Midweek Confessions

I'm linking up with a former colleague, who blogs over at http://www.emyselfandi.com/ to join her Midweek Confessions. 

-I completely forgot to order my husband's birthday present. He asked for it in the fall, and I decided to order it Monday morning. His birthday is today. So it's not here, oops. 

-I am the ultimate procrastinator! Routinely I put off laundry, cleaning, even making phone calls.  It's such a problem that I've reimplemented using a planner in order to make that change over. 

-I am super excited for the school year to begin, ending what will have been my shortest summer ever. Why? Because I will be back in my own classroom after a whole year hiatus!

-I am a newly found Grey's Anatomy addict. Seriously. Lifetime has been running 2 episodes a day for the last several months, so I have been able to catch up on 9 seasons already. I'm so hooked. 

Want to add your own confessions? Link up to E by clicking the button above!

Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend was a pretty complex one. 

I start on Friday, when I drove home for the funeral for a family friend. While under sad circumstances, I was able to spend some time with family members I don't generally see. 

Saturday morning, we had a quick visit from the kids (during which my niece wouldn't give me a hug, complaining of a sore face because, "My Daddy cut my face with grass at my house." I have no clue where that came from, nor does my brother). That was followed up by my first trip out on my parents new paddle boards. Let me just say, I love me some paddle boarding! It's super fun, and I think it's way easier than kayaking (my mom disagrees with me on this point). 

The middle of the day brought on a migraine for my mom, and my dad needed to go get some parts for the tractor and the lawn mower. On his trip, he was going to stop and pick up Subway for us. About 45 min later, he called saying that he couldn't get the food because he left his wallet at home. I got in the car and headed that way, only to discover that their credit card machine was broken. I had to dig through my car to come up with the cash for lunch. I found it, and had a quick catch up with 2 girls I went to high school with, one of whom I hadn't seen since graduation!

That afternoon, after a series of showers, my niece walked over and asked if I wanted to eat at their house (after being sidetracked asking questions about my dad on the ladder). I had to go verify the invitation after she informed me that for supper we would have, "cheese sticks dipped in ketchup." Gross. (Please note: J served roast, potatoes, and corn, not cheese sticks and ketchup.)

The kids spent the night at my parents house, so we headed back down to the pond, where we paddle boarded and kayaked. B (6) did both by himself and did an excellent job! DP (3) struggled by himself but was too stubborn to not get a chance. He had to be drug back across the pond because he was stuck against the bank. And Miss O? She's only 2, and her biggest accomplishment was standing up on the board for the first time, though she did have a death grip on my mom's shorts the. entire. time. 

On Sunday, after I was woken up at 6:53 AM by an excited 6 year old, I spent the morning with the kids and my parents, before heading back to my parents house. 

My husband surprised me by installing this: 

 

See that wooden strip between the 2 types of flooring? That is something we've been wanting for a year. Before, we had a metal strip that the nails kept loosing out of, ripping holes in countless socks. 

Then, he surprised me even more!  

See this light? That is now installed in our bedroom closet! You see, this closet is my least favorite thing in our house. It's long, but the doors only open up to half of it. 

See, here's D's side, and all those clothes are inaccessible without moving them all to the center, and nearly impossible to see with just the bedroom light. I am so super excited to have a light in there, especially since my new job will have me up before 6 AM starting 8/1! 

How was your weekend? I'd love to hear about it!

Happy July 4th!!!

Anyone who knows me well (or has known me since high school), knows that the appearance of July brings me (and my family) into a dark place. To remedy that, above all, I try to think of ways that I can be thankful for everything I have. 

So here's a shot of the gorgeous fireworks Carowinds shot off in honor of our 1st anniversary! Wasn't that super awesome of them!!! Just kidding...

They are in honor of the sacrifices so many men and women have made over the years to secure freedom in America. 

So Happy Birthday America!!  Even if yours was just as soaking wet as ours (seriously, we huddled into a tunnel by a roller coaster with maybe 20 of our closest strangers debating whether or not to make a run to the car or wait for the coaster to start back up), I hope you enjoyed it. Even more, I hope you take the  time to remember why we get the day off to celebrate. Finally, I hope you take a minute to send up a quick thank you for all those who didn't get the day off, because their job is to keep fighting for our safety. 

Teacher Binder

In honor of my new position, I have been diligently searching for a way to organize everything I need for teaching in a much better way. In the past, I've tried electronic planners, file folders, separate gradebooks, you name it. 

Thoroughly dissatisfied with my level of disorder (if you're a former student, you know that piles are my thing, for better or for worse). So, I have been searching online for a complete binder that satisfies my high school needs. Unfortunately, most teacher binders cater to elementary folks, so I endeavored to make my own. 

Here's what I did. (Also, if you want my files I will totally send then to you, just comment below!)

1. Use a heavy duty binder, and put in a super cute cover sheet. Mine is 1.5" which at first I thought was too big, now I'm wondering if it will all fit.  And, of course, use command strips to cover your name. 

2. Buy some tab dividers, becasue you will create tons of sections. I have one for each month, behind which I placed a month view calendar and my weekly view lesson plans. I also have one for grades and one for attendance, the pages for which I'll print off from my gradebook once the semester is underway. I'll have one for SOLs also. I'm thinking behind that will go my IEP and 504 paperwork for my SpEd students, divided by block. 

Here's a look at my monthly planning page

3. For each month, you'll have a view like this for important dates and to space out your pacing guide. I don't have a calendar or a pack g guide for my new school, so my months are blank for now. 

Weekly lesson view. I need color in my life, and I broke it into 4 sections left to right with the dark colors denoting M-F and the column on the right denoting the dates, handwritten. 

4. In each month, you'll also want the weeks lesson pages. There are tons of lesson pages online. My lesson pages are designed for a 4x4 block. This gives me 3 courses per day, plus a planning block. I leave a block for planning each day because I like to jot down, "make copies of" or "call soandso".  Thats whah I struggle to find, because most are aimed at elementary teachers with 1 class covering all the subjects. I learned a lesson here about spacing when you print, so I have to print some more. I am definitely willing to send directions for others. If they want. 

5. Wait until the semester begins to get the grade sheets, attendance pages, etc. I plan to print out a blank one for each course with my students names already typed in. I can use that for checking off HW, etc. Then, as grades are entered in, I'll also print off an updated paper copy of the grades in case the system crashes. 

As the year progresses, I'm looking forward to adapting my teacher binder for how I've been using it. 

How about you? What type of system do you use to plan and keep everything organized? Do you write anything down? Are you even asked to have lessons to show ever? Or are you at a school where you must submit lesson plans every so often?

Update: New Job

Last week I posted about all the career changes that have happened for me in the past year. 

And I now have an update! Drumroll please....

I will be teaching Social Studies full time once again beginning (gasp) August 5th!!!  It's at a not so local, full 55 minutes away school, but that's a minor issue. I am PUMPED. 

I'll be teaching WHI (which I have never taught before. Ever.) and WHII (the only course I've had regularly). I have to call in tomorrow to complete the official paperwork. Hopefully, once the principal returns from her vacation, I can head down and pick up some prep materials.  

Thank you to everyone for all of the support you have given me over the past year! I am so looking forward to an exciting new journey. 

Plum Paper Planner Perfection

Recently, I saw a post from a former colleague about her new, personalized planner. (You can find E's post here.)

I immediately wanted one.  Then and there.  I mean, the covers are gorgeous; they can be personalized; they have areas to jot down notes, month and week views, pretty tabs. The problem: the price and the size. I mean, did I really want to spend $35 plus shipping for a calendar that's the size of notebook?

So I messaged my friend L (who's super sweet family blog I'm constantly plugging.), asking her to bring along her planner, a similar one made by Erin Condren, when we met for lunch earlier this week. I spent a few minutes flipping through hers and falling deeper in love. (Note: hers has a few more bells and whistles than mine, but mine has lines. That was important to me.)

So here are some pictures and descriptions of the brand new planner. (I'm frantically typing away here so I can start filling my planner with dates!)

Here's the cover. It also has a clear, hard plastic cover over this gorgeous personalized page. The top right hand corner shows the years the planner covers. You can choose to start at any month and it can run from 12-22 months. I started mine in July 2013, and ran it for 1 year.  And under the envelope? You can put your name there, or whatever mine says, "the ourlastname"

Look: tabs! I love pretty tabs!

The first page, also includes a place for your name, number, etc. 

The left hand side of the week view (Thursday-Sunday). See those 7 boxes of lines per day? Those are customized. Check them out below. 

The top right hand side of the week view. See that checklist? That's where I envision things like "order the dogs medicine". There are 10 lines. 

The notes section, and a sneak peak at my fave part. I ordered the family planner, which allows for 7 personalized sections each week. Here are 3 of mine. The others include my name, my husband's, and some other things. Want to save $5? You can choose to separate your day by 1/2 hr increments or into morning, afternoon, and night. I wanted to be more specific. 

A page of contacts at the end. Where I intend to write my husbands cell numbers, because I have yet to learn them after 3 years and 51 weeks together. 

A glance at 2015 (and in the front there's one for 2013 & 2014) as well as a pocket for receipts, handouts, or whatever.

The whole thing is glorious, and I'm super pumped to use it for the next year. Want one for yourself? Head to etsy and search plum paper or go to www.plumpaperdesigns.com and they link back to their etsy shop. 

And just as a heads up: Plum Paper Designs didn't give me anything for writing this review. No free shipping, no discount. I'm just in love with it. 

Changes

Can you believe it, but D & I have been married for almost an entire year.  Seriously.  That's like, incredible to me.

And in that year, things have been a little different for me professionally.  This time last year, I was confident that I would find another full time, in the classroom, teaching job.  Very confident.

Then came July.  I got married.  I applied for what felt like a bazillion non-relevant positions, and one teaching job.  I was asked to consider coaching a JV volleyball team 30 minutes away.  I interviewed for ONE teaching job, that was part time, within that school's district.  Turns out, it was for the ONE high school social studies course I haven't taught yet.  I didn't get the job.  I didn't take the coaching position.  I took another one, with a local community college.

Then came August.  I found a teaching job!!! Well...sort of...  I was asked to become a homebound teacher with a local district.  (Find more about that job here.)  This has been a great experience, with awesome students, with a fantastic supervisor, with at BEST 1/2 of the take home pay I'm accustomed to (and at worst, didn't cover the full 4 wheeler payment one month.)

In December, I quit the coaching job, which offered up more opportunities to tack on more students, leading to the better paychecks.  Awesome for the wallet, and the relationship with the hubby since I could see him more and more.

In January, I was notified by several former colleagues that a school I have taught at previously was going to have an opening!  I immediately contacted the principal in excitement.  I continued to contact him monthly.  At the same time, I applied for an opening in my current school district.  (That one, I'll go ahead and tell you, I never even got an email about, much less an interview.  In questioning the principal later about why I maybe didn't get an interview, he answered in a nutshell, "We had a lot of applicants.  I don't remember anything about you."  Only nicer, and more politically correct)

In May, I was notified of a coaching opening in the same district as the former school (and about 15 minutes closer to my house).  I interviewed there, was asked to consider teaching Special Ed, and asked to notify them of my decision The. Next. Day.  In what seemed a brilliant stroke of luck, I secured an interview that next day with the school I'd been in touch with for weeks.  The interview: teach the same subject I taught there before. YAY.  Notified the school that was interested in me coaching of my new interview, and told them I would definitely want to coach there if I got the teaching job.

Cut to 3 weeks later.  No notification from the school with the Social Studies job. The coaching job went to someone else.  No prospect for summer work.  I get notified, unofficially, from someone who technically wasn't supposed to know, that I didn't get the job, after nearly 6 months of corresponding with the principal about returning to my former position.  I sobbed.  I sobbed again when I got the official notice 2 weeks later.

Cut to the present: my homebound supervisor gave me some part time summer work (like, way part time, like at MAX if there are no absences from anyone I'll get 16 hrs per week.  It's day 1 and I'm already down 3.75 hrs.)

So I'm starting a temp office job.  That's right, a temporary, answerthephonesandmakecopies, office job.  And I am very grateful for it, because I will have steady employment that I can depend on.  Also, it will allow me to continue to work with the homebound students, even after the school year has started.  And I'm pretty stoked.  I bought a few new shirts.  The first new clothes I've bought in 2013.  I told you, I'm stoked.

Oh, and also:

 I have a Social Studies interview in TWO days.

So fingers crossed for that one!!!!