Bite Size Pieces

This is a reality check. I think every August (in this case, July) I end up giving myself the same reality check.

I am thrilled, excited and frankly overwhelmed about the year ahead. My brain is running a thousand miles a minute about routines, procedures, lessons, and classroom arrangement. I stay up late at night thinking about morning meetings and flexible seating. Visions of anchor charts, read alouds, and writing lessons run through my head.

My list of things to talk to my team about is a page long. My classroom to-do list is another page.

The number of new ideas I want to add to my teaching practice is too many to count on one hand. Honestly, it's too many to count on two. And the crazy thing is

I HAVEN'T EVEN GONE TO PD YET.


And I am teaching a new grade level.

So yeah, this is my reality check that it's not going to all happen. It just can't.

Yes, that Ron Clark book I read was full of teaching brilliance, but I can't do it all.
Yes, my classroom design ideas saved on Instagram are beautiful, but I can't do them all.
Yes, all of those new routines and procedures have potential to rock my classroom, but I can't implement them all.

MY LISTS ARE TOO LONG.

That's because, by nature, teachers are learners. There's a constant drive and desire to improve our craft which means theres always something to be done. But, that doesn't mean that everything can happen.

So today I am going to start living by a new mantra:

My running lists are going to be sorted into wants and needs (um hello 2nd grade economics unit!). Yes, of course I will try to get to those wants, but I am also going to be gracious with myself. I know that if I want them bad enough they will happen. But, I also know that it can't all happen. It just can't. 

So, here's to a new year. Here's to grace. Here's to bite size pieces.


Love y'all!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have You Read Teal?

Image
I am always looking for new back to school read alouds. In the past I have read Chrysanthemum , A Bad Case of Stripes , and Pout Pout Fish Goes to School , among others. This year especially I have been looking because I am about to have a "new" batch of kids, many of whom I taught two years ago in 2nd grade. Honestly, I have probably been too worried about this for too long until I found the book Teal  by Renee Galvin. This book is about a beautiful, confident teal crayon. He knows his worth and is generally a happy guy until it comes time to clean up. As all of the crayons go back to their labeled boxes, he feels alone. He's not quite blue and not quite green so he doesn't know where he belongs. After much thought and hard work, he finds a solution to bring all of his crayon friends together! I absolutely love this book for a number of reasons: 1. It's so relatable. After all,  everyone  has felt left out at one point in their life, even if they ge
Read more

Start Your Year with Kahoot

Image
A few years ago, I was introduced to Kahoot during a staff training. If you have never used it before, it's a free website where you can make different quizzes and games that your class or group of teachers can interact with on their laptops, iPads, or phones. Since learning about it, I have used it with second graders to create end of unit, group review quizzes. This summer though, I have been thinking about what a fun tool it would be at the beginning of the year. My disclaimer is this: I haven't actually tried  any of these ideas, because they are just that, ideas. So here they are and if you take any of them and run with them please  let me know how it goes for you! 1. Two Truths and a Lie Have all of your students write down two true facts and one "alternative fact" about him or herself on the first day of school. After school or on your planning plug them all into a Kahoot quiz. Have your students guess the "lies" by taking the quiz in gro
Read more

Flexible Seating Series Part 3

Image
Hopefully by now some of you have read my posts about considering flexible seating and gathering flexible seating options . If you're new to flexible seating, you're probably asking, "yeah, so how do I do  it?" I know I've mentioned this before, but it's so important that I want to mention it again: Flexible seating is about meeting your students' needs. I first implemented it because as I was teaching whole group lessons two years ago, I would look out at my class and notice that almost all of my boys were practically falling out of their seats because of their need to move. When given the choice to sit at their desks or lay on the floor during independent work time, one  of them stayed at his desk and the rest of my class was on the floor. We expect so much from kids academically, I believe that it is essential  to meet them where they are in terms of seating. So if all you have is the furniture your classroom came with, start there. A
Read more