Friday Favorites

Definitely don't mind waking up to a Friday! Especially when it means I get to link up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci for my most favorite linky party...Friday Favorites :)

Yoga. Our school hired a full-time yoga instructor this year and last Friday was our first session. My kiddos loved it! They love being able to take off their shoes, stretch out on a mat, listen to calming music, and play "yoga games." Our instructor is awesome! She starts with some basic stretching and breathing, then moves into a yoga story. She uses music and is actually able to get my students to sing along. After some brief meditation she allows the kiddos to play a yoga game. Last week they practiced using their intuition...something we need more practice with! 

Look at their sweet downward-facing dogs!

Speaking of yoga, I'll be attending my own yoga session today at 6am. Please say a prayer for me :)

Fall is in full swing in Buffalo and I'm loving every bit of it! This week I've already made pumpkin chocolate chip bread and purchased just about every pumpkin spice food item they sell at Trader Joe's. Their pumpkin coffee is to die for! I let my fall obsession carry into the classroom with these adorable pumpkins I picked up from Jo Ann's. I figured they could be my desk decoration until Thanksgiving.

Just love looking that these on my desk!

I also went to Starbucks this week (of course) and bought my first pumpkin spice latte of the season!

I usually get the hot ones but this particular day was almost 75 degrees. So I stuck with the iced PSL.

This week I've had more time to organize myself at home, which is great! Although it's a very small feat, I organized all my colored paper into my soon-to-be-office and just looking at it makes me quite happy! There are few things more that I love than a large variety of paper colors for printing :) I especially love using it with my HP SmartInk printer I bought earlier this year. I highlighted it in my first post! Ahh, just check out the sight...

Excuse the terrible shadows!

Hoping everyone enjoys this wonderful fall weekend ahead of us!

Monday Motivation

After a tough week last week, I know I need some motivation to get me going this Monday. Whenever I feel down and stressed, I watch this one video my English 101 professor showed me my freshman year of college. This video, combined with a couple other factors, influenced me to be a teacher. Dr. Bidell showed us this video while we were in our Spoken Word Poetry unit and I fell in love with both slam poetry and education. The poem is written by Taylor Mali, a former educator, and now, an author. During the summer of 2014 I read his book What Teachers Make, written after his infamous speech at a teacher's rally.

I don't even have to be upset about anything school-related. I watch this and it restores my confidence in myself. Have a look below and I hope it has the same effect!

Happy Monday!

The Weekly Five

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

So next week my students have a field trip planned to attend a local pumpkin patch. Because I have behavioral kiddos, they needed to earn it. This week started their "earning period" where they have to earn at least an 85% for 5/7 days. They've been reminded of this every day when we do our morning meeting and my aide and I constantly remind them during the day. I have one student that is dangerously close to not joining us. Today I pulled him aside, told him that he needs to bring his A-game these next few days, and we decided to tape a picture of a pumpkin on his desk as a visual reminder. Although he had a rough day, he loved being able to look down at the pumpkin and remind himself what he was earning. 

We love pumpkins in our class :)

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

This was a tough one this week. I love to joke around with my students. Each Friday I let students choose one song to listen to after our assessments are done for the day. YouTube always has those funky commercials playing and today we watched 6 Suave commercials. I joked with my students and said, "this cherry blossom scent would smell lovely on you guys!" They all laughed and said, "eww!"

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

Each morning we chit chat about the day and progress about our kiddos. Today my wonderful aide was absent and I realized that I never gave her my cell phone number! I left a post-it note on her desk with my contact info. :)

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

This week I received so many "Mom, Mommy, Momma, Mom can I..." Although odd, because I'm only 22, it was nice to hear that my students are that comfortable with me. Five weeks of UNO at lunch time is proving to be worth it!

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

Well that's a tough one. This week was only 4-days long, thanks to Columbus Day. As great as it was to enjoy a long weekend, it was tough getting my students back into routine. We even had to practice walking in the hallway and eating lunch in the cafeteria. Talk about embarrassing! I was supposed to go to yoga this morning at 6am but I had too many early morning errands to run beforehand that I wouldn't have time to shower and drive myself to school by 7:45am. I did not achieve any "stress relief" this week so that might explain the way I feel right now.

Ahh. Here's to a better week next week!

Friday Favorites

Oh yes it does! I'm a coffee drinker so I TOTALLY relate to this! Each day I chug-a-lug my coffee so I can have enough energy to last the day. (Please see #1 in this post for further comment). It's Friday and I'm linking up again with Erika, Narci, and Andrea for Friday Favorites!! I'm already looking forward to seeing some fellow Friday Favorites during my prep today!

Coffee is a favorite this week. I mean, it's always a favorite but it's a MUST HAVE this week. This week was a four day week which is awesome! But it also means more time off that my students forget the skills we've been teaching them for the past 5 weeks. #regression. I've told my dear aide "I need an IV of coffee" this week so many times that I've lost count. I know she's feeling it too! She deals with student behaviors the same amount, if not more, as me. 

Tim Hortons <3 Oh how I love you this week! 

*Side note: I reward my students with perfect weeks (based off their daily point sheets) with a Tim Hortons' breakfast! So far I've had two students earn a Timmy Ho's breakfast two weeks in a row! Can they beat three weeks??

I posted about my Double Dose of Teaching Angels before but I feel like I need to repeat myself. They have been a god-send! Stephanie and Kelly are "teacher friends" of mine and I couldn't be luckier! A "sub-favorite" of mine this week is the group chat Stephanie started with Kelly and I...I've been laughing all week with them!

 Recently I started using their U.S Presidential Election Pocketbook and my students are loving it. And I'm loving it because I prepped everything ahead of time :) Nothing like having four weeks of Social Studies materials copied, assembled, and organized by day already!

My class spent an entire week on Donald Trump and I think they're finally getting it :) Although I love to hate on Trump, I love that the resource is unbiased. It allows my students to make their own assumptions and opinions...shh, be still my teacher heart!

My students think I'm a swing-voter and are already looking forward to finding out which candidate I vote for! I LOVE keeping students on their toes!

My friends. 

They were a favorite last week and they're back again for round 2! These are my college besties that I couldn't be more thankful for this week. From the words of encouragement after dealing with something that pulled on my heart strings, to laughing about a student's insults towards me, and reminiscing about this picture that we took one year ago. Believe it or not, this picture above is what started my "blogging career". After we took this photo I decided I wanted to chronicle my senior year living with my best friends....And now, here I am, as a first year teacher blogging about my experiences in the classroom! We text each other weekly (thank goodness!) and keep up with each other whenever we can. 

We may not see each other as often but when we do, we all know that nothing has changed. And those are the best kinds of friendships. Love my future bridesmaids!

Students hard at work.

I recently introduced Roll-a-Spelling-Word and my students were in love!! I purchased some reusable dry erase pouches and quickly edited a resource. It was an excellent review for our spelling test today! This was the quietest they've been all week! Despite the noises of the dice hitting the desks :) 

*Foam dice are already ordered and on their way!!!

**Please ignore my ugly classroom. The furniture is rough, to say the least!

Happy Friday, friends! 

Or as I've trained my class to say, "Fri-YAY!"

A Thursday That Feels Like a Monday

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post you'll see that I labeled this post with "Wow". And that's all I have to say about today. 

Today is Thursday. It felt like a Monday.

The day started with group counseling which my students were way too silly in. Because of previous cafeteria events, I made my students practice walking in the hallways and eating in the cafeteria. From the responses from my students you would've thought I was the meanest teacher in the world. Extra walking? More steps? Taking down our chairs? What?!

I know.

The day, for the most part, was fine. My students were engaged in my lessons and completing their work. It all fell apart in the last 45 minutes of the day and only two of my six students earned free time. That's an all-time low record. I was even called a not-so-nice name by my student :( Did I deserve it? Absolutely not. But it's the fact that my student got so angered that that's how they decided to deal with their anger. Through swearing and unkind words towards one of the people that cares so much about them.

I can't help but feel responsible. Did I trigger them? Did I not intervene when I thought two students were joking around? Should I not have let the reigns loosen? It might be a combination of them all or I may be way off mark. But I do know that I'm striving to be a better teacher each day. Although I'm a teacher, school is just as much a place of learning and growth for me as it is for my students. 

I feel like I need to remind myself that my students are responsible for their decisions and actions. Not me. Not my aide. And not their peers in our classroom. 

Here's to hoping for a smooth end of the week!

The Weekly Five

It's time for Saturday again and I don't mind one bit :)

This is me right now! We had a staff development day yesterday and everybody is off on Monday for Columbus Day. I'm soooo ready for a little breather. It's been a long first 5 weeks!

For as many Saturdays as I can, I'll be posting The Weekly Five to reflect on my week. Here we go!

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

One of my kiddos loves to swear. After countless discussions about this, giving positive consequences for swear-free periods, giving negative consequences for cussing people out, and talking with his counselor, we decided to come up with a plan. For this little friend we're allowing him to swear only in his counselor's office and it can't be directed at his counselor. For some people swearing is how they get their frustration out...it's just about when to use it and when not to use it. Oh the accommodations we make for our students :)

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

I have a policy in my room that a whole week of 100% on behavior logs means a Tim Horton's breakfast. My students are nuts about this! This past week I had on kid finally earn his and it was like he won a congressional medal of honor. Holy cow!

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

This week my aide and I didn't have much time to talk since it was a short week. But I have to admit that I forgot to tell her about a couple things: after school meeting, her agenda for staff development day, and a negative behavior one of the kids had. It certainly wasn't on purpose and it truly slipped my mind! I love my aide and of course she was forgiving!

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

On Thursday one of my kids said to me, "Ms. Katie, you look extra pretty today." Sure, he had just called a peer a nasty name and may have been sucking up but it's always great to hear sweet things like this :)

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

Dinner date with my momma! We went to our neighborhood restaurant and enjoyed some wine while we both discussed our weekend getaways. It was nice to catch up with my mom and indulge in some good food!

Friday Favorites

Ahh the day is finally here! It's been a while since I've posted a Friday Favorites so I figured I was due for an update...just like my cell phone! I still have my trusty iPhone 4s. We're going on 4.5 years together :) I'm linking up with Erika, Narci, and Andrea!

Let's get down to business..

Yesterday I recapped my strategies for avoiding teacher burn out and a career change. You can see that post here! 

It's feeling more like fall around here! Although we've had some higher temps this week, my heart, mind, and closet are transitioning into fall.

This weekend I have big plans with a pumpkin spice latte! Also planning on baking some pumpkin chocolate chip bread. #katiecrocker

Living in Buffalo has many, many perks. One that benefits teachers in particular is The Teacher's Desk. It's a non-profit organization that collects donations and allows teachers to shop for free in their warehouse. I wish I had a picture of my cart because holy cow! I easily had over $500 worth of product in my cart. 

The Teacher's Desk is primarily for teachers who teach in high-poverty areas or schools with exceptional needs. Just check out some of these pictures they post to their Facebook page...

What a normal cart looks like at The Teacher's Desk

The staff at The Teacher's Desk is wonderful! They have volunteers who bag your products and more volunteers to bring your cart to your car and load it up. I had such a wonderful experience working with The Teacher's Desk and I know my students and I will greatly benefit from their hard work and generosity!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week and an even more fabulous weekend!!

Behavior Buzz with The Bender Bunch

My heart is so happy right now! 

I keep up to date with some of my favorite teacher bloggers, once of them being Traci from The Bender Bunch. She has a similar population of kiddos as me and I frequently look at her blog posts and Instagram posts for inspiration!

She has a monthly series called "Behavior Buzz" where she chooses one submission from her audience, analyzes it, and provides feedback. Today I logged on and saw that she chose mine! I was ecstatic! Her analysis and input has me thinking of so many ideas already. The student I described in my submission was a student I had over the summer and I have him again this year so this information is quite relevant to me! She provided me with resources, an implementation guide, and advice on moving forward. If you're having behavioral concerns about a student in your class, I highly recommend sending in a submission (found on the right side bar of her blog). You could be the star of her next monthly series!

First Year Stress Relief

So I'm about a month and a half in to my first year of teaching and everyone is constantly telling me, "take some time for yourself or you'll get burned out." And I'm all over here like, "what do you mean burned out? I could keep prepping forever!"

An exact photo of me when my principal said to find relaxation time.

After hearing so much about this whole "burned out" thing I decided to do some research. Turns out my field of education, special education, has the highest turnover rate and the highest probability of switching careers. 

I decided to be proactive instead of reactive. Below I'm sharing some of my favorite ways to prevent a career switch...

1. Bath & Body Aromatherapy Lotion

I bought a bottle of this for my desk at school and I love it! Just a little bit is all that is needed. I also bought the stress relief hand soap, body scrub, and pillow mist. Just to make sure all my bases are covered :)

2. Dove Dark Chocolate

This is what I picture heaven to be like. I almost always eat one piece of Dove dark chocolate after school and if it's a really bad day I increase my daily dosage :)

3. Yoga

No none of these photos are of me but this is my yoga studio! It's in the cutest part of town and I just love it. It's hot yoga so I literally sweat out the stress of my day. The instructor is excellent and I always leave class feeling better. My school just hired a yoga instructor and our classes have yoga once a week. We start next week so I'm excited to see how it goes!

4. Baking

I am the self-proclaimed Katie Crocker! Here I am finishing up my raspberry lemon cupcakes on Easter...

...and here I am finishing up my shortbread cookies at Christmastime. 

Baking is so therapeutic to me. I love trying new things, making adjustments, giving baked goods to people, and recruiting taste testers. My class has already volunteered to be taste testers :) Watch out for my Christmas cookie pics in the next few months!

5. My friends and family

My family is my rock. They know how tough of a job I have and know how stressed I am and they have already been so supportive. My mom is always available to drink a glass of wine and vent about the day. Fun fact: my sister is also a teacher! She teaches health out of state. So 100% understands my struggles as a teacher.

My friends are thebomb.com. In case you missed my first post...I started a book club with my friends to keep in touch after college. Psssttt you can stalk us here! Each month we get together and catch up, eat, and talk about the book. There is nothing so therapeutic! I also have a close group of friends that are so understanding and put up with all of my teacher stories. Kudos to you guys!

I'm sure I'll have new ways to cope and relax with this new job but until then my system has been working out nicely!