#MTBoSBlaugust - Day 6 - My Yearly Mantra

Prompt #19 from the mega-list of prompts says:  What is your focus/theme/mantra for the year and why? Create and share a notecard for your desk as a reminder.

Every year, I really spend a lot of time thinking about my teaching mantra for the year.  Two years ago, it was "It's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be worth it."  Last year, it was "The best way to learn is to do, the worst way to teach is to talk."  I love my yearly mantra because it gives me focus for the year and I need all of the focus I can get!  I knew that I really wanted to work on better relationships this year, so I narrowed down my choices and ended up with two strong contenders:

 First off, I totally love (with puffy heart loves) the leopard background! :)  However, both of these quotes really resonate with me as a teacher, so it was really difficult to decide on which one would be the final choice.  

But, after lots of thinking, here's the winner:

I love having my yearly mantra where I have to see it multiple times a day!  

The thing that really tipped the scale was that I have felt very convicted personally this summer to try to "Be the Change" by showing love and serving others in their time of need.  I want to work on building better relationships with my students, colleagues, and administrators.  I want to remember that every journey begins with a single step and that the Butterfly Effect is real and that I have the power to create great change by taking one small step each day towards making my classroom a place of positive energy and self-affirmation.

What is your mantra for the year?

#MTBoSBlaugust - Day 5 - All About Me

I'm totally stealing today's blog post from @algebrasfriend! :)  I love the #MTBoSBlaugust prompt about 20 facts, but I was stumped on what to share.  That's when Beth came to the rescue with her alphabet facts.  :)  Thanks Beth! :)

A - Age: Ugh... do I really have to tell that?  :)  I did realize today that I am now half of my mom's age.  :)

B – Birthdate: Today!!! :)  Happy Birthday to ME! :)

C - Chore you hate: Washing dishes!  Although to be honest, I'm really not a huge fan of any chore :)

D – Drink: If I'm drinking pop, then Diet Mtn Dew.  But a few weeks ago I had the plumber out to run water to my fridge, so I've been drinking tons of water (with 2 squirts of Mio Lemonade!)

E - Essential to start your day item: In the summer, a cup of a coffee, a morning walk, and quiet time! When school is in session, same thing minus the walk. :)

F - Favorite color: Purple :)

G – Gent:  My wonderful hubby, who does this blogging thing daily and I still can't figure out how or why! :)

H - Height: 5'8"

I - Instruments you play: None.  In 6th grade, I tried to play the clarinet and flute... my poor daddy's ears :(  Then in 7th grade, I begged my mom for piano lessons... that lasted two years and I was still pretty rough around the edges.

J - Job title: Math teacher plus many other hats (AVID Coordinator, PD Coordinator, Tech person, etc)

K - Kid(s): None... unless fur babies count!  In that case, we have 3 cats and 2 ferrets :)

L - Loves: hubby, my family, my friends, my church, reading, the MTBoS

M – Music: rarely.  But I grew up on old hymns and southern gospel.  My mom played the piano for our church (still does actually!), so those are my go-to when I'm stressed

N - Nicknames: None really that I can think of

O – One wish: I would love to be a bit more "happy-go-lucky" sometimes.

P – Pet:  See the Kids prompt above :)

      Pet Peeve: Lack of ambition

Q - Quote from a movie:  "I can't talk now, we have cows!"  -Twister :)

R – Residence: Oklahoma.  I've always lived within 90 miles of my birthplace.

S - Siblings: 2 biological sisters, 1 step-sister, 4 step-brothers.  My parents divorced when I was a toddler and married my step-parents the following year, so my step-siblings have been around my entire life.

T - Time you wake up: Officially my alarm is set for 5:30 :)  I aim to leave the house during the school year by 6:30.

U – University:  A small regional university in Oklahoma.

V - Vegetable you dislike: Peas.  They have zero flavor to me

W – Worst habit: Oh my, there are so many!  How about "not saying NO!" :)

X - X-Rays: Not in years that I recall.  I've never broke a bone

Y - Yummy food you make: My go-to recipe is pulled pork

Z - Zoo favorite: The monkeys... and the big cats :)

#MTBoSBlaugust - Day 4 - Exhaustion

This summer I worked really hard to not get out of my normal sleeping routine. Actually, that's a lie, kinda. :)  Instead of waking up at 5:30, I rolled back over after hubby's alarm and slowly woke up until I was out of bed by 6:30 and out for a walk by 7.

School starts officially next week, so this week I decided to go to up school.  I've been getting up around 6 and out on my walk by 6:30, then up at school at some point after that.  Thankfully, I did a really good job shutting down my room in June, so it hasn't been much effort to set it back up this time around.  I have a few things to still tackle, but in general, my room is ready for kids. 

Today, I was there until 4:30 and I'm exhausted.  I know this is a horribly short blog post and I promise to make up for it tomorrow, but at least something is getting written after staring at a blank screen for 2+ hours! :)

On a separate note, does anyone know how to wax a whiteboard?  I keep hearing that waxing will recondition the showerboard style whiteboards, but I don't know the details on how to do it.  What wax do you use?  Does it matter?  Thanks in advance!

#MTBoSBlaugust - Day 3 - To Do Lists

Can I just say that I love to-do lists?  I mean, like big puffy-heart loves!  My day never feels right until I have a to-do list going!

While I'm definitely one of those girls that can write a to-do list on anything.. tiny post it note, scrap of paper, back of a business card... I really like pretty to-do lists.  I usually find cute ones at the Target Dollar Spot, but I've been pretty sad at this year's selection and haven't purchased much at all in my beloved Dollar Spot!

But... I am totally loving my new ARC binder system and thought to myself... "Self, you could totally make a to-do list that matches your beautiful new teacher binder!!!"

(Full disclosure.. I tried to find a cute one on pinterest first, but no go :(

Anyway, here is the result of about 30 minutes of work this morning:

Isn't it just the cutest???  I made it two to a page, then punched it with my ARC punch and I'm good to go!

If you would like a copy, click here... you'll need the font Shadows Into Light as well

#MTBoSBlaugust - Day 2 - What is your mission statement?

We officially report back to school next week, but I plan to unofficially buckle down starting tomorrow.  This has been the first summer in YEARS that I have taken time off and not been at school most of the summer.  While it has been a great summer of getting a lot done around my house, that lack of school preparation has really stressed me out as well

One of the things on my to-do list today is to pick up my office so I have some workspace in order to get things done and sent off to the copy shop.  At the beginning of July, my office was a total pit and had not been useful for over a year.  Hubby and I rented a small dumpster and went to work on both offices.  Mine is mostly finished, other than some piles of papers that I need to sort through.  I decided to tackle a pile of papers that was on my side table today and ran across a document that took me back a bit...

About 10 years ago or so, I was invited to our school's yearly "advance", because at our school, we don't have "retreats", we want to always be "advancing". :)  I've gone to several of these throughout the 15 years I've been at my school and they are always awesome.  The teachers and school admin team work together to tackle current issues that are facing the school.  The teachers love it because they feel like their voice has been heard and the admin loves it because they get input from the teachers before making final decisions about the new school year.  Anyway, in this particular year, one of the activities was to develop a personal mission statement.  We were handed a 3 page front/back document of questions asking about the things we valued, who influenced us to be a teacher, what characteristics we wish to emulate, what we would hope students would say at our retirement party, etc.

Here is what I wrote:

As a professional educator, I commit to:
- Planning engaging, relevant, and interactive lessons designed to give students ownership in their learning.
- Work hard to help all children learn, regardless of ability or language level, employing a variety of methods to reach each child.
- Strive to have a positive attitude, modeling respect and caring within my classroom, valuing each student as an individual in hopes of encouraging those around me to be better people.

What I find interesting is how much I still believe in what I wrote so many years ago.  I have grown as a teacher since then through the MTBoS, but ultimately, the core of what I want to be as a teacher is in those 3 bullet points above.

MTBoS Blaugust Prompts 2015

After my earlier post, the wonderful @pamjwilson asked me to share the Blaugust prompts.  However, the prompts that I had planned to use were technically for the video gaming community and not at all tailored to the MTBoS.  I asked Pam and Beth (@algebrasfriend) if they would like to collaborate on a list and an hour later, we came up with 45 prompts for you to use.  We are going to do things a bit differently than the gaming community since not all of these prompts appeal to all people, so pick and choose and ignore as you wish. :)  This list is only a suggestion to help you when your writing muse seems to be taking a sick day! :)  Have fun and tweet out your blog post with #MTBoSBlaugust so we can all read your posts! :)

Prompts for the MTBoS Blaugust 2015

1. What do you hope to get out of Blaugust this year?
2. Show us your classroom
3. Top 5 Tips for New Teachers
4. What are your Back to School Must-Haves?
5. What would you like to Start doing this school year?  What would you like to Stop doing?  What would you like to Continue doing?
6. One time in math class... (as a teacher)
7. One time in math class…(when I was a student…)
8. Something I read/learned this summer that intrigued me…
9. Pinned It, Did It and/or Pinned it, Did it, It flopped.
10. Recipe Swap for Busy Teachers
11. Something that makes your classroom unique
12. A  mentor/colleague who impacted your classroom/teaching…
13. The best teacher I ever had was …. because ...
14. How do you tame the paper tiger?
15. Brain breaks for students.
16. Favorite take 5 for yourself?
17. Be the Change.. what will you do this year to impact the culture of your school and/or classroom?
18. Using your school mascot, create an acrostic of character traits you wish to instill in your students
19. What is your focus/theme/mantra for the year and why?  Create and share a notecard for your desk as a reminder.
20. What are your go to quotes?
21. Reblog an old post - reflect how you see/use it now?
22. What are your favorite formative assessment strategies?
23. Professional Growth Goal
24. What are your best organizational tips?
25. Theme song for the year? like your personal fight song?
26. What is something in your classroom that you cannot live without?
27. What’s a positive change you would like to make in your life - could be at school/home/health?
28. Last time you belly laughed…
29. List of gratitude.
30. Describe a typical day (or hour) in your classroom.
31. What is your biggest classroom pet-peeve?
32. Link to 3 blog posts that impacted you and share why.
33. Read 3 posts from blogs you’ve never visited, give a quick take-away from each.
34. What is your greatest joy in teaching?  What is your greatest fear?
35. Tell us about you!  Post 20 facts about yourself.
36. What are your New School Year Goals or Resolutions?
37. What’s in (and on) your teacher desk?
38. Interact with a new follower and use FORE from Make It Stick reading, then introduce them in a post?
39. What’s the 10th song on your device playlist?  What memory does it conjure?
40. Text 5 people, ask them for 1 word that describes you and reflect.
41. What’s your “One Good Thing” for today?
42. What do you do on parent night / open house?  
43. What’s the toughest challenge you face as a teacher today?
44. A favorite activity that is fun and leads to learning…
45. A nostalgic thing/activity in your classroom you wish to modify and improve.

Blaugust is Here! - Day 1

I've decided that this year, I'm going to participate in Blaugust.  In my hubby's twitter-blog-o-sphere, Blaugust is a daily blogging challenge through the month of August.  I've tried these in the past and usually tucker out around half-way through the month, but I'm going to give it a shot again.  This year, I've really slacked on blogging, so I'm hoping this is the shot in the arm that I need to get back to more regular posting. :)

Day 1's Prompt:  What are you hoping to get out of Blaugust this year?
(Note:  Blaugust was designed for the gaming community, so some prompts will be changed and/or modified to fit my own lifestyle.  If you have ideas for prompts that I can use on the days that I can't figure out a way to modify the Blaugust prompt, please post it in the comments.  Thank you!)

As mentioned above, this year was a tough one for me blogging wise.  In fact, this is post #8 for me for the entire year of 2015.  In contrast, in 2014, I had over 90 posts, so I'm a bit behind the curve! :)  I know that I get a lot out of blogging and reflecting on what happens in my classroom, so it is something that I want to return to.  However, I also know that every day that goes by, it's harder and harder to return to writing on a regular basis.  It gets easier every day to put it off and never get around to writing a post.  I know I need to blog for my personal and professional growth, but life gets in the way and by the time I get home, all I want to do is eat supper and fall into bed.

This morning, on my daily walk, I had this "Oh, crap, it's August!" moment that I'm sure most of you teachers are used to.  This year is the first year in many where I have not traveled at all through July and worked on home projects instead.  I have had a very productive summer, but I haven't really worked on school yet much at all, so I have to really buckle down over the next couple of weeks in order to be ready for kiddos on August 19.  I'm hoping the daily blogging will act as an accountability tool of what I've accomplished and my daily goals.

Wish me luck! :)