Currently: April

Let's begin by making it clear. I am the absolute worst blogger. I am joining Farley for the first time in months... and I'm joining halfway through the month. But better late than never, right?!

I have taken up binge watching The Office again ever since I finished listening to Mindy Kahling's audio book on my long drive back from my parents' house over Easter weekend. It cracks me up. I wish we could do a little documentary-style show about my classroom. I have some characters that are quite similar. Also, my injured dog is basically almost all the way healed, so I am enjoying listening to two sets of puppy paws prancing around my house again!

The weather was fairly crappy through February, and I seriously wonder if I have a little bit of seasonal affective disorder. I am generally a pretty happy person, but overcast, rainy weather brings a sister down. I would not be awesome at living in the Northwest, I think (even thought I did live there a couple years when I was little... probably not my best years). BUT, Praise the Lord, it has been fairly sunny the past few weeks and I've been feeling SO much happier!

We are having a concrete patio poured and a sprinkler system put in to basically complete the amount of work we are going to put into our yard before we get ready to move (OMG) next summer. I am super excited for it to look nicer and be more user friendly, but since the projects are being done in stages it is basically unusable right now and that makes me want to go crazy. I have to take both dogs out front on the leash any time they have to go outside and let me tell ya... they would not be good apartment dogs. And I would not be a good apartment dog owner.

Have I said this before? I would love to have a chef. LOVE to have a chef. I have been cooking for uno a lot lately, and by cooking I mean eating Chiobani for one a lot lately. I finally found some Amy's frozen meals that didn't seem super incredibly unhealthy, so I'm excited to try them the next couple of weeks. I also made these ten freezer meals that I found on Pinterest with my mama over Easter break. They are good, but I am still trying to figure out how to adjust the crockpot cook time. 

I need, truly, very little. I like that this always gives me some good time to reflect on how blessed I am. I mean, what do I really, truly need? Very little, my friends, very little.

Uh. My last name is Bean (no joke, my current students LOOOVE to call me "señora frijole"), and I teach. So... there ya have it!

What if Everybody Did That?!

In my classroom, we have 5 simple rules, inspired by whole brain teaching. 

1. Follow directions quickly.

2. Raise my hand if I have something to ask or share.

3. Treat my teachers and classmates with respect.

4.Make smart choices.

5. Always keep your dear teacher happy.

Though number 5 probably sounds a little narcissistic, any one of my 22 students could very clearly explain that keeping me happy only requires two things- that they stay safe and learn. No need to bring my gifts or tell me I'm pretty or perform any other brown nosing action... Just stay safe, and learn!

Earlier in the year (October-ish), my sweet students' behavior began backsliding a tad... I was becoming frustrated, and our Daily 5 and intervention time were becoming increasingly less effective because it seemed as though every 5 minutes I was having to redirect behavior of yet another student. Finally, in desperation, I pulled back out the book I used at the beginning of the year to introduce our five simple rules. It is a little beauty called What If Everybody Did That? We read it again and chatted a little and then I had a streak of inspiration. I scrapped my afternoon plans and we made our own class version of the book!

We began by brainstorming some of the issues we were having in the class. I was surprised to hear that almost all of the troubling things I was noticing, they were too! We made a bubble map and did a class example with "I just followed Mrs. B around to ask her a question instead of raising my hand one time. Mrs. B fell on me and smooshed me to bits, then turned around and said, 'What if everybody did that?!'"

Pairs of students got together and followed the pattern of the book to write their own set of two pages based on one of the bubbles off our map. They pre-wrote the text, then revised and edited it with another pair. After that, they copied it onto nice white paper, and used the illustration style of the book as well to draw some pretty hilarious pictures.

I bound all the pages with one of those old school punch-and-bind machines and put the book in our classroom library.

The little novel is super popular during Read-to-Self for Daily 5. We also pull that bad boy out whenever we are on the struggle bus and read it together. It is an awesome reminder because THEY wrote it. It's not me trying to lay down the law once again, it's THEIR words and ideas and illustration. My sweet students tend to remind each other and even remind me of the things that are truly important to keep our classroom functioning successfully. 

Currently: JANUARY

I know I've been a little absent, but what better way to start the year off?!

I'm currently at my precious grandparents' farm with my parents and my sister and my husband. The week has been full of relaxing and catching up (now that we ALL live in different places) and watching football. Love it. (:

I am so thankful for my new job. I seriously was thinking even before I started working on this post how incredibly thankful I am to be in a position that I love and that allows me to spend Christmas break only thinking or planning ahead because I want to and I'm excited... Not because I am so stressed about what is coming up when I get back. That being said, I am also grateful for my experience last year because I'm not sure I would have understood what a blessing this is without it!

I would love some prayers for my sweet old man "puppy". To keep a long story short, we left him to be taken care back home, and he was hurt this week. Even though I know he is a dog (vs a child), I have been so upset that I left him in a situation I wasn't a hundred percent comfortable with and now I can't be there for him. Maybe pray for both of us?

Looking back on my year and thinking about all that I have... There is not a single thing that I truly NEED.

After I finished my challenging year, I knew one way this school year could improve was by taking care of myself. So I did the Advocare 24 day challenge and pulled my act together. I have lost 23ish pounds from my first challenge and about 30 from my heaviest weight during last school year... And I feel awesome. Not just because of my clothes fitting (some are even too big now?!), but because my skin feels good and I don't feel greasy and I rarely have tummy troubles (which now I can almost always track back to an abundance of friiiiiied food). But now I need to get my exercise on. My primary exercise involves walking the dogs... That's better than the nothing I was doing previously, but being an ex-athlete, I know I can do way better. I'm debating CrossFit. Thoughts on that?

My goal last year was to make $50 on TPT. I didn't achieve the goal, but I also didn't work very hard at it last about... February. Oops. So maybe I will push up on that.

Last, I hope and pray and wish that my family and I will remain happy and healthy this year. I think it's going to be our best one yet!