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Finding Rewarding Professional Development

You may heard the words professional development and have an immediate feeling of impending doom.  Yes, PD can be extremely boring and meaningless.  But sometimes, you can find workshops that are actually incredibly interesting and can give you awesome ideas to incorporate into your classroom.

Last year, the math curriculum in my district was up for review.  I helped to re-write and modify the curriculum over the summer to make it more “fitting” to the current needs of our students and more aligned to the standards in my state.  My supervisor hired an external consultant- someone who was coming into my district with a blank slate, totally unbiased, and with an open mind to show us what we could do better.  He came and observed several math teachers at all levels throughout the year last year, including my own classroom.  Overall, he said he was very impressed with the teachers and the routines in our classrooms.  It was evident that we loved teaching and we knew our stuff.  But even good teachers can get better.

One of his suggestions was something called Lesson Study.  It originated in Japan, and involves several teachers working together to create a lesson where students learn through problem-solving.  This became a series of professional development workshops that I have already began attending this year, and so far it is very intriguing.  I did my best to go into it with an open mind, even though some of it has been a bit unrealistic.  Lesson study lessons are really ideal for “perfect” classrooms that have tons of time to teach math on a daily basis.  However, I have already gotten so many ideas in this PD that would work for my “non-perfect” and “time-constrained” classroom.

The point of my story is to ask your administrators to find professional development that can actually be beneficial to you.  You might want to talk to teachers in other districts (we all have friends in other towns) and find out what their teachers in your department are doing.  Give your administrators suggestions so they have a starting point for what would be interesting to you.  And go into everything as open-minded as you can.  Even though it might sound ridiculous from the start, there might even be one thing that you can take away from a workshop and try in your classroom.

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Work at your job and make a living, work on yourself and make a fortune. -Jim Rohn

#quotes — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2ysapwF

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“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”

Henry Ford

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Building Relationships with Colleagues, Administrators, Students, and Families

Teaching is all about building relationships.  You need to have a rapport with your students.  There needs to be mutual respect.  You should be able to go to your administrators and ask a question without being nervous.  You should be able to talk to your colleagues about something not related to teaching.  It all seems difficult, so you might be asking, how?

Well, I do not think this is nearly as difficult as you think.  As a middle school teacher, I am part of a team.  All 100 of my students have the same math, science, social studies, and language arts teachers.  The four of us meet one period each day to discuss our students.  I have grown incredibly close to my team.  I’ve cried in their classrooms after a stressful day, and have laughed about all of the ridiculous things our 14 year old 8th graders do.  But we were perfect strangers when I was a brand new teacher.  In fact, I sat next to one of my colleagues at new teacher orientation, and we made small talk about how we were both extremely nervous brand new middle school teachers.  I was in her wedding last summer, and she will be in mine this coming summer.  She is now one of my best friends.  My advice is to allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of your colleagues.  Chances are that they share so many of the same feelings.  And not everything needs to be work related.  Share information about your family, friends, interests, and weekend activities.  Go out for coffee or drinks and laugh until your stomach hurts.

As far as your students and their families, that all comes naturally.  Students just need to feel like you care about them.  Their parents know when another adult cares about their child the way they do.  Send an email home when you’re concerned.  Send an email home when you see improvement.  Ask your students how their day is going when they come into your class.  Tell them to have a great day when they leave.  Don’t let your own emotions consume you while you’re teaching.  In your classroom, everything is about the kids.  And the students feel it when they know everything is about them.

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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. -Unknown

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Learning to Say No

As educators, we are naturally “people pleasers.”  We want everybody, especially our students and administrators, to be happy.  We want to keep our job.  We want people to notice how invested we are in being a “good” teacher.  However, it is impossible to do everything.  Let me say it again.  It is impossible to do everything.  And it’s okay to say no.  I promise.

As a new teacher, I wanted nothing more than to please my principal and my supervisor.  I said yes to literally everything they asked us to volunteer for.  I signed up for committees, chaperoned dances, became the adviser for the math club, stayed late after school giving students extra help, and was in the building almost an hour before school started.  It was overwhelming.  No one told me that I could say no; in fact, the advice I was given by veteran teachers WAS to say yes to everything if I wanted to keep my job again next year.  No one told me that I was doing a good job.  And that’s what made it worse.

Now that I am tenured and in my fifth year teaching, I look back on that rough first year and I laugh at myself.  What was I thinking?  And still, I struggle with saying no.  It hasn’t gotten easier.  The stress has only dwindled slightly.  I’m still a people pleaser.  I want everybody around me to be happy.  

But now I know, that I don’t have to do everything to be a good teacher.  I don’t have to chaperone the Halloween Dance because no one else wants to.  I don’t have to donate money to every single fundraiser my students are doing.  I don’t have to be part of every single committee.  I don’t have be in the building at 7am every morning or stay past 3:00 every afternoon.  Because NONE of that is any reflection on the kind of teacher I am in my classroom.  

If you’re a good teacher, your administrators know it.  Trust me.  If you’re not, they know that, too.  And no matter how many things you say “yes” to doing, if you’re not performing in the classroom, it makes no difference.  If you’re a good teacher and you say yes to something, your administrators understand that you are doing them a favor.  They can’t fire you because you literally did not have the time in your weekend to come to the Halloween Dance.  They understand you have a life outside of teaching, even though it seems like they don’t.  And if you feel like you’re in a situation where you can’t say no, go talk to your principal.  Explain the reason behind why you can’t say yes.  More than likely, it will be no big deal.  This is something I’ve learned to do.  Even though I don’t owe anyone an explanation for saying no to something I’m not contractually obligated to do, I still feel like I was asked for a reason.  I did this recently because I was asked to do home instruction for a student and I literally have no time left in my busy schedule.  I sincerely appreciated being asked, especially because it involved extra pay.  However, I just had to say no.  And my principal was more than understanding.  

So think before you say yes.  Is it something you really WANT to do?  Is it something you have time to do?  If not, then don’t do it.  It’s what goes on in your classroom that’s important.

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After taking five months maternity leave to be at home with my daughter, I am happy to be back at school! Starting the year off on the right foot with rules and routines, then filling in our color wheel by mixing our primary colors to get our secondary colors.

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Choose 2 ! 😍👅🍉🍇🍏🍍

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The Importance of Exercise, Nutrition, and Sleep

Exercise, Nutrition, and Sleep are some of our most basic needs as adults, and especially as teachers.  As educators, we think we can do it all.  And as a result, exercise, nutrition, and sleep sometimes suffer.  Here are some tips to help you make sure that you are getting plenty of these basic needs in your weekly routine:

1.  Sleep:  Give yourself a set bed time and wake-up time each day.  Don’t let yourself go to bed later than your set time, even if you have to finish grading.  It can wait.  The students understand, even though we don’t think that they do.  Getting a good night’s sleep each night will help you to feel well-rested the next day.  If you fall out of this routine, it will just become a viscous cycle of you feeling constantly tired and needing a turbo shot of espresso in your coffee every day.  I also think it’s important to give yourself a set time to stop doing work each night.  For example, if you force yourself to stop working one hour before you go to bed, it gives your body time to unwind and calm down.  If you work right up until you go to bed, you are more likely to be restless and toss and turn before you finally fall asleep.  Doing this will help you to get more rest and feel more rested when you wake up.

2.  Exercise:  Exercise allows your body to release endorphins- the chemicals that make you feel good.  This helps relieve stress and unwind after a stressful day at school.  Even if it’s for a half hour three times a week, it will help.  Go for a run around your neighborhood, join your local gym and go to spin class, or even just watch a YouTube video in your living room.  Find a way to make your body feel good.  And you’ll even start to notice a change in your overall energy level when you wake up every morning.  Your muscles will appreciate it too, and you’ll feel stronger.

3.  Nutrition:  Fuel your body with food that makes you feel good.  That’s obviously not always the easiest when we are constantly in motion and on the go as educators.  Like most teachers, I work through my lunch almost every day and eat my sandwich or yogurt while I’m grading papers or writing lesson plans.  However, I have found that spending a couple hours on the weekend meal prepping has helped tremendously.  Pinterest has TONS of great meal prep ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  I’ve found so many great healthy recipes just from scrolling on Pinterest for a few minutes.  Most can be done in the crock pot, or even in one pan and put in the oven.  And they will give you meals for at least two or three nights during the week for dinner.  Another thing I’ve discovered at my school is the salad bar in the student cafeteria.  We have fresh salads made upon request that are so delicious and are full of nutrition, and they are only $4.25.  I usually buy one twice a week for lunch.  My coworkers also rave over the personal salads from Trader Joe’s.  I’ve never tried them myself, but everyone says how great they are and are also only $4.50.  When you are eating better, your body reaps the benefits in so many ways and you will just feel better overall.

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Exercising and eating healthy is great

But remember you can’t achieve a healthy lifestyle with a negative mind.

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Don’t just show up

Make yourself proud.

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