Overwhelming Dedication

The Kondo method.  Who's seen it?  Who's done it?  Who's tried to do it?  Who watched the show and thought, that's good enough?  (Proudly raises my hand) My boyfriend and I watched Marie Kondo's new show once or twice and immediately felt like we needed to clean things out and we did, and we do on a pretty continuous basis but taking the time to see if something sparks joy, not for me.  I applaud people that can do that and feel it helps them rid themselves of unnecessary things in their life.  Getting organized and decluttering are not easy tasks.  I personally love organizing (maybe it's a teacher thing) but I will say that I will NEVER fold my t-shirts that special way! One place I have always had trouble with decluttering is my classroom.  I'm sure so many of you would agree with this.  The mentality of "I could use this one day" or "What if I don't have enough of these another year?" keeps many of us full of things we don...

This year I'm trying really hard to not have the Sunday night blues.  The last few years I've actually been starting to have the Saturday night blues, knowing that the next day was Sunday and then it would be Monday.  That seems ridiculous, even to me! I've been thinking about ways to get over that feeling of dread because it's not that I don't like my job or enjoy what I do, but the whole process of getting up early, driving in traffic, being responsible and "on" for 8 hours straight for the next 5 days already has me exhausted.  I've been trying to set boundaries of work I do at home but at the same time, getting a few things done over the weekend makes me feel more prepared for the week ahead and less "dready" (is that a word??, well, it is now!) I'd love to hear how others find ways to make the thoughts of Mondays not seem so bad?  How much time, if any, do you allow yourself to work over the weekend?  I know that is a hot topic w...

It's hard to believe I am two weeks into this new school year.  9 days of school.  I feel like I know my students really well and they are already getting all the routines down.  Yet, when I stop and really think about just NINE days, that is really no time at all. Many teachers discuss how September is a really hard month and you sometimes wish you could skip  right past it.  You want to have students know what to do, you want beginning of the year assessments over with, and you want to be into the routines of teaching. While I am definitely in agreement of wishing I could sometimes jump ahead to October there really is something special about September.  This week I received my first picture.  Hand drawn on a scrap piece of paper it had little hearts and a message of "I love you.  You are the best teacher!"  (I know, right!?!) Yes, elementary teachers will be gifted several of these types of notes and pictures throughout the year. ...

Hi Everyone, Although I had just said I was going to probably post about once a week, I figured since I had the day off for Labor Day and I'm just starting out, maybe writing some more would be fun.. I thought I'd share today about something that comes up a lot concerning teachers.  Our time.  How much we do or do not spend at school.  How often we take work home.  What amount of time is exactly spent in front of our students and of course the big one- SUMMER BREAK! It's easy for me to sit at my desk and talk about how much work I do and the time I spend on it.  However, if you are not in the education field it's not something a lot of people realize.  Every year I think about tracking my hours just to get an idea of how much work time I actually do, just for myself, and even though we're about 2 weeks into the new year, I think this could be the year! Most schools take about a week before the students arrive just for teachers.  This time is sp...

I've thought about this for a long time.  I talked about this for a long time.  I always said I was too busy and didn't know where to begin.  The truth was, I was worried I didn't have enough to say or anything meaningful to add to the conversation.  I love my job.  Let me say that again for those of you in the back- I love my job.  My job is to teach.  I teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, social skills, health, etc.  But that is not where my job ends, far from it.  That is where it only slightly begins.  The add ons, other duties and basic extra expectations placed on teachers is endless.  There are days I come home and think, did I actually teach my students anything today?   I have always been open about my feelings on teaching and the problems in education because they are there- but being a vocal teacher can be difficult.  Explaining to non-teachers and law makers who have never ...