Friday Favorites

Holy cow. School at the end of the year as a teacher is NO joke. Right now I have six 4th graders who just want to run and play outside instead of study for their state science assessment. And honestly, I don't blame them! To celebrate another successful week I'm joining Erika, Narci, and Andrea for Friday Favorites!

I feel like each Friday I sing a Friday-themed song and today I woke up singing one of my absolute favorites...N'SYNC :) All day I have "Thank god it's Friday night and I just (ju-ju-ju-juuuust) got paid! (money money money money)" I have never been happier to see a Friday! This weekend I have some fun plans with my friends, some dinner plans with my family, and hopefully I'll revive the garden I destroyed last week. They say that self-care is the most beneficial thing special educators can do for themselves and their students, right? Self-care is most certainly a favorite this week!

After I fell off track for a couple weeks, my lunch prep routine is back on thanks to the lunch series Double Dose of Learning has been blogging about. Their 4-part series has been really helpful, especially those lunches for the anti-Pinterest teacher. The last installment of this series is going to be posted soon but check out their page for their current posts!

Have you seen the new dry erase crayons that Crayola came out with? They've been all over the teacher Instagrams and I decided to test them out myself! I just bought the regular ones from Amazon and I'm still deciding if I like them. They're certainly fun! They write like a crayon but wipe off like an Expo marker. My only complaint is that they're not as vibrant as typical white board markers and they can sometimes be difficult to see. Below is a picture of the dry erase crayons compared to a white board marker.

So I haven't done a really great job of highlighting the actual design of my classroom BUT I refer to it as my "home away from home." Some weeks I've spent more time in my classroom than in my house, so it needs to be comfortable, organized, cute, and oh-so-perfect. If you really stepped inside my classroom you'd notice that glitter and sparkles are everywhere...

P.S This Solar System Unit is from Double Dose of Learning!

Recently I discovered that Kate Spade came out with a line of Keds and oh-my-glitter, they were beautiful. I just knew that I had to have them. Of course, I picked out the gold glitter :)

I wore these to my student's baseball game last weekend. It's the little things, like getting a giant wave from your student when he's in the outfield because he recognizes you by your sneakers!

Five

I needed to save my favorite "Friday Favorite" for last this week! My students are so unique in their needs and I'm constantly spending money out of my pocket to purchase little prizes, snacks, and school supplies to keep my kiddos engaged that I usually don't think to spend the additional money on "extras." Unfortunately, these little "extras" are the things that my students need. Therefore, I decided to start a Donors Choose page for my classroom. On a whim I posted two projects: one for culturally relevant books and another for self-regulating materials. To my surprise, both were funded extremely quickly! Below are some pictures of our new classroom supplies...

Currently I have one classroom project that I'm really, really hoping to get funded during our extended school year session! My students come from really challenging backgrounds and their families are unable to donate , so I rely on kind people of the world to help me and my sweet students raise the funds for such materials. You can check out our current Donors Choose project and see what we're currently asking for. Hyperactivity is THE perfect word to describe my kiddos and if you check out my project request, you'll see exactly what I mean :)

Happy Fri-YAY!

Using Dogs for Classroom Management

Holy cow it's been a while since I've posted! The good news is my students and I survived the hiatus that is called Christmas/February Break/Spring Break/State Assessments, and we even managed to work in some extra privileges so far this year! 

Back in August my family adopted a new dog, named Cece, she's a beautiful French Bulldog and brings us so much happiness everyday! Now that she's a year old, her puppy-terror has calmed down quite a bit, although she still has her phases.

Just look as her adorable face...oh I could just squish it!

Obviously, my puppy love followed me into my classroom, where I routinely talk about Cece, show videos, display pictures, and use her as an example. We even measured her during our measurement math unit. My students LOVE my little Cece!

She even inspired my "#happy" wall where I post pictures of things that make us happy...currently I have pictures of my pup, my coworker's dogs, my aide's dog, my student's dog, my class doing yoga, my student being silly, and one of my student's beloved art projects. Our class loves updating this little wall every so often :)

My students love my Cece so much that they even asked to earn their very own picture of her. And of course I was so excited for it. One student of mine asked, "Ms. Katie, the next time that I have an all green day, can I have a picture of your Cece?" Insert heart eyes emojis!! In my class the students receive colors based on their behavior and these colors reflect their daily behavior log. The phrase "all greens" is something my students know as a perfect behavior day.

At the front of my class I have my very own teacher chair that I sit in during instructional periods. It was a cheap $20 chair from IKEA and I bought it because I was so tired of standing all day. It became an instant love in our classroom. I told my students that if they sat in the chair without permission, they would owe me three Barracuda Bucks, which our school's students earn for positive behavior. I randomly found a French Bulldog pillow at Home Goods that looks exactly like my Cece and of course I had to have it. Look at the resemblance!

My Cece pillow sits on my teacher chair at the front of the room and it's the perfect addition to our little slice of heaven (I use that term very loosely!) I allow my students to sit in my Cece chair when they a) ask permission, b) have an all green day, c) when it's at an appropriate time of the day, and d) when it won't cause a potential argument among students :) I have one student in particular who STRIVES to earn time in my teacher chair at the end of the day. When he does, he looks so proud sitting at the front of the room with a Cece pillow on his lap. Oh my teacher heart explodes when we have successful days like that!

Recently my sweet pup celebrated her first birthday and of course we had a birthday party for her! The next day at school I bribed my students with her dog party videos...obviously it worked!

This job has certainly taught me to use any type of motivation to keep my students focused, polite, safe, and responsible!

Teacher Tribe

Ever heard of the saying "find your tribe and hold them close"? I find this to be especially true in the education field. My students and their needs are so unique that very few people understand them. Heck, sometimes I even have a hard time understanding them. However, my teacher tribe is something that I hold very near and dear to my heart. They're always available for venting, questions, and conversations that have nothing to do with education- ya know, when your brain is so fried and it's only Wednesday afternoon? 

They're my people. 

Myself and three other teachers at my school have a hilarious group chat that lifts our spirits at all times during the week. We send random memes...

...pictures of our rooms...

...our clothing...

...but our favorite things to send are bitmoji's :)

On half days we take a quick trip to Panera to grab lunch with each other as this never happens during the school day. Because our school is considered a child care and treatment facility, our school is allowed to have us stay with our students the entire school day.

We attend Happy Hours together, which is one of our favorite type of events! 

And recently we started DIY craft nights. 

Just some teacher crafts, wine, dips, sweets, and the best co-workers on a Friday night. Is there anything better? I think not! These people keep me (somewhat) sane, feeling encouraged, informed, and, let's be honest, employed. Find your teacher tribe and hold them close!

So Incredibly Grateful

These past few weeks have made me eternally grateful for a number of things.

***Forewarning: this post may be a bit emotional, but I consider myself an emotional person and I try to express my feelings through my writing. If you need to read my disclaimer, you can do so on my Meet the Newbie page.

One

That I have a supportive, stable family that always has my best interest in mind. I could drop my job, move across the country, and my family would STILL lend a helping hand and a patient ear. 

It's no secret that my students have their fair share of difficulties. Recently I learned that one of my students eats dinner every night at our city's soup kitchen. While I'm bundled up with my dog and my homemade meal, my student and their family are trekking their way to the soup kitchen just for a hot meal. Cue all the tears! Throughout my education courses in undergrad, my professors constantly reminded us of progress monitoring, the referral process, RTI, writing goals, and different types of assessments. Not once was I warned of the heartache this profession carries. 

Two

Now that I've dried my tears (again), let's move on to something a little lighter. I'm also grateful for my co-workers. I have never met more committed, caring, and tough adults. Each staff member at our school has a unique characteristic about them and they all have a common passion: helping children. At the end of a tough day, sometimes I sit at my desk, eat a piece of chocolate (of course), and just think of how incredible my co-workers are. Not only are they great at school, but I was invited to my first-ever cookie exchange...and it's at my co-worker's house! She'll be hosting me and about 10 other staff members from our school next week for a little get together at her house. And I can't wait!

Three

New relationships. Not only romantic relationships, but relationships that have also been built between fellow teachers and aides at my school and new members of my book club. Recently I've had a new relationship in my life that just brings me so much happiness. I have every reason to be grateful for these various new relationships.

Here's just a little preview of where my daily allotment of happiness has been lately :) #noshame 

Four

What I call "little pockets of communities." Lately I've just been feeling extremely grateful for these little groups of humans. From my book club, to my college friends, my "tried and true" friends, and my new TPT friends! A couple weeks ago I attended my very first TPT Meet Up! Let's just say that I'm hooked. I'll be attending another TPT Meet Up event in the spring of next year. Big announcement coming soon...ish...sometime before spring.

Five

My students. Oh I could just love them up. Each day they make me so proud. They've been making such progress in their academic and behavioral goals that sometimes I just can't contain it. I love the "little pocket of community" that I have in my classroom. 

Just a new teacher just feeling grateful, that's all!

Exact representation of me right now

No Matter What

November has been nothing shy of easy. We've had Halloween, Election Day, Veteran's Day, half days, schedule changes, changes in aides, illnesses, and med changes all in one month. This week is only a three-day week. Praise the lord!!

I saw this post over the weekend and it had my laughing out loud. Teacher friends: at least we're not turkeys! Lately, the thing that keeps me going is laughter and positive thoughts. And chocolate. Can't forget that one. This post is motivating me to finish this week out strong!

Yet Another Rookie Mistake...

I knew this was coming! My first year as a teacher is far from perfect. As you know, I have a tough population of kiddos to work with during this first year. Something that I struggle with is deciphering when students are being manipulative. Feel free to chuckle at that one but it's the truth! Our students can be sneaky at times and it's difficult to know when they're being honest. 

Students at our school earn Barracuda Bucks for showing good behaviors. They can then spend these bucks at our school's Reward Center, our classroom Barracuda Mini Mart, or a variety of other opportunities, such as visiting a class at the end of the day. The other day my student spent their bucks to dismiss with another class. It was a rough day and instead of asking the teacher myself, my student said, "Miss Katie, Miss _____ was in the hallway and she said it was okay if I came down today." Little did I know that this student wasn't telling the truth!! Luckily the other teacher didn't mind at all that I had sent him down, but now this student has a consequence to accept. As do I! Just making myself look like a stereotypical newbie at our school....sigh. 

I've been wearing this badge lately! We're going to chalk this one up to a learning experience :)

One Tired Teacher

So I follow the Teacher Life page on Facebook and they posted this photo this week. Friends, it just spoke to me!

It has been a whirlwind of a month. Let's recap October a little bit...

*Most of my students earned their field trip to the pumpkin patch

*I wasn't able to attend said field trip due to TCI training

*My students were finally conglomerating and getting into their school routines

*I saw some remarkably kind gestures from one student in particular, it just made my teacher heart melt!

*Most of my students earned our school's Haunted House

*Again, I was unable to attend the Haunted House because a kiddo had a meltdown

*Halloween rocked our socks. We had a normal morning, followed by Halloween stations between a couple classrooms, passed out candy to the little kids in our school, and watched Hocus Pocus to end our day

Phew! I tried to hit all the important parts of my #teacherlife during the month of October.

Now that it's mid-November, things have changed a bit. Some of my students are starting to show different behaviors and I'd like to attribute it to all of our schedule changes lately. Between Halloween, Election Day, Veteran's Day, a half day this past week, Thanksgiving next week, and our aide out for two weeks...they're a bit all over the place. One of the things that is keeping me together is my awesome teacher tribe. We vent to each other, we offer advice to one another, help each other when a student is in crisis, we offer each other chocolate :) and we've gone to happy hours together. If it weren't for my awesome teacher tribe I'd be hiding under my covers somewhere.

I am thanking my lucky stars that I get to be the teacher of my kiddos! I posted this to my Facebook page last week. I always say that my students are tough, but they're my kiddos and that makes them the best!

Time for a nap!!