Healthy Teacher, Happy Teacher

If you're a teacher, you know how important your health is.  Nobody has time for calling out sick and prepping for a substitute.

Teaching is taxing on the body! You're always on. You can't sit back and let it coast. You need stamina if you're going to survive until retirement.

Here is a list of must-do, self-care activities that are not only easy to implement but also vital to your health and well being.

Drink Plenty of Water
It is no secret that drinking plenty of water is good for your health. There are numerous articles written in medical journals about this. Teachers especially need to follow this advice since we use our voices all day and often work in stuffy classrooms. Staying hydrated helps our skin from becoming overly dry, helps us stay fuller longer, and helps us strengthen our immune system to fight off diseases.   Get a nice insulated cup for yourself to make hydration more fun.

Manage Your Stress
Teaching can be stressful! This is also no secret. It's a demanding job that pulls you in all directions and as teachers, we tend to give our all to our work and students. Many times we let the hustle and bustle of our classroom lives get the best of us. Perhaps we have a student who just sets off all our triggers. Maybe it's administration and their impossible hurdles. Whatever the stressor, we need to combat it to preserve our health.

One way to manage your stress is to befriend fellow teachers at your school or online. Instagram and Facebook are one place to find such people. Ideally, you should try to make connections within your school or district because these are the folks who will most likely be able to commiserate with you. Caveat try not to get bogged down in the negativity of teaching. Find positivity and run with it!

My team on Read Across America Day.

Another way to manage stress is to create a warm teaching environment. Make your classroom a place you want to be. Keep it clutter free and try to use personal touches that remind you of happiness. I use pictures of my dog and family. I also decorate my classroom in cheerful colors.

My classroom is full of happy colors.

Get Some Exercise
Outside of school, you can try to implement a workout routine to manage stress. Exercise releases all kinds of feel-good chemicals. Your body will look good, your mind will feel better, and your overall health will improve.

My dog is not the most active.

These are just a few suggestions to keep you sane and healthy throughout the school year. Comment what works for you. I would love to hear what things work for you!

Must Do Activities, Resource, and Ideas for Teaching About Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader who sacrificed for a worthy cause.  Our students really benefit when they learn about leaders who fought for something worthy and did so peacefully.  The school I teach at is named after this great man, so naturally, we make a big todo around his birthday.  Here are some of my favorite ideas.  I hope you find them useful.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Videos

Our Friend Martin
A movie that shows kids traveling back in time to meet young Dr. King. This movie is a favorite in my classroom.  It's very engaging and brings up a lot of interesting talking points.

Kid President (The Story of Martin Luther King Jr.)
I just adore this kid!  My students really enjoy his messages.  They are always positive and inspiring!  Also, coming from a kid's perspective, I find them more relatable to my students.

Books About Martin Luther King

These are affiliate links which means if you click and purchase, I will get a small commission.  Of course, you are under no obligation to click these, but these are some books I use in my classroom.  I use them as read alouds and mentor texts. I display them over my bookcases too.  I love displaying them because my classroom looks decorated and students know where to access them easily.

Activities You Can Try For Dr. King Day

• Have a multi-cultural feast with your students.  Provide a sampling of different types of foods from different cultures. Celebrate each other's differences. Bring in a cake and celebrate Dr. King's birthday. Parents love to get involved with this because who's not proud of their heritage? To be honest, this is when I get most parental involvement. 
• Make a bulletin board that shows off your students' dreams for a better world. You can do this by making collages using old magazine cut-outs or pictures printed from the internet. Send it home and make it a family project.  Make sure you instruct the kids that the topic is a better world otherwise you'll get collages of mansions, cars, and nonsense! LOL
• Make a diorama.  Students can use old shoe boxes to display different peaceful protests and scenes from events in Dr. King's life.  The dioramas can be presented and described by students. This is also a project that can be done at home to involve parents. 
• Make it a day of service. Have students in your class donate small items to an organization. In my school we have collected canned goods for the food bank, gloves, scarves, and socks for the homeless shelter, dog food for the animal shelter, and toys and toiletries for the women's shelter.  All of the collections have been hugely successful and celebrated by the local community.  

My Own Resources for Teaching About MLK

 

This is a timeline project. 

When it's closed it looks like this.

A letter writing template we use to write birthday letters to Martin Luther King Jr. We do this to update him on some of the things going on in the world today.

A comprehension booklet that focuses on his letter from Birmingham Jail. This resource is for teaching opinion editorials.

A peaceful protests vocabulary word wall.  I keep this by the door. As my students line up, I often hear them reading the words and discussing their meaning. I didn't intend this but it was a happy accident. Even the second-grade group I tutor does it. Word walls are pretty effective ways of introducing and developing vocabulary in students.

This is a biographical booklet about Martin Luther King, Jr. This resource includes comprehension questions and graphic organizers that my class uses to turn into a bulletin board display every year.

Word find, crossword, fill in the blanks activities packet.

A fun, yet rigorous way to get students to practice vocabulary found in many writings about Dr. King.

Each of these products is available individualy however, I do bundle them all for a significant savings. Just click the link. 

My MLK BUNDLE

I hope you found some useful ideas and resources to include in your Martin Luther King Jr. lesson planning. If you decide to use these, let me know how they went. I'm always interested in seeing other teachers' points of view. As always thanks for stopping by! 

Handmade Gifts for Students

Are you looking for something cute, yet inexpensive to give to your students for the holidays?  Why not make them personalized ornaments?

I am one of those people that can never find anything with their name on it.  I mean it's not a very common name, so yeah, no personalized keychains for me.  So I decided to make something personalized for my students.

Granted, I have one of those Silhouette machines, so it made cutting the vinyl patterns easy peasy.  All I had to do was choose a design and create the name prints.  The Silhouette does all the cutting work.  Could you imagine having to cut all the intricate details by hand?

So I had glass balls that I wasn't using, and there were just enough for my class.  I also had the rest of the materials on hand; ribbon, and candy.

Now, if you don't have a vinyl cutter, you can always buy stickers from your local craft store.  Stickers have come a long, long way people!  Of course, buying them can become expensive so just be aware.

So basically you pull out the hanging clip thingy, I don't really know what that part is called, and you fill the ornament with whatever you want.  I filled mine with candy, but I've seen them filled with bath salts, confetti, hot chocolate mix, or even notes.  I used candy M&Ms because that's what I had on hand already.

When you've filled the ornament enough, you can put the hanging clip thingy back in.  If you've filled the ornament with something that shouldn't be played with, then glue it in place.
The last step is to tie a pretty ribbon on it and just like that you're done.  This is a super easy, super inexpensive, and super cute way to show your students some love during the holidays. I've included the Amazon links to the mentioned items below. If you purchase any of these things using the links, I get a small percentage and it's no extra cost to you.

Happy Holidays!

All the materials I used can be purchased here:

Share Chair

Remember when I mentioned that I wanted to do a classroom flip?  I said it here. Well, I'm on my way to completion as far as making furniture for it.  Before I show you the other things I made, let me show you this cute Share Chair.  I know it's a stool but bear with me I have a small classroom.  I just love how it turned out!  

This is how it started.  Just a plain, unassuming stool.  I got this one at Walmart for like $20, but you can pick one up on Amazon.  I added the links to everything at the bottom. They are affiliate links.  I get a tiny commision if you buy and it doesn't cost you anything.  Alms for the poor, please. (British accent)

First I spray painted the seat with just regular white spray paint that I already had on hand.  Please ignore my garage in the background.  After the paint dried, I used a level to create straight blue lines across like paper.  I also had blue paint on hand.  Score!  Tip: Use less paint because it may run under the level.  Hindsight 20/20 use a paint pen for this.  Learn from me.  

I made the red margin line with red nail polish.  Don't judge.  I ran out of red paint, or so I thought.  It worked just fine.  I wanted to put a big A+ on it, but then I thought it would look too busy. 

Next, I taped off the legs and painted the eraser tops.  I measured so the "pencils" would look even.  This is just acrylic paint in like an orangy pink color.   

Here's what they looked like done.  I left the painter's tape on there and painted the legs yellow. 

This is how I taped the bottom of the legs because I wanted to give it that scalloped edge you get when you sharpen a pencil.  I just cut the design out of the painter's tape.  I painted the legs yellow as you can see.  

I wanted to give the metal part of the pencil a realistic look, and I had silver leaf on hand.  While I'm pleased with the results, let me just tell you working with this is not for the faint-hearted.  It's very thin and just ugh just don't.  Hindsight 20/20 this is the perfect time to use a paint pen or heck even silver duct tape or better yet use the silver tape used for actual air ducts.  I will link to everything at the bottom in case you don't feel like aimlessly walking the aisles of your Walmart or Home Depot.  I always spend more when I go searching for something in the stores. 

Okay, so this is the finished product. I didn't take a picture of how I did the bottom of the legs, but basically, I left the bare exposed wood and painted the bottoms with some charcoal colored paint I had on hand.  Then I went over the little-scalloped edge with a paint pen.  (That's when I discovered how much easier it would've been had I used it on the seat.)  But wait, Nydia, how did you make the crayons?  I suck at life honestly.  I forgot to take pics of that in the frenzy and excitement of wanting it done.  Maybe it was the paint fumes. Who knows? So mainly, I painted each one a different color.  I let them dry.  Then I went back to each paint and mixed a tiny bit of white to lighten the colors slightly.  I painted the lighter color leaving the darker color on the ends.  Crayon wrappers are usually lighter than the crayon itself.  The black part on the crayons is just self-stick vinyl that I cut from scraps.  

So there you have it, folks.  I should mention that I polyurethaned the bejesus out of this because I know many butts and shoes will come into contact with it.

Here's What You'll Need

• Plain Wooden Stool
• Paint (blue, white, yellow, black, pink, silver, red, orange, green)Paint markers (optional)
• Duct tape (optional)
• Silver Leaf (optional)
• Polyurethane
• Paintbrushes
• Vinyl (optional)

Check out these other things I made for my classroom. You can find them over on Teachers Pay Teachers in case you're not feeling particularly crafty and just want it done for you. LOL 

These are my book bin labels. You can get them here. 

These are my letter banners. I use them for decorating above bulletin boards, making back to school welcome signs, etc. You can get them here. 

 

These are my alphabet posters. I hang them up above the whiteboard. They really pull together the colors in my room and add interest to that empty space above the board. You can get them here and here.

This is my teacher toolbox. You can get the labels here. 

Here's a picture for you to share on Pinterest.  Sharing is Caring!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Be the Teacher They Like and They Will Learn

Children Learn Best When They Like the Person Teaching Them 

      I've been teaching for a while now.  I won't age myself by telling you the year I started, but I will tell you this, the most important thing I learned in all these years had nothing to do with content and everything to do with personalities.  If they don't think you have their best interest at heart, they WILL shut you out.  You need to become the teacher they like so that the curriculum is bought into.

First Things First

     The first thing that you can do as a teacher is to establish a rapport with your students.  Your kiddos want to like you.  Heck some of them think you live at school or are some type of celebrity.  If you teach anywhere near your home, you know that when one of those little kidlings sees you out and about, they lose their ever loving minds.  It's like they are spotting a celeb.  And when they see you the following day, they're all about it.  I saw Mrs. so and so at this or that place, etc.

                           Let There Be Light Conversation

     Spending a few days at the start of the year just getting to know each other helps so much with classroom management later on.  First, it establishes a relationship between you and your students.  Let them know who you are, what you like, your character traits.  Talk about your kids, pets, hobbies, etc.  Get them to do the same.  This makes you more approachable.  My kids know that I love Harry Potter and I'm sorted into Slytherin House, they know my doggo's name is Kiwi, they know I love the Indians baseball team, they know I love Disney, they even know I need to vent after every Game of Thrones episode.

Friends Show Respect

     Once you have a relationship built, you can begin to establish permanent rules and guidelines. Find a time of day when you can talk.  Have topics prepared ahead of time.  Even on days when you're not in the mood; force yourself.  Make it short though.  Keep it to 2 to 5 minutes at most because kids love to share and waste time!  Also, you don't want to bore them.  Keep them wanting more.

Here's What I Do

     I teach special needs students, many of which have behavioral problems, and I'll tell you this works miracles.  I use their writing prompt homework as our class share.  Each month we have a new set of prompts, but when the students share their writing, we often have many topics to discuss.  This serves a few purposes; one to get the students to practice daily writing, two to get students to share their work with others for peer review, and three to get students to share their thoughts on specific topics. I use these.  They are available in my store, but I've also been known to use this game (This is an affiliate link. I make a commission if you buy and it doesn't cost you anything extra.) with my class. Even the most reluctant and shy students love it!

     Most recently, I found a ppt here at the Playful Otter: Tools for OTR.   She has a lot of helpful tools for social situations and more.  I can't wait to use her Stranger Danger ppt because I feel like our kiddos need to practice these skills.  Heck, I even failed a few.  (Mom don't worry, I won't get kidnapped.)

Judge Judy Those Kids

     Knowing what makes my students tick helps me make fair disciplinary decisions too. When discipline becomes necessary, as it often does, it's easier to manage and defuse a situation.  I can refer back to a conversation we had, or make a personal connection for the students in the case of an argument. I can say things like, "I thought you, and so and so we're on the same team" or "that's not what you told us your goals were for this year," etc.  Knowing something about my students gives me leverage too.  If I know a student plays football, I can talk to the coach about behaviors in my class.  I've also been known to withhold share time if they're particularly noisy or misbehaving.  They love their share time and just warning them usually gets them in order.

Just Chill

Above all; relax.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Show your human side.  Learn to laugh a little.  Let them teach you.  Get silly with them.  Try these tips.  I promise they will work.  You will become the teacher they like, and respect will follow.  

Thinking About Flipping Your Classroom?

I'm on summer break right now, and although I should be enjoying my free time and relaxing with a drink or two, my mind is actually back at school.  What's that about?  I mean May rolls around, and I'm like scratching at the walls to get the heck out.  Then I'm home for three weeks, and I'm dying to get back!  Makes no sense!  I must be a glutton for punishment.

This year, I decided to do something to refresh my desire to come in every day and give those kiddos my all; past January of course. I'm going to attempt a classroom flip! 

What's a classroom flip you ask? Well for those of you (like literally 6 people) who don't know, a classroom flip is where you go into a crap fest, prison cell looking, dungeon of torture like classroom and turn it into a pimped out place that could quite literally be featured on MTV Cribs.  Is that still like a thing? That's what I'm trying to do this year. 

 Let me tell you another reason why I'm doing it.  Just between you and me, I'm getting a kid this year ( I will not be posting this kid's picture or mentioning the name.) who has severe, I mean SEVERE, behavioral problems.  Not an issue with me because I am known as the kid whisperer in my circles.  However, this little person may need some extra lovin and an environment that is calming and cheery.  I will provide my people.  I WILL provide.  Also, I want a cute classroom!  There; I said it.  

It's August 2nd, and my principal is probably going to send police to my house for a wellness check if I call in and ask her to allow me to start decorating my classroom now.  So basically, all I can do is make lists and blueprints and schematics at this point.  

I should probably mention that my classroom looks like a jail cell.  It has light pink, brick walls, and darker pink paper walls.  Y'all there's like 8 shades of pink up in that place.  There is even a bullet  rock hole in my window.  I work in the city.  The gritty city.  I have my work cut out for me on this flip.  Also, I can't paint in there.  I asked the custodian if they would paint it for me and he said, "If we get around to it, I'll see what I can do."  This translates to not a chance in H E double hockey sticks.  

So I'm thinking I'll do some curtains.  Maybe some cute quotes along this wall above the windows.  I'm thinking of adding some bulletin boards and shelves along the wall with the dark pink paint and maybe buy some comfy chairs for the corner where that easel is.

 I'm a special education teacher, so naturally, I get a smaller room since at most I get like 8 kids. So I'm thinking of covering that massive, gross wooden cabinet thing with a less offensive contact paper. I want to dress up the door and above it. My teacher desk area will get a little lift as well.  Oh and that embarrassing conference area under the flag needs major TLC.  So that's what I'm working with folks.  I will keep you posted on my progress.  Please pray for me.  Hopefully, I won't spend so much that I end up losing my house.

I just realized I may have a chair problem.  There's like literally 10,000 chairs in that room!!!