Breaking for Christmas

I cannot even express how happy I am to see Christmas break. Besides the fact that I LOVE CHRISTMAS, I need some naps, I'm tired and I know I can speak for at leeeeeeeeast like 5 other teachers when I say that I was at the end of my rope.

Real quick: that self challenge I put in place for myself actually went alright! I had my moments when I snapped or when I didn't listen, but hey its a work in progress!

Next. What I really wanted to talk about. My kids. WHAT! I know......I never talk about those rascals. :) Anyways. No matter how excited I am to not see them for 2 weeks, I am also sad. I'll miss them. Badly. Not necessarily teaching them and struggling academically with them....but more like experiencing their personalities. Their kindness. Their frustration. Their triumphs. I will miss knowing that they are fed at least twice a day at school. I will miss being able to be really freaking weird and have someone appreciate it. Although, I do know that, like, my sister, she will appreciate the weird..because she is also weird. But its not the same.

Some of my kids would rather be at school than at home. Some of my littles ask to go home with me on the weekends or at night. It breaks my heart and makes me feel good at the same time. If I had my way I would pull a Miss Honey and totally take them home with me and dance around because Trunchbull isn't our principal anymore.

My prayer for my kids is that they stay safe. They stay warm and fed. They experience love and kindness from the people they live with. They laugh and they are cuddled and hugged. I pray that they come back to school well rested and ready for the next few months. I pray that they don't become lonely. Selfishly....I pray they miss me. Because I will miss them....and its no fun missing someone when they don't miss you back.

Positively positive

Its easy to be negative. About everything. All the time. Its easier to complain about things and be a grumpy bear than to actually work to change anything. Its the easier approach, its the lazy approach. Its the approach a lot of us take. Be honest......I am wayyyyyyy guilty of this.

One of my good teacher friends/friend friends, who goes way above and beyond to help out her fellow teachers, decided that she was allowed to say something negative ONLY if she follows it up with a positive! What a great idea! So I started doing it too. You know what, it helps. What a smart woman she is.

Its easy to get sucked into the suck of the day. Like I have had maybe 4 days my whole year that have been COMPLETELY good. However, have my days been total crap buckets just because a few things happen to tank hard? No. Have I let myself think they have been? Yep....WHAT A WASTE OF A DAY! There is a lot I have to be happy and positive about.

Also....just a side note...if you want to complain about how terrible something is and how blah blah blah whatever it sucks, okay but you better be trying to fix/improve it then. Like you're in a sinking boat, and you sit there with water blopping in around you and you complain "man this water is coming in and stuff and it sucks!" and then you just sit there because you would rather do that and be a lazy sloth person then actually have to try and repair the boat? Okay well you deserve to sink....hope you took swim lessons........but you probably didn't because you're too lazy....okay anyways.

Am I saying don't complain? Absolutely not. Complain away, but try not to let it consume you. Try and pick a few positive tid bits out of your day. It will help. Your heart will smile more. Who doesn't love a smiling heart???? (okay maybe except this one because its totally creepy...)

Lets review.

Hows is my challenge to myself going? Oh so sweet of you to ask! Its going well! I still have a few days but so far Ive been doing most of these. Lots of smiles, high fives, laughs, hugs, helping, staying late and Christmas. Loads of Christmas. Have I been the most positive person on the planet this week? Heck no. Lets get some of the frustrations out first, I'm going to list these out real quick and then forget about them.

-One of my special friends has been doing really well, like really well. But this week and last he has gone back to the kid he was at the start of the year, its incredibly disheartening and frustrating.
-Talking, constant talking....over me...over each other...talking
-I might have gotten angry a few times...frustrated maybe...maybe some tears....maybe


AND NOW IM DONE! Not thinking about those things anymore.

The positives of the week.

Our elf came! It was so fun. Our awesome Vice Principal Steele busted into our room with a present that was wrapped in Christmas paper! AND IT WAS COLD! That could only mean 1 thing, it totally came from the North Pole. Mrs. Steele told us how an elf named Ffffffffranklin had busted through her ceiling and gave her this present for us. We opened it and it was our Elf on the Shelf book! The kids loved it. The next day our elf showed up! We named him Belle, we are a very progressive class and name boy elves girl names.....If anyone has some cute ideas for our elf, I would love to hear them!

My kids really like old school Christmas music. Like Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Harry Connick Jr. Thank goodness they do because if they didn't, poor things would be miserable for the next 2 weeks.....I would have listened to it anyways.

Overall, my kids were actually pretty good this week, there were bumps in our road, but no mountains on our adventure. (I just came up with that little saying and Im really proud of it.....Im making it into a poster) (jk im not...) (but I should)

10 more days. They WILL be great. 

Lets do this!

Teacher friends. We have 15 days until Christmas break. We can do it. I am going to challenge myself to do a few things.....personally I think it is easier to reach a goal when you only have to do it for a few days...aka 15....15 days....cause then break happens and we all get out batteries recharged by the break fairy.

My challenge to myself is (and if you so choose to take on this challenge as well thats great!)
-Stay late at school or get there early at least twice a week so I can feel fully prepared
-Take a step back before acting on frustration of any kind
-Laugh more with my kids
-Have more conversations with my kids
-I am going to encourage my kids
-I will lend a helping hand to my coworkers if they need it
-I will smile! Like so much you will think something is wrong with me
-If you need a hug you will get it, adult or child
-Be super Christmas-y, because it makes everyone happy! 


If I do not at least attempt these things, I will gladly accept coal in my stocking....

FIFTEEN DAYS!

Lets. Do. This.

Much needed

This break could not have come at a better time. The kids needed it. The TEACHERS NEEDED IT!

Side note: don't even say "I wish I got a break from work like teachers" or "must be nice to have 5 days off for Thanksgiving" if you aren't a teacher. Because YES it is nice! If you wanted to have them too, you could have become a teacher, but you didn't become a teacher so you don't have the right to make us feel bad about the breaks we get. OUR JOB IS HARD! Not saying yours isn't. Just, don't comment on the time off that we get and we won't comment on your job. Kthanks

Anyways! I don't know if it was just me, just kidding I know it wasn't just me, but like my teacher brain is mush. I let my kids do a craft for 2 hours on Tuesday.....2 hours. This break is needed for a few reasons:

-I need to re-energize badly
-I need to organize my life badly
-I need to regroup badly
-I need to nap........badly

My rope is nearing its end.....its basically just weird little frayed pieces right now.

Hello Thanksgiving break, my old friend.

Thankful

Im thankful for students who usually don't want to work at all but sometimes get the urge to try really hard all day long. It makes me feel successful.









Im thankful for students who are hilarious. The students who find a sock in their coat pocket and exclaims "Oh, itsa sock" when they discover it, and then use the 1 sock as a glove and put their hands in it to keep them warm. But the reason they didn't have gloves is because he gave them to another student who didn't have any.









Im thankful for funny and sweet conversations that I get to have with my kids. Like this:

"Can you fly?"

What??

"Can you fly?????"

No haha why would you think I can fly!

"Because you a super hero"

*Cue tearing up*




Im thankful for my coworkers, I think Ive said that before....




Im thankful that if our kids don't have coats, gloves or shoes that there are people out there who are more than willing to donate proper clothing for them.

Im thankful for when kids get creative with their family projects. We had them disguise turkeys so that they wouldn't get eaten for Thanksgiving dinner, the only one I had turn one in wrote "My turkey is God I protect you so don't eat me" hilarious. I love it.

Im just thankful.

Progress

How long have we been in school? 63 days.....thats it. Like 15 weeks. 3 ish months. What does it feel like? 2 years. These past 3 months have crawled by like a sloth. A sloth stuck in tar. BUT it also feels like it has gone kinda fast? I don't know, its a weird feeling. Anyways, in these past few months, the tar covered sloth months, there has been some serious progress made. I'm going to tell you where we have progressed. Most of these aren't academic.....so sue me.

-We walk instead of run from our seats to our carpet spots
-We speak to our friends instead of yell
-We take calming breaths and chill instead of freaking out (not always....)
-We can kind of read!
-We actually work together instead of being bossy pants (also not always...)
-We can have a GIANT melt down and then come back to class and be successful
-We sit AT our desks instead of On our desk
-We laugh and dont get toooooooo carried away
-We answer some deep thinking questions instead of answering "uhhhhhhh"
-We don't yell out answers during tests anymore!
-We have 4/5 good days instead of having like umm 0/5 (yes thats specifically about 1 kid...maybe 2)
-We worry about our friends when they are sad or hurting instead of laughing at them..

Am I saying that there is nothing we can work on? Thats exactly what I'm saying. we are perfect. hahahahahaha Im so totally joking. We have so much to work on. But I would say that for 3 measly months, this progress is pretty good. So bring it on the next 6 months! We are going to progress the crap out of you.