Okay end of school is crazy, but we’re almost there! Tomorrow is the LAST day! 

Future posts that need to be finished and published: 

• Field trip to ATL + pics
• end of school year reflection
• summer school hopes
• a (not-so) fit teacher post
• and summer vacay plans :) 

In the meantime, for summer school I want to start writing class with creative writing prompts. Once upon a time I saw a tumblr #education post or two that linked a blog that posted photos and prompts daily or at least regularly. Does anybody have a link to that/those blog(s)?

fornoesis:

the bad thing was the event itself, but my reaction to the event itself was also bad.  i’ve been off for the past few weeks, especially this week.  i suppose i might be starting to slack, knowing the year is coming to a close and my students have made so much progress throughout the year.  i didn’t have any coffee today, and it was first thing in the morning, but my slow reaction time and complete lack of expertise on how to handle situations like this really shows why teach for america’s training is ineffective, but also that you can’t really train for certain events that are likely to occur in classrooms of young children.  this is suuuuuuuuuuper super super long.  it might be the longest thing ever written on tumblr.  it’s also rather sad.

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I don’t think you’re a bad teacher or that it was a bad response, but I do agree with you that there are other things you could do. It sounds to me like you just weren’t prepared - and let’s be honest, there will always be situations in which, as teachers, the first time we encounter things like this, we simply will not be prepared. 

 In my early childhood anti-bias multicultural ed. class we did an activity using these Colors Like Me paints. You have each kid create a self portrait at the beginning of the year. Instead of encouraging each kid to pick the closest paint you help each child use dots of different colors on the back of their hands to find what makes of paints makes their color. Then you emphasize to each kid that they are not defined by a color. Talk about the features that make them different (nose, hair, eye color/shape, lips, freckles, etc). This helps them to see the importance of being unique and not a focus on color. There is a video of the activity and the classroom that I will try to find for you so you can see that. I don’t feel like I’m explaining that nearly as well as the video presents it, so I’ll try to find it. 

The most important thing is that you took this as a learning experience and now you feel like you know how you could respond better next time. Don’t beat yourself up. I learned this year that the only way I was going to figure out what worked and what didn’t and what to do next time was to make a mistake and by trial and error. The fact that you recognize you could have handled it better says that you are on the right path. :) 

I was doing the couch to 5k program and I think I have finally decided - it’s not for me. I will probably still try to continue it with my co-worker(s), but I get impatient. 

Thus, my super-awesome-fit-runner cousin and I are going to train together. She and I used to walk the perimeter of our college campus, but now I want to try to tackle the run. The perimeter is exactly 3.1 miles and hilly and thus perfect for training for the Color Run in Charlotte in October. 

So she took me on our first run together this past week. (Yeah, I know, a little bit late posting about it, but hey, I’m trying here!) Now, by this point I am able to run a mile. I am pretty winded at the end, but I felt confident in my pace and that I would be able to complete it. Before we started she warned, well typically I run the first part, but we walked it for a warm up, so now it gets really hilly. She didn’t say it very emphatically, so I didn’t think much of it. 

Well, I should have, folks. It was hard. Very, very hard. But she was kind and motivating, just like a trainer. She didn’t let me give up, encouraged me to breathe well, and even if I had to take baby steps, not to stop. I pushed through even the hardest hill with her help. I worried because at about 3/4 of the way through my entire body went numb. She encouraged me to push through it, and unless I got tunnel vision, not to give up. 

At the end of the mile she jumped up and down for me, and high-fived me for my effort. She didn’t make me feel like a loser even though I know she could have run at least 7 or 8 more miles. She made me feel great and accomplished.

The rest of the time we walked we talked about healthy food options and ways to make great food choices when eating out, which is hard for me, especially. 

It was amazing. I am inspired again. I am not going to hide behind the first year teacher weight gain excuse. I will get to my goal fitness, and I will be proud of my body and my food decisions. I will be confident in my clothes and a healthier me. :) 

I’m baaaack! ….and I just realized that I never said I was going anywhere- oops! I’ve been in my hometown all weekend for the sister/sister/brother graduation, sister’s bridal shower, and sister/sister/brother graduation BBQ. It was so much fun! I was awfully sick last night and today, but I took meds and pushed through! To not bore you with the non-education related details I’ll bullet, and also, because I appear to only blog at late-o’clock hours. 

• My sister said the pledge of allegiance at her high school graduation. I was so proud of her for looking so confident in front of so many people! She held a class office, and was able to sit on stage the whole time and help pass out diplomas. I was a very proud big sister!
• Other sister and brother graduated college and elementary school respectively. I’m proud of them too, but didn’t get to attend their graduations. 
• I met up with one of my best friends from high school. We lost touch in college, but we picked right back up where we left off. It was great. And she got to meet my fiance for the first time and they got along well, too!
• Other sister’s shower was a blast even though there were only a few of us. I managed to plan it all and pull things together despite sickness and being busy and she said she was so thankful for having a sister to do things like that with. We bonded more than we ever have (given we’ve not been extremely close growing up) and it was a great night. :) 
• I had a fever driving home from the shower and slept 11 hours last night. Ehhh.
• This afternoon’s BBQ went well, I got to spend equal amounts of time with lots of family and family friends. It was fun to see everyone and there was minimal family drama! 
• Tomorrow is a normal day at school, but then Tuesday and Wednesday is our overnight field trip to the GA aquarium! I’m nervous, but very excited. I know the kids will absolutely love it, and I’m looking forward to seeing the looks on their faces during the exhibits and in the “big city”. For a lot of them this is their first trip to a city, and they will really appreciate seeing the buildings, public transportation, and all the other sights and sounds of the city! 
• Our baby chicks will be hatching this week if all goes according to plan. (Pics to follow, if they hatch correctly! I’ll be a proud Mama Hen, literally!) I’m not sure if I ever mentioned that we were incubating chickens for my co-teacher to raise on her farm, but yeah. Cool, right? My kids think so! They are so responsible about turning the eggs, making sure there is enough water for the proper humidity and making sure the temperature is stable. They are good animal parents to our class bunny, Hopper too. Maybe next year I’ll get a sugar bear for them, too. (More on sugar bears and my recent discovery of them in a later post.)

I have lots more to get done before the trip, but I have had a great refreshing weekend. Now if I can just kick this cold to the curb, the rest of the school year will be smooth sailing. :) 4 full school days, not including the trip, and 2 half days to go! Then, on to summer school! 

So it’s almost the end of the school year and as we all know, these last few day can sometimes be the most challenging. I wanted my question to be something very positive to give us the energy to keep going. In that vein, first I will tell my short “favorite moment” of my first year of teaching.

My favorite moment is not easy to decide on, but I think it actually comes from one of my students. He wrote me and my co-teacher a letter of apology. He had been going through lots of difficult things, including the passing of his mom. He was apologetic for all of the times he fought against us when we tried to help. He even stated he realizes now that we have always been only trying to help him be successful. He said that he knows he can be hard to handle and he appreciates every single time we get onto him because he knows it is making him a better man. He concluded with saying we are like family to him and that he loves us all very much. It was the most insightful and touching student-written letter I’d ever received. It will keep it forever. :) 

So now, I want to know - what was your favorite moment (I know, it’s hard to pick, but humor me!) of this school year? Why was it your favorite?

You’re reading through the dash and you read a post about some you know in “real life”.

I read @teachersintiaras post about Dr. Ryan Visser’s Google Docs and I had to do a double take. :)

As my principal put it so eloquently: ARGHHHHH!  

I’m super tired so bullets are to save time so I can sleep! 

• Less than 5 minutes in to state testing for the day one of my students had a seizure. He ended up fine and able to recover enough to finish his test (his choice entirely, he was going to perseverate on it anyway). My cool, calm, and collected reaction? Lean out the door and in a not-so-whispering voice called for the nurse. She came and brought back up of 2 administrators, a hall monitor, and a teacher to stay with my other student while I deal with that. All was right with the world and we moved on. 
• Returned to students pouting and acting like 2-year-olds for my assistant.
• One student was an absolute angel today, who has not been in the past. Big win!
• One student pierced his own ear with a safety pin at home, brought an earring to school, drove it through his ear creating a bloody mess. Then mom was called since he was not originally supposed to be pierced. Ergo the words “whipping his butt” etc. He left in quite a huge huff. 
• Student was being disrespectful and disobedient, tried to leave area by taking to hands and jerking my arm down. He is such a sweet kid, the last one I’d expect to react that way. 
• A staff member of our program is getting assistance that they need. That’s a big positive and a relief for my co-workers. 
• Our class bunny has a name - Hopper! Hopper is doing well and almost litter-trained now! :) Pics of him tomorrow, too much effort to go get my phone at the moment.
• It was hump day - two more days. 
• Our overnight field trip to Atlanta is 8 school days away! 
• Our baby chicks will be hatching in 10 school days! 

There is more but I’m losing focus and my eyes are crossing! Goodnight Tumblr! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week also, since I haven’t said that yet! 

P.S. - About those fit teacher goals…. welllllll can we talk about that another time? :/