 15 minutes at home, you still expect a child to tap you on your shoulder and ask you to tell Jonathan to give her her pencil box back.

14. You’re overprepared for every single summer event you go to.

15. You catch yourself laughing out loud at something funny a student said to you during the school year while in the car by yourself.

16. You eat painfully slow and stretch out your lunches to 1 hour and a half or more because you can since you can finally taste your food.

17. You finally come to terms with that fact you’ve worked hard all year and summer vacation is one of the best perks of the profession.

Happy Summer!

 

As always, here’s the link: http://www.melaninkidz.com/2017/06/you-know-youre-teacher-on-summer.html

Stop Playing the Shame Game! by Janet Thomas

Here’s a great post I read and vibed with it. The author, Janet Thomas, discusses shame and how you handle it. I was blessed by it. Read it and decide for yourself:

 

https://www.janetdthomas.com/stop-playing-shame-game/

 

Burnt Out!

Dear Readers,

I am burnt out! I’m fighting, but it’s sooooooooooooooo hard!!! My burn out is taking the form of:

• going to bed late
• waking up late (as a result of going to bed late)
• not being as productive as I can be
• wasting time at work
• leaving things at home

I’m going to be Captain Obvious here and say that I don’t like being burnt out. I only have 7 more school days after today. I know I’m going to make it. It’s just hard getting there.

 

Forgiveness by Tony Evans

Dear Readers,

I just read an excellent article on Forgiveness from a blog I subscribe to, written by Tony Evans. The web address is: http://tonyevans.org (The Urban Alternative)

Here’s the article, in its entirety:

LISTEN to Today’s Radio Broadcast from Tony Evans

– CARING ENOUGH TO FORGIVE – “As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion… bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” — Colossians 3:12-13 Many of us today find ourselves held hostage by a leash. The links in the chain are anger, bitterness, resentment and revenge. All these, however, come down to one thing—unforgiveness. Unforgiveness holds us hostage. And when we try to pull away, it pulls us right back, and we find ourselves prisoners of what someone else has done to us or, perhaps, what we have done to ourselves. Most of us think forgiveness is a good idea—until we have to give it. Forgiveness does not mean approving a wrong or excusing an evil. Forgiveness is not necessarily the reconciliation of a relationship. The word forgiveness in the Greek means to release. Forgiveness is the choice to release a person from an obligation for a wrong committed against us. In the New Testament times, the word was used when canceling a debt. Why is there a struggle in our hearts to forgive what someone has done? Because there is a bill out there that has not been paid. We insist on being paid, yet years go by, and the offender won’t pay the bill. Forgiveness always involves a bill, a sin against us that no one has paid yet. But God says to forgive one another. For His kingdom, Tony Evans

On The Alchemist…

Dear Readers,

Although I knew about The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, I only recently I read it. The book had so many profound truths. As I was annotating the book I was surprised at the amount of take-aways I got from the book. I got so many, but the following is what I thought was one of the most important messages put forth by the book:

Fear is the ultimate blocker. According to Paulo Coelho, ” One should never give in to fear. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.”

There have been many times in my life that I have been unable to talk to my heart. I didn’t know which way was up, so to speak! I was, as a ship, tossed to and fro, with no stability.

I have a simple prayer on my heart. It is that I will always listen to and follow my heart.

In life, sometimes we’re receptive to the truth; sometimes we’re not. When we’re not, we miss out on so many of life’s treasures. However, when we are receptive, we are ONE, we listen with our heart, and receive what it is that God has for us.

I’m at a place in my life where I need to listen to my heart. I’m at a strategic inflection point. I need to make a major decision, and I need to make a decision not borne of fear.

Prayerfully & heartfully yours!!!