May Day: Please Bring Flowers

Do you ever have those weeks that seem to go on forever? Where you continue to question what day it actually is? Those weeks where you could swear it is Friday, but it is only Wednesday?

Yep, that is my week.

This morning, I have been jumping on the Friday bandwaggon. Every move I make is in the assumption that today is the last day of the work week. But it is not. When you have weeks like this, what do you do to pull yourself back to reality? In my experience, the only thing to do is to give yourself a positive kick in the pants. So prepare for another list of awesome, super cool, grandiose things!

All right, they aren't that hugely amazing, but they are things that bring a smile to my face.

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Molly's 2nd List of Awesome

1. My inbox got a surprise today! My Yoga Pro, a website I have been dying to get my hands on, is finally launching next week! I cannot wait to check out all the videos, connect with other yogis, and hopefully learn some new things. I've been waiting for the launch since Christmas, and I can't wait!
2. My students made HUGE strides on our biome project yesterday. For a solid hour and a half, we cut, colored, researched, stapled, and glued our way to the savanna. We're not there yet, but I can finally see it coming together. 
3. My dad joined Snapchat. I don't know why this is awesome, but it made my giggle out loud when I got his "friend request". He is a retired teacher and is always proud of what I do in the classroom, so I look forward to snapping him cool school projects!
4. I went to Skyzone again, and I am feeling the burn today. Who doesn't love that sore muscle feeling, especially when you know you worked for it. 
5. Today is May Day! Do you know what that means? Goodbye April showers, and hello May flowers! There is still a ton of work to do, but my garden at home is shooting up and looking ever so pretty. 

Here is to the power of positive thinking! I feel better already. 

Happy May Day, friends! 

Biome Week: School Stress

To say I have been a bit stressed lately would be an understatement. I can't sleep. All I want to eat is ice cream. Yea, stress. However, it is all for a good cause.

This week is Biome Week in the fifth grade. What is a biome, you ask? A biome is a unit of the environment with similar plants, animals, and climates: oceans, tundra, desert, rainforest, grasslands, wetlands, etc. We have been studying the biomes of the world for the last month, and this week is the culmination. We are BUILDING the biomes! All five fifth grade classes contributed to the ocean in our hallway. The students all brought in a three-dimensional fish of their choice, and they are so impressive! Then we hung them from the ceiling so it feels like you are swimming through the ocean in our hall.

Hallway Ocean

Clownfish

Our classroom will be transformed into the savanna grasslands. As I told my students, "Think Lion King!" We are making a huge mural on one wall, student groups are making lions and cheetahs, there is a paper river through the center of the room, and several other projects. I have been so worried that we will not complete the transformation by our due date/walk through on Friday, but the students are determined. I love watching their faces think through how to build a tree or an exotic bird.

I will post pictures as the week continues. I will also learn to take deep breaths, and let it go! My students will make what they make, and it doesn't have to be perfect. But with the right amount of time, anything is possible.

RAWWW

The start of our savanna river

Whew! I'll sleep next week :-)

Tests, Test, and More Tests

Assessment week: the one week of the year every teacher has a love hate relationship with. All week long, my students will be under pressure to do their best, and I'm under pressure to make benchmark. Below, is a list of some things I do to make this week a little easier on my students.

1. Brain food  Each morning this week, the students will get a fruit, veggie, or cheese stick to get their bodies and brains ready for a couple hours of quiet sitting. 
2. Peppermints during the test   I'm not sure if there is actual research backing this, but there has been a movement to allow students to suck on a peppermint while testing. It is supposed to help with their concentration, and I'm happy to have the fresh smell in my room! 
3. Extra recess   One day this week, I am planning to have an extra recess for my students. The weather is finally nice, and after working so hard on their tests, they could use the time to get the wiggles out. 
4. Breaks between tests   I often have a short physical routine that I do with them between tests. The routine generally involves 10 jumping jacks, 10 toe touches, stretch to the wall, wiggle, sit back down. Plus, it is a good stress reliever! My kids can't help but giggle when I'm up there making a fool of myself. 
5. Good old fashioned encouragement    It is amazing how far a smile and a, "You got this!" can go in a student's world. 

Wish me luck, and let the testing begin! 

Love and Lures

The sun is shining, the day is warm, and I have iced tea in front of me. It is a good day. It is a good day. It is a good day! I am so tired today that I'm having a hard time focusing on anything but staying awake, but I really can't complain. Afterall, this sleepy feeling is my own fault...

Over the past few weeks, I have been working with a student on a behavior plan. He earns points for good behavior, and at the end of the week, if he reaches his goal, he receives one of his favorite things: fishing lures! The only problem with this genius plan is that I know next to nothing about fishing, and as of last night, I still didn't have any lures for the week. Thankfully, Adam does know quite a bit about fishing. Some might even classify him as a lover of the sport. When I realized that Friday was coming fast, I asked Adam to help me out with my lure-less dilemma. He was on board, but mentioned that the only congruent time off we would have in the next two days would be after his 10pm shift. He offered to go it alone so that I could sleep, but we haven't seen much of one another this week, so I was determined to wake up and head out. Crazy? Absolutely, but I'm so glad I made the time to spend with him. 

Over the last few months, we have learned a lot about each other's love languages. While mine are acts of service and physical touch, we were surprised to find out his is quality time. I say we were surprised because Adam has always needed time to himself. What guy out there doesn't?  But apparently he quite likes spending time with me too; probably a good thing since we're linked for life. Since learning more about his love language, I've been actively looking for ways to spend quality time with him, which has proven to be tough with our schedules.

The point is, last night we went to Walmart at 10:50 p.m., a time that is normally reserved for pillows and pj's in my weekday life. We spent almost an hour buying fishing gear, toilet paper, and making fun of my people of Walmart outfit: XL red long sleeved T-shirt, Adam's long shorts, black furry snow boots, and a white jacket. Hey, I can't always be a fashion icon! We laughed, we spent way more money than we had intended, and in my eyes, that hour with my husband was well worth today's sleepy feeling. 

Leader in ME

When I first took this job, I had never heard of the Leader in Me program. I was informed that it was our behavior plan, and the school had seen many benefits from its rollout. That was about it. As a new teacher to this school, I didn't want to fall short so I did some research. Come to find out, it is a student based program based on Stephen Covey's 7 Habit of Highly Effective People.

Fast forward seven months, I'm on board with the idea!  I even serve on our Lighthouse team. We meet twice a month to implement and discuss Leader in Me in our school, but we had a tough time getting traction at the start of this school year. When you read the list of "new" that we faced, you will understand why! In the months of August and September, we were hit with a new literacy series, new principal, new superintendent, new 1:1 technology rollout, and new math standards. See what I mean? By the time we got to Lighthouse, we were all so exhausted, it was hard to even think straight! But I'm happy to announce that in our last few meetings, we are finally getting some impressive traction. Yea! It feels so good to be focusing on this program and implementing the ideas we have been talking about all year.

All the "new" at the start of the year  =  circle of no control
Learning to focus on my circle of control

One of the things we had been throwing around was the idea of school wide leadership roles. While there were tons of different role possibilities, it boiled down to these five. We chose them to highlight the habits, give a variety of choices for all ages, and to simply help our school run smoothly! Applications are due on Friday, but I already have a huge stack on my desk! I'm pretty excited to go through them and choose our new leaders.

So many applications! 

1. Greeter - students will be expected to speak clearly to people as they enter the school and direct them to the office to sign in and get a visitor pass.
2. Shutterbug - student will help to showcase all the great things that are being done around out building! They will need to use a camera/iPad/phone to take pictures
3. Tour Guide - student will need to have basic knowledge of our building and operations of the school. Applicants should be positive, have the ability to communicate well with visitors, and showcase our great school!
4. Habit Announcement Leader - student will need to speak clearly over the school intercom system. Student will be giving a brief 7 Habits reminder once a week. 
5. Weather Specialist - Student will need to be able to use technology to acquire weather data. During the afternoon announcements, each student will share the weather report for the following day. 

Is there something you have been mulling over for months (maybe years), but just haven't quite pulled the trigger? Do it! It feels so wonderful to see these changes in our school, and I can't wait to see what else we come up with now that we're on a roll! 

Giving Up Control

I have been teaching for the last six year. Scratch that, I have been teaching, in some form, for as long as I can remember. When I was nine years old, I had passed out of swimming classes, started being an aid instead, and it didn't take me long to take over my own class. From then on, I was teaching something: swimming, dancing, reading, third grade, and finally fifth grade. While I initially struggled to figure out what my ultimate major would be in college, it wasn't that big of a shock when I landed in elementary education.

This semester, I have been given my first ever cooperating teacher position. I have had a few practicum students in the past, but this is my first full time student teacher. I was am thrilled to have this fresh, new face learning with me. He has, as you would expect, a lot to learn, but I figure that is why he is student teaching. I learned more in that one semester of being in the classroom than I had the rest of the 4 years!

But today...today I had to give up my classroom. Talk about a heartbreak! I had no idea it would be so hard to sit back and let someone else teach my kids! I kept thinking, "But if you say it this way, it is going to click!"

Four weeks to get caught up on paperwork? Great! Four weeks to be able to pull small groups and reteach? Amazing! Four weeks of not being in control? Uh-oh, I might be in trouble.

Listen, logically I get that he doesn't have to teach the way I do, and honestly he shouldn't. What makes a great teaching is figuring out who you are as a teacher and then playing to those strengths while working to improve on your downfalls.

I guess these four weeks will be a test in my self control, and that is Ok. Heck, that is probably good for me! But more than anything, these next four weeks will be a true test of how well I can teach, no matter the student's age.