November content is all about research writing, gratitude, and personal learning goals.

NOVEMBER FEATURES:

• Research and Inquiry Writing Assignment Resources (Teaching tips, grading information, lesson examples, etc)

• Sports fiction book recommendations for kids

• Gratitude & Giving Visual Creative Writing Quick Writes

• Mini-Webinar on Journaling for Personal Learning

• Gratitude Log and Gratitude Tickets for Students and Teacher Friends

• Planning materials including a coffee-themed teacher planner to start looking toward 2024

• Grant outline to make getting materials easy for your classroom (New year, new books?)

October content that focuses on informational writing, horror and scary book recommendations, and added resources for sub plans, warm-ups, and creative writing.

September content that focuses on finding routines, becoming laser-focused on self-care, argumentative writing, and planning a year built on a framework for equity.

Grab your copy of Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab! Let’s get started for the month of August!

Upon reading this book for the first time, I was immediately drawn to the strong connections between wanting a work-life balance and constantly feeling disappointed by my past attempts to try to put anything that resembles self-care into place. I have always thought that self-care was an elusive idea that people aren’t ever really able to achieve. I thought this way until the moment that I read this book. Then, I realized that self-care (or the lack thereof) was largely the boundaries that we hold within our own selves, other people, and our time. While personal boundaries are something that I often do not struggle with in my life, I do struggle with work boundaries and creating a separate space for my life outside of teaching and learning. 

At first glance, the Passion Planner system is one that does not look like it could adapt to different types of planning and journaling. It comes with a printed layout, and using the weekly planner I have, the times are already filled in. However, after looking at some creative posts on social media, finding some awesome stickers, and using markers in new ways, I have been appreciative of how easily the Passion Planner can adapt to my needs. I just recently stopped tracking all things baby. We have a full blown TABY (toddler-baby) and her schedule is far easier to predict at this point. I have entered a season in life where I am declaring boundaries on work, and then looking at how I am taking care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. This post outlines how I am focusing on using my Passion Planner to become a health journal. My health journal will include a daily focus, routines, steps, exercise goals, water intake, self-love statements, and more. This post will also give lots of inspiration for creating your own health journal.

“Something has to happen…” This is what I said to one of my teaching colleagues at school regarding the level of stress, burnout, and fatigue that we were all experiencing.

I have said this in previous years, but now going into a full two years this March of teaching in a pandemic, alterations need to be made to my strategies of self-care that are realistic and adjust to the new normal of teaching and motherhood. My life has changed in a multitude of ways in the past two years.

1.) Virtual teaching and the Covid-19 pandemic created an atmosphere where we lost boundaries we never had. Teaching moved itself into our living rooms. We taught with our children on our laps, in our living rooms, and with dinner cooking during staff meetings.

2.) I became a mama. Now with an almost toddler, I am still trying to navigate my schedule on a daily basis as a classroom teacher and what that looks like after bedtime.

Classroom teaching has remained unchanged. It is just as hard as it was before, but my overall tolerance for inadequate systems is becoming something that can’t be ignored anymore. When we moved back to in-person learning, the education system as a whole tried to hold on to the things that were good about virtual learning, but we quickly fell back into old habits, routines, and schedules. We lost the social-emotional learning aspects of teaching that were so important and needed for so many children. But, we also remembered that realistic self-care wasn’t just wanted for teachers; it was needed. This post is a declaration of boundary-setting and some strategies I am going to propose regarding setting actual healthy boundaries with the profession of teaching as a whole. I am beyond wanting band aid fixes. I acknowledge that I do not have all of the answers, but one thing I know is clear: I can’t keep doing business as usual.

I am republishing this post when I normally would have set my school alarm. I am raising my not-cold yet coffee to all of the teachers on winter break. We made it, but more importantly, we must take care of ourselves in order to care for others. Winter Break is the time of year when teachers get to rest and rejuvenate. These two weeks are more than trying out new self-care strategies, focusing on wellness or adjusting our overall mindset. I am trying to move past the buzzwords and embed some of these practices into my life so they become not just the norm or routine, they are my automatic responses to dealing with the stress and chaos of teaching. These two weeks are vital in how we will work with our students for the remainder of the year. We must pour into our own selves just as much as we help others. Our health is their health.

How will you spend your winter break? Here are 115+ different ideas on how you could incorporate some self-care into your winter break broken down by mental tips, physical tips, practical tips, social tips, writing teacher-specific tips, and general teaching self-care tips. I have also added in some mama self-care at the end of the post!

This post is for those on a mission or the ones that may not know what their mission is yet. As a middle school teacher, I have made it my career and life to incorporate all aspects of learning into every part of my life. Simply, I am a learner. We are all learners. I am a problem solver by nature. When faced with something I don’t know, I try to find the answer. This might include literature study in my classroom or figuring out how to install a flapper on a toilet. It might involve looking up how to insert code on a website or following directions on how to assemble a piece of furniture. Learning is about the ah-ha moments-big and small. If you are at a place in your journaling where you feel stuck or you need to figure out what you want to learn next, this is the post for you. Write down which prompts stick out to you and then jot them down now or for later on. This post provides the journaling prompts needed for learning, exploration of new ideas, and finding a pathway to your own education. It also highlights some helpful layouts for traditional bullet journaling.

December 2020 is upon us! No matter how you have felt about the past year with everything that has happened, December is always a mood. It is a distinct vibe. Perhaps you run to set up holiday decorations or maybe you are a person who might be feeling some ease because this year the same holiday gatherings-at work or at home-may or may not be happening. It is definitely an odd time. I like December because it brings about this idea of reflection, and I also love the idea of deciding here in Michigan to cozy up for the winter. In this post, you will see my December planning pages as well as some of the things I am doing to make December more enjoyable with cozy accents and decorations. You will also see my mood meter as I make sure to check-in with myself as to how I am feeling each day.

As we all return to school this fall, the buzzwords of “social-emotional learning,” “SEL,” and “mindfulness” are swirling around faster than Starbucks is serving up Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning otherwise known as CASEL is one of the main research institutes regarding SEL work for PreK-12 education. If you are unfamiliar with social-emotional learning, their website provides a great resource and graphic with the topic introduction including information on the competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. CASEL also offers an interactive online Guide to Schoolwide SEL that has more information. My district rolled out their plan for options to return to learning, and both options include a day dedicated to SEL lessons and learning. The district helped form a pacing guide, but I wanted to reach into my own teacher toolbox for some of the strategies and tools that I use to address social-emotional learning in my classroom. The main resource for SEL is the power of the read-aloud. I have written before on the blog about the power of the book talk, and the read-aloud stands right next to the book talk as a powerful tool to use in any classroom from elementary through high school. This post contains 12 book recommendations for read-alouds, some classroom routines to consider including my own goals with my own SEL work, and some links to further reading. My game plan is to use the power of the read-aloud to begin each social-emotional learning session.

It is the time of year when you see all the memes of skeletons crawling and you know teachers are just trying to make it to Winter Break...alive. I listen year after year and hear teachers say, "we have four weeks to break this year." I laugh it off until I then realize that four weeks is longer than any professional development session, any mandated testing session, and any back-to-school training that is out there. This four weeks is real. As I am getting over my second round of being sick due to stress and being buried under papers, I came across a great post about a "self-care kit" on the Dani Dearest blog. She even has a great checklist for making a kit. I simply adapted it to my teacher needs.