What's Up Wednesday

My first linky party on this blog :) Oh what a time to remember. I'm linking  up with Shay,  Sheaffer, and Mel. I love this little linky party because I feel like it says SO MUCH about my current mood, stress level, and obsessions. 

On the last Wednesday of each month they answer these questions and I thought I might as well participate in one before the craziness of the school year sets in!

1. What we're eating this week

Probably one of the four recipes my mom knows how to make. Oh and chocolate. I eat one piece of dark chocolate each day :)

2. What I'm reminiscing about

Outer Banks, NC. My little slice of heaven down south

3. What I'm loving

Honestly, the paycheck that comes along with a full-time salary position

4. What I've been up to

All things education, recently. Between gathering back to school materials, reading professional articles on my population of kiddos, figuring out how I want to structure my day. My brain may explode and ooze out sticky notes, Flair pens, and Starbucks. 

5. What I'm dreading

I randomly picked up a hostess shift this Saturday and I'm having major regrets. Yes extra money is great, but please refer to #3 on this list.

6. What I'm working on

Setting up my classroom! My poor room needs a lot of TLC this week. There were two teachers in my room before me this year and they left quite a bit of materials for me! I say that with a sense of sarcasm because most of the materials are unusable. #ohteacherlife

7. What I'm reading

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion for my book club!

8. What I'm listening to

As always, anything Taylor Swift. 

Oh and the Piano Guys Pandora station. 

Recently I've rekindled my love for Stevie Wonder

9. What I'm Wearing

Lots and lots of dresses! Anything breezy yet appropriate for unair-conditioned classrooms in the early September weather.

10. What I'm doing this weekend

In addition to #5, I'll be soaking up the moments with my precious puppy and visiting my family when they make their semi-annual trek to our favorite camping grounds. No worries, we glamp instead of camp.

11.What I'm looking forward to next month

Anything and everything pumpkin! Pumpkin spice lattes, cinnamon candles, apple pie, Bath & Body Works fall candles, you name it, I love it.

12. What else is new

I just got back from a nice weekend getaway with two close friends! One of them has a cottage about 3 hours away from home so we went up for a much needed girls weekend.

Bonus Question: What is your favorite summer to fall transitional piece in your closet?

I have to say SCARVES! There are just so many ways to wear them...wear them with a short sleeve, with a long sleeve, over a sweater, layered under a fall coat. Plus they vary in thickness. Light, cotton scarves in the beginning of fall and heavier, darker colored scarves towards the end of fall. Love them!

Double Dose of Teaching Angels

Someone who has been helping me make my way through this teaching world is Stephanie, who is my best friend's cousin. She's a teacher at a different agency but has a similar population of students! Stephanie and her friend Kelly have a Teachers Pay Teachers business and sell these awesome pocketbooks for social studies and science.

Last week they asked me to write a guest post over on their blog explaining how I used it in my classroom. You can see that post here! Sometimes I refer to Kelly and Stephanie as my "teaching angels" because they were, quite literally, sent from god. They're THAT good. Confession: sometimes I scroll through their Instagrams in awe of what they can accomplish in their rooms. I'm also super jealous of their ability to make products for TPT. Ahh, maybe someday!

Anyway, I hope their blog exists forever so I can see how I taught summer school my first year! I was quite excited that they asked ME to guest write for THEM. Enjoy!

How Did I Survive Summer School?

HA. Well that's a good question. Your guess is as good as mine.

Walking into my classroom the first time this summer I thought two things: oh my gosh it's hot, and this isn't so bad. Well I was in for it. My first day of actual teaching was a whirlwind. I arrived 30 minutes too early and couldn't figure out how to open my door. Within 10 minutes of the kids arriving I had one student in tears because he thought he was going to be in fourth grade and another two arguing over the computer. Luckily my aide was super helpful and pretty much took over the class the first day so I could see what it was all about.

I was in shock. I felt so overwhelmed and clueless. My first day of summer school was so bad I allowed myself to eat a Wendy's kids meal and an ice cream sundae while watching The Bachelorette. After a few more days I found my grounds until a kid smacked another kid in the head, then continued to smack his head into the computer. Chaos was an understatement.

At times our classroom reached 98 degrees. No not the boy band, but Fahrenheit degrees. There were days where I said, "Friends, it's hot, we're all cranky. I'm going to pass out ice cubes and we're going to watch a movie." What else was I going to do? Granted I did accomplish academic work before letting them watch the movie. I sought advice from my principal, my aide, other classroom teachers in the building, my teacher friends, my former undergrad professor, and teacher's that were on maternity leave at the school. One of the reasons I love the education field is the sense of community teachers build around each other :)

There were many times where I didn't know what to do so I'd burst into my neighbor's classroom to seek advice. Those are the people I owe a round of Starbucks to. But really. During this summer I was working upwards of 65 hours a week between this teaching gig, my hostess job, and my babysitting job. I'm yawning just thinking about my overwhelming summer as I type this post!

Almost every day I'd print out a new article to bring home as evening reading material. I hoped I'd find the absolute answers to all my questions and issues I was facing. Naturally they were extremely helpful but didn't include the end-all-be-all answers I was looking for. 

My first summer school experience was filled with popsicles, class on the grass, playground visits, iced coffee, and breaks in the air-conditioned teacher's lounge. I also had the help of my teaching angels, Stephanie and Kelly of Double Dose of Learning, but I'll explain that another time :) 

By the end of summer I was realizing I was going to miss some of my kiddos. Lucky for me I have three of them for the school year in fourth grade!

A Letter to Teachers

As I'm gearing up for my first school year as a teacher, I find myself deriving motivation. Motivation to persevere, to calm my nerves, and remind myself why I entered this profession in the first place. A friend of mine posted this on Facebook one night and it really hit home to my crowd of kiddos. Click on the link below and take a look. Most teachers only have one of these kids, but I'm lucky enough to have six :)

http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/08/27/a-letter-to-teachers-from-that-kid

Once Upon a Time...

Now don't get confused with the title of this post. My teaching career does not go anywhere near as far back that it requires a "once upon a time." It's meant as a pun because my teaching career just started...get it? Probably not, that's okay.

I started student teaching in January 2016. My first placement was in a second grade inclusion class under the supervision of a special education teacher. The school was in a large district that serviced many, many students below the poverty level. It was my first real, extended time in the classroom. What an experience! Because New York State requires two placements, my second placement was with an inner-city charter school in Buffalo. It had such a unique community and fully supported its staff and students. To me, it was the perfect place to have another successful student teaching experience. 

About a week after student teaching ended, the above charter school called me and hired me as a long-term substitute. In true rookie form, during my interview I asked, "are you sure you want to hire someone who hasn't even graduated yet?" To me it was absurd. My official college graduation ceremony wasn't until the next week. They were employing a college student! To add to this absurdity, the charter school was willing to work with my two-week internship in Spain. So basically I got hired for a week, graduated the following weekend, left for Spain the day after graduation, returned to the US two weeks later, and continued subbing at the charter school until the end of the school year. And friends, let me tell you, I am beyond grateful for the opportunity. I'm forever indebted to the charter school.

After the school year ended I was bored. As much as I loved sleeping in until 10am, I hated myself for it. So I mass applied for about 20 jobs in the span of two days. One day my house phone rang and someone was leaving a message. My mom interrupted the woman and said, "I'm sorry you have the wrong number." She later found out that it was a recruiter from one of the companies I applied to! Obviously my mom felt terrible. I called the company back and we laughed as we scheduled an interview for the next day. The next day I was hired for the summer school session! On top of that they offered me a school year position (which I initially rejected but begged to have a second chance...rookie mistake?)

Let me give you a little background information regarding this new job...it's a private agency, it's a really small school, it's a part of a very large non-profit organization in the Buffalo area, and my school serves students with emotional disturbances and emotional behavioral disorders.

I'll be updating how I survived summer school soon!