What to do when stuck inside?
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For the first time in my fifteen year career I took a day off in January.
Not just a day off in January but a day off in January, on a Thursday after coming back from a two week winter break. I’m not sick, but I needed a day. And while new teacher me would have been horrified at the thought of taking a day off (in fact- new teacher me went to school with an actual kidney infection - true story) current me feels zero guilt over this one day off for seemingly no reason. Current me is proud that I honored myself and my needs with an entire day to my self. And I’m not sorry that I did it. My life is hard- hard as in I am an ovarian cancer survivor who has an appointment with an oncologist on Wednesday because for the last six months I have been neglecting ovarian cancer symptoms because instead I have been grieving the the death of my son- hard. So, I took a legitimate mental health day because after the hell that is getting through the first Christmas after the death of a child I needed a day for self care and the holiday season doesn’t allow for such a thing. So I took a day off. If you’re reading this you’re probably thinking- well my God- of course you should take some time off. Why just a day?! Take the year. But I don’t need to take a year. Because I know I work in a place that supports a teachers need to take a day, with no questions, with no judgement, whenever needed, because self care should come first. So I took a day, instead of a year. Because amazing things happen when a teacher knows she is loved and supported. My second year of teaching, I went to school with a slight fever and severe back pain. I didn’t want to call in sick because I knew I would get hell for it, so I sucked it up, took some DayQuil and went on to work. By the end of the day I was shaking, laying at the back table in my room with a fever that had now peeked to 104.5. I called my boyfriend to pick me up and he immediately drove me to the Emergancy room. I was horrified, knowing I couldn’t write comprehensive sub plans, but pushed through the fever, chills, and shaking to email something that resembled plans to my office manager and then spent the night in the hospital. The next day, I got a call from my principal. “Your kids are misbehaving for your sub,” she scolded over the phone. Without pausing to hear why I was out she continued on, describing what the kids were doing, how not okay any of this was, but never once stopping to ask why I was out. When I told her I was in the hospital with a kidney infection she simply replied, “Oh.” And then hung up the phone. I spent the rest of that year looking for other jobs. Filling out applications to colleges for a second masters degree in anything but teaching. I spent hours researching and contemplating how I could get our. I dreaded going back and consistently questioned why I became a teacher. And then, a blessing in disguise of sorts, I was layed-off and rehires by a different district. This new district respected teachers. They honored all of my years. Payed 10k more than the past district and, miraculously, supported me. When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I was terrified to tell my new principal. For an entire week, I would attempt to walk to her office to tell her I would be out for a few weeks because of cancer surgery. And for weeks, I would get to the hallway leading to her door and then turn and run. I was absolutely terrified to tell her. Would she yell at me for needing time off? Would she fire me because I had cancer and the only thing worse than a person dying of cancer was apparently a class that had to have a sub? Luckily, this principal knew better. She believed in self care. She believed in caring for her teachers. And she believed that a class with a substitute would survive. She supported every second of my journey, encouraged me to take as much time as I needed and assured me that it would be okay. Teachers deserve support. This profession is wildly toxic in ways that I cannot comprehend. When life gets hard, teachers shouldn't have to even think about sub plans. And to all of the admin out there ensuring their staff knows they come first, thank you. The profession needs more of you. This is my current passion. I am a firm believer in putting all things social emotional well being in the classroom first. Academic success can't come without it. In my classroom, part of this means incorporating Mindfulness into our day.
What do I do?
Why Mindfulness? Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on the here and now. It integrates breathing techniques to help calm the body and mind while increasing self awareness, self regulation and self calming skills. Mindfullness practices have been proven to increase a student's ability to thrive both academically and socially. I have always incorporated some piece of mindfulness into my day. Early in my career that meant adding stretching and breathing techniques into my P.E. block. However, it wasn't until I experienced my own personal life trauma that I really began to look into mindfulness activities and then saw the immeasurable value of using mindfulness to strengthen my classroom community. To be honest, part of the consistent implementation of mindfulness was giving myself the few minutes a day to stop, breathe and live in the present moment. But the impact it has had on my class is beyond words. As we continued with the practice as a class, I noticed some significant changes. I saw that this small practice was truly fostering student confidence and independence while also helping my class build empathy and the ability to work together as a team. Going into 2020, I am excited to deepen this practice. Understanding that kids cannot attend to learning when they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I wanted to put more into this social emotional wellness journey. In addition to my current mindfullness activities, I wrote a DonorsChoose grant. The grant was fully funded in December (Hurray!) And I cannot wait to get back and get started with the materials. The materials in this grant include mindfulness games as well as other social emotional support tools. I hope to create a peace corner in my room where students can go when they need a quiet place to destress and calm down. Many of the sensory items included in this project will give students the tools and the space to take short breaks when needed to refocus their attention and energy. **If you are looking to incorporate more mindfullness in your classroom, check out the recourses on GoNoodle, Breathe Think Kids and Smiling Minds. Also, feel free to check out my DonorsChoose grant for inspiration! I want to start the year off on a positive note, helping my kids reflect on the accomplishments they have made so far this year while also setting new intentions and goals for the rest of the year to come. I am so proud of everything my students have done so far, and am pumped to get back into the swing of things on Monday. This is what I will be doing with my class first thing Monday morning. Enjoy, Happy New Year, and enjoy those first crazy days back at school! Click the image below to download.
New Year, New Resources, Engaging Lessons!Starting December 30th into January 2, 2020, my entire store will be on sale!! Enjoy! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Eduventuring What resources are you looking for in 2020? I have been working on a lot of interactive lessons for the new year and cannot wait to try them out with my class. How is it July already?! That seems unfair somehow. Summer goes by so fast... As the beginning of the year slowly creeps its way to reality, I started revamping my beginning and end of the year activities. I use activities at both ends of the year that compliment each other. When the end of the year arrives, I like to revisit our beginning of the year thoughts when we first arrived in 4th grade... and use those memories and feelings to help out the kids that will be entering my room in the new year. I am putting together this bundle which should be complete by August. The Beginning of the Year I like to make the first couple of weeks all about building a community. The success of my class is 99.5% depending on the relationships we all build so in addition to creating class rules, I want my students to know that I am here as one of their teammates to encourage them to grow and succeed. One of the first activities I have my class complete is a letter to me. I ask kids about their favorite things, what made last school year good for them, some things a teacher should always do, and how I can help them succeed. This is also the first time they will think about goals for the year. After completing this, I give them letter's that last year's kids wrote. The format is very similar and covers a lot of the same information but with an emphasis on what last year's students would like this year's student's to know. We circle back to this at the end of the year and I have the kids review all of the things the wrote. We talk about how they felt that first day, what they wished they had known, how they felt that first day, and then spend some time reminiscing on what a great year we had! To get our math brains warmed up, we do this All About Me in Numbers activity. This activity also serves as a great quick assessment and gives me information on how my students think as mathematicians and as a gauge to see how confident they are with math. Some years, I leave the space open for them to create their own question. Other years, I give them this worksheet with prompts. They answer the prompts with an equation- the answer to the equation is the answer to the prompt. For example - "My age" could be 32-22. The equation difficulty level varies greatly from kid to kid and again tells me A LOT about their comfort with math, but also helps me get to know them more. During these first weeks, I also do a lot of Growth Mindset work and team building- I will circle back to that in another post. End of the YearThis year I had one of those classes that you just rarely get. First, I ended up with only 19 students (in 4th grade! Unheard of) so I am sure that helped... I always feel like my class is a family by the end of the year but there was something about this class and this year that was different. The end of the year... sucked. None of us wanted it to be over. I have had classes that I loved, that I was sad to see go... but I was always ready for summer lol Always. Not this year though... I am still sad the year had to end. So the last week we just had one prolonged group hug. Ha! Kidding. But we did have a lot of fun. I had the kids jump on a shared google doc. They went person by person and wrote one positive adjective that described them (I know- risky- but it isn't hard to see who is writing what and again, this is the best class I have ever had in my entire career so I felt good about this.) I then turned this list into a fun WORDLE, printed them out and gave them the word art with this poem on the back. I will post more about the end of the year is a separate post, but for now... the weather has finally cleared up, the sun is shining once again and I am going to head out to enjoy the last days of summer!
This lesson was created in memory of my dear friend, Kristin Bialick who started this project.
My favorite lessons are those that are fun, engaging and purposeful. Sometimes this is a struggle with Social Studies- keeping kids engaged in the content can at times be a stretch. So- I chose one of the most engaging bits of Colorado history- the Colorado Gold Rush- and intertwined various Civics and Economic Standards. I also turned it into a cooperative game. Students get to travel through time as a 59er, earn gold AND test their knowledge of Colorado History! This year, we were chosen to take the Colorado 4th Grade Social Studies State Test (I know, lucky us!) I am not one to focus the day on test prep, but I also do not want to leave my students unprepared. So, I created this lesson series to make learning and review fun. It typically takes me at least a week- but usually two, to complete all of the activities. On years that we aren't lucky enough to spend an extra week on state tests (cue sarcasm) I use this as an exciting way to end our Social Studies year with a fun and exciting review! I will post pictures here as we go along through the experience this year. Until then, check out the resource! As far as test preparation and review for CMAS - valuable learning activities like this far out weigh traditional drill and kill test prep. Students will remember this activity and the contents for years to come. They will be excited to engage in this every day instead of moaning upon hearing what's up next in their day. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Colorado-Gold-Rush-Gold-Rush-Simulation-and-Colorado-History-Review-4476427 This is a seven day adventure through the 1859 Gold Rush! Student's will experience life as a 59er while learning about Colorado History. Key standards addressed
This packet gives students a chance to answer questions in both written response and fill in the blank form. It will assess their ability to recall vital facts from CO Social Studies Standards and will also give them a chance to analyze information given to them through primary sources. This is currently only available as a PDF file but will soon be available in other forms to allow students to answer questions digitally. After completing this unit, celebrate with a Colorado Gold Rush Day! "Eureka! Gold Discovered in Colorado! The time? 1859. The place? The Front Range of Colorado. Gold has been discovered near Pike's Peak and gold fever is quickly spreading across the the United States. As a local resident of Missouri, you cannot wait to head west and try your luck in the gold fields. Fortune surely awaits, but you will have to risk your life on the quest to find it. In this project, you will review all that you have learned about our great state! You will also experience what life was like for those who traveled west during the late 1850s. Do you have what it takes to survive this journey? I want to create a date base of free, simple to do Cricut projects for teachers. I will be posting free svg files of projects I have done, along with some links to some pretty rad Cricut related websites that also offer free svg files. Hoping this works! Here are two free snow flake freebies. These are SVG files. You should be able to right click and save
Fostering a true love and excitement for math in my students is well, not an easy task. Luckily I love a good challenge! Every year I look for new ways to peak student interest in math. Whether it is teaching geometry through art, or hyping up the great Pi Day, I strive to make learning fun. In the last couple of years, I have been piecing together weekly activities to get kids thinking about math in different ways. Math truly is everywhere, and often there are multiple ways to approach a problem. I created these Math Curiosities and Wonders to get kids really thinking and talking about math. Once a week, we take a look at one of these and spend 10-20 minutes (usually 10) discussing and looking at the problem in as many ways as possible. Students are able to build those Mathematical Practice muscles, discuss, defend their thinking, and come up with different observations and answers. I love seeing and hearing what each class comes up with! I use a variety of resources to engage my students in deep mathematical thinking. For quick math talks, I use my Curiosities and Wonders resource every Friday.
I highly recommend visiting youcubed.org for their Week of Inspirational Math series. These activities tend to be a bit more involved but are absolutely worth it for building a positive mindset and stretching mathematical thinking.
Teaching dialogue can be rough! I like to ease the pain by adding a little fun through comics!
Day 1 Teach the rules of Dialogue, using quotes, and proper punctuation. I like this free resource from Young Teacher Love Day 2 Review when to begin a new paragraph. This can be tough for kids... I had a hard time explaining it all until I stumbled upon PATS Start a new paragraph when there is a change in Place Action Time Speaker I take some time pointing out real examples from real books during our read aloud, I project a page to display and then do a slow read. Kids have a lot of fun explaining why the author started a new paragraph! Day 3 Introduce the assignment with examples. On this day, I show the students a simple Peanuts comic. I explain how the story is told through the pictures as well as the dialogue. Together, we talk about inferences we can make about what happened before the comic, what might have happened in between each picture, and what each character must be thinking. From there, I show them an example written by me. At this point, I also have to explain perspective and point of view. I point out which character I am telling the story from or explain why I decided to tell it from third person point of view. I read the story out loud, each student has a copy of the comic as well as my writing. We go through and discuss descriptions of action I used, when I changed paragraphs and why, and how I incorporated the dialogue from my story into my comic. Day 3 or 4 (depending on class and time.) I then pass out comics to each student and let them get busy! |
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"The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don't tell you what to see." - Alexandra K. Trenfor |