Just a Little Note

So in the time that I'm not living, breathing, and doing school work, I've been sleeping. I have literally 7 minutes to spare as I'm writing this so it's just a brief note to update things...

1. My kids are showing their true colors. Holy cow

2. I've gotten countless middle fingers so far

3. My aide is awesome!!!!

4. I'm completely grateful for my co-workers

Today I experienced a piece of what my students' lives are like at home. It was one student's birthday and he was having an awesome day. I'm talking all greens on his behavior chart. At the end of the day my aide and I politely corrected him on two small things, which he didn't get in trouble for. It was just a nice reminder. And he exploded. I left the room with my other students, which was a disaster in and of itself. When I returned I found out my birthday student was upset because he was going home and nothing was planned for his special day.

Que all the tears!

A little fourth grader's best part of his birthday was in my classroom when I brought in store-bought cupcakes and we all sang Happy Birthday to him. Today I left my classroom in tears for my students. I can remember each birthday of my childhood--from special birthday notes in my lunch, to my favorite dessert brought into school by my mom, and passing out birthday invitations. And here is one of my tough kiddos, sobbing because he his special day ends when he leaves my room. 

PS. I apologize that this post is extremely boring to look at. After writing for 7 minutes I don't have time to insert cute pictures :/

First Day of School...Two Weeks Later

I'm cracking up to myself as I'm writing this post. Friends, I know this post is delayed almost two weeks but this is the first chance I've had to breathe so far this school year! And yet I still feel guilty doing something I enjoy instead of prepping materials.

Let's just do a quick review of my first day of school EVER as a teacher....

I woke up way too early #collegegradproblems. Oh how I miss the days of having class at 10am and being able to do all my homework the morning before my class! The things I would do to go back to my college years :)

After I pulled myself out of bed I got ready for the day, packed my lunch, and headed to my beloved Tim Horton's before going to school. Luckily my school starts so early that I didn't have to get stuck in rush hour. 

I met my aide (who is literally my saving grace this year!!!...blog post on that coming soon) and before I knew it, my first student had arrived. I was expecting the worst, given what former teachers have told me. But he was so responsible! He brought in his iPod and turned it into me before he set down in backpack. 

As I showed each student where their cubby was and how to complete their morning journal, I was really proud of myself for hurdling this minuscule goal. I'm a firm believer that a great start to the morning leads to an even better day. 

We practiced lining up, we practiced walking in the hallway, we practiced getting breakfast from the cafeteria, because after all, we're in the fourth grade now and fourth graders are allowed to pick up their own breakfast! We went through every important routine I thought was necessary for setting up a successful year. Again, there will be a blog post coming on that soon! 

My biggest regret was not having enough free time activities for them. I had completely disregarded that I, quite literally, had NOTHING for them to do during free time. Not even coloring sheets, playdough, or crossword puzzles. 

I will say that I am forever grateful for my co-workers. I walked into the fifth grade teacher's room and exclaimed, "is it normal to be this stressed on the first day of school?!" I also walked into my fellow fourth grade teacher's room and said, "I RAN OUT OF STUFF TO DO." She politely handed me six extra copies of back to school word searches, community builders, and ice breakers :) Another rookie lesson, right? 

At the end of the day I said to myself, "honestly, today could've gone a lot worse. And here I am in one piece." Talk about teacher success! Now, in five years I'll probably look back at this post and laugh out loud at my amateur self. But until then, I'm calling this #teacherwin.

Side note: I asked my students if they liked hashtags and obviously they all yelled "yes!". Well, I quickly learned they have no idea what a hashtag is. I have a lot to teach them this year!!

This is how I ended my day...

 A good old teacher selfie...

...and a much needed caramel macchiato :)

I know my postings are going to be sporadic the next few weeks but I promise to update when I can!! My 22 year old heart loves blogging :)

Twas the Night Before the 1st Day of School

All I can say is what?!

How is it that a year ago I was sitting in a college classroom listening to yet another boring lesson about the Jesuit's core curriculum and now here I am getting ready for my first day of school. How is it that I'm ONLY 22 and someone trusts me enough to watch over 6 kids everyday? And they're not your typical go-with-the-flow kids either. But challenging, manipulative, disrespectful, loving, grateful 10 year olds.

Yesterday I cried about six times and then I lost count. I learned that one of my students has a terminally-ill mother who, if she hasn't already, will pass in the next month or so. Why does this happen to little guys like my friend?! In talking with the social worker and his previous teacher, they both said, "Katie, he's looking for a mom right now and you have to be that for him." Cue all the tears. I have a feeling my own mom is going to have a lot of advice for me on that one.

My class was not set up entirely the way I wanted it to be. I'd like to blame the IT department for that one :) I finally have access to my email but still don't have a working desktop :))))))))))) Can you sense the sarcasm in the number of extra smiles I put?? Luckily MOST of my materials are printed. The room still needs a lot of TLC. Apparently, so do the kids. However, other teachers have little to no classroom materials set up so I'm at least in somewhat of the same boat. 

Okay maybe not the same boat but we're at least floating on the same lake. I hope.

I had a mini meltdown and thought, "There's no way I can do this! I'm too young for this. I have no idea what I'm doing. This year is going to be a wreck." Then I did what I always do when I have meltdowns--called my cheerleading bestie/counselor/basically sister Ms. Rachel Berry. I call her Rachel because she looks exactly like Rachel Berry from Glee and I just loooovvvveeeee Glee. I'm a self-proclaimed Gleek and I'm proud of it! Rachel did as she always does: listens to me vent, empathizes with me, tells me I'll be okay, and walks me through my nervousness :) All praise Rachel Berry. Insert praying hands emoji.

Ahhh today is the first day of school for me. But this time as a teacher. (Again, please refer to the first sentence of this blog post) I'm a mixed bag of emotions: nervous, excited, proud, and downright terrified. However, the only emotion my kids will see is confidence! Hopefully they don't see right through me :)

Tomorrow I'll be posting about my first day! However, if I'm 50 shades of #teachertired, then I'll postpone it until Friday. How's that for teacher self-care??

P.S I had a couple of photos to add to this post but completely forgot and am too lazy to grab my phone from the next room over. I'll update it later!

Wrestling with Technology

Something tells me this isn't going to be the first time I'll be wrestling with technology this year. After I finished teaching summer school I was having difficulty accessing my work email. I thought it would be a quick fix with a call to the IT Department. Well of course it's not. First my account was reset so I had to change all my passwords. When I tried to sign in from my work computer, I kept getting locked out. After some careful inspection, I realized there was a bent paperclip underneath my shift key :) 

#soblessed

Because our desktop contains highly confidential files we're required to have a special character in our password, making the shift key EVER so important. Well silly me inputted- what I thought was the correct password- the incorrect password (thanks, shift key) too many times and I became locked out. I tried switching keyboards but had no success. Then my mouse stops working?? Ahhh I'm losing my mind just thinking of it.

Fast forward to today, Memorial Day...aka T minus two days until the first day of school. I have little to nothing set up in my classroom as far as printing goes and time seems to be speeding up! I decided to purchase a new printer. Because that will solve all my problems.

Well, it seemed like it would at the time.

I make my way out to Best Buy to purchase a fancy new smart printer. As I'm printing my mega document, I realize it's only printing half pages. #ohlovely. Twenty pages of colored pictures and text that are now unusable. Overwhelmed, I figured out a bypass. I could print without any issues if the file was a pdf. So I mass printed and laminated tonight. 

Perks of being a Type B teacher, right? This day definitely goes into the "Rookie Lessons" category. Rookie Lesson: don't wait to print, laminate, and cut. Your hands will thank you.

Now that my hands are no longer swollen from all the cutting I just did, it's time to get ready for my first Staff Development Day! It's going to be a long one between taking meeting notes and putting the final touches on my room.

The Weekly Five

I love puns. For all my fellow teacher nerds you'll recognize that this new series I'm starting is a pun on The Daily 5, which is a new method of strengthening ELA skills. Each Saturday I'm going to post my Weekly Five to reflect on my work week. I'm well aware that this profession- and this population of students- burn a teacher out! I can't be burned out in my first year so I'm building in measures now to prevent it :) How's that for proactive instead of reactive??

Each week I'm going to ask myself these same five questions:

1. What did I do to help a student this week?

2. How did I contribute to a positive classroom environment?

3. What did I do to collaborate with my aide this week? Did it work?

4. What is one event that made you thankful for your job this week?

5. What did I do to relieve some stress this week?

By the end of the year I'll have a whole digital journal to look back on! Come back on Saturday to check out my first Weekly Five...I'll be reflecting on my first day of school as a teacher, ever!

Friday Favorites

Thank goodness for Fridays :)

My first Friday Favorites on my blog! I've linked up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci before but it was on my college blog. For sake of professionalism, we'll keep that website name on the DL. 

The first day of school is Wednesday! I have my first Staff Development Day on Tuesday, September 6th and then my kiddos come to heaven my room on Wednesday, September 7th. Getting excited!

My classroom is almost set up! Look for the official blogpost coming soon but I'll describe it for now :)

It's going to be my home away from home for the next year and I couldn't be more excited. I've been having issues with my work computer this week which MAJORLY pushed back my timeline. Luckily the IT Department rocks and got it figured out in a timely manner :) #dodgedabullet #weneedmusic #andcomputerrewardtime

Because my students have emotional disturbances and need help using coping strategies, I decided to make a Calm Down Area. It's a little more secluded from the rest of my classroom and it looks pretty cozy for a 10 year old! My plan is to post some pictures on the back of the book case that my kids find calming. I just KNOW they find Steph Curry and Winter Soldier calming but to me that doesn't scream "relaxation." The Calm Down Area is what I'm most proud of in my room! I think it'll greatly help my crowd when they're feeling frustrated, anxious, or upset and just need a little break. 

Iced coffee. I've always been a coffee addict (thank you college) but recently I've been mixing up my iced coffee routine. Because I live in Buffalo I frequent Tim Hortons quite often. I love me some Timmy Ho's! But lately I've been trying Dunkin Donuts and the ultimate "Teacher Favorite"- Starbucks :) Shhh, be still my heart. I see lots of Starbucks dates in my future. And by dates I mean by myself ;) Nothing calms me down more after a long work day than a nice iced Starbucks beverage while reflecting on the chaos of the day. 

Thanks for linking up!