Our Next Big Jouney

School has started and everything has been running fairly smooth. We are officially ending week three and my students are doing a wonderful job at maintaining the routines. My new co-Teacher has also started and I think he is exactly the co-teacher I needed. He is relaxed but has high energy for the kids, and very talented in terms of picking up on students behavior and learning skills. He is a seasoned teacher so I feel as though I will be able to rely on him more instead of there being an imbalance of talent and consistency like last year.

With that being said the first two weeks of school were rough in a sense. The kids were great, my team was great, but all the energy I had this summer creating thing officially ran out. I’ve been falling asleep right after dinner and not working from home at all except on Sundays. I just didn’t have the energy and that confuses me because I have not been pulling late nights and were three months into the school year, five if you count professional development weeks.

On Tuesday my best teacher friend and I were carpooling and she says “I had a dream you were pregnant!”. Then that afternoon my mom and I were talking and she brought up that she felt like shopping for a baby. Alright two people bringing it up on the same day. On one hand I thought that while it would be awesome for us to be pregnant on the first month of officially trying but it typically takes 4-6 months for a couple to conceive. Therefore I wasn’t hopeful. Never the less I took a test early Wednesday morning. I kept looking at it and I thought it was saying not pregnant but then I’d blink again and it was still testing. I decided clearly I wasn’t pregnant and jumped into the shower kind of disappointed but hey… there is always next month and plus it was the first month and the odds were slim.

I quickly finished showering and started to get ready for work. Then I looked down at the test and didn’t see two words. My mind quickly said what??? And I picked up the test and realized it didn’t say “not pregnant” …. I was jumping for joy and wanted to tell my husband right away BUT I wanted to tell him in a sweet way.

So I texted my best teacher friend because we carpool and she was just as ecstatic as I was. We quickly developed a plan to cut going to Zumba and decided to go find a special gift after work. All day long my mouth wanted to blurt out the news but I held back because I wanted to tell Chris first (not counting my friend because she was helping me plan). We headed to Barnes and Noble to pick out a cute little book that he can read to the baby and a little stuffed animal puppy. The story behind the puppy is that my husband had a little stuffed animal puppy when he was a baby and I have always loved that story about him. So for now I purchased a tiny puppy that we can upgrade when the baby is a bit older. I also gave him a little card with a pea on the front that was blank inside so that I could write a message to him.

When I got home I gave him the gift and he was so thrilled and couldn’t stop saying “really? You’re serious? Wow!” smiling and hugging me. He really is 100% thrilled that were going to be bringing a little one into the world. Later we went to dinner and afterwards I went to bed because I was still extremely tired, with good reason.  .

The next morning I woke up and started my morning routine. When went downstairs I saw the following…

My husband took the puppy downstairs and had the little puppy sitting on his arm rest after I went to bed that night. That afternoon I mentioned it and he admitted that yes… He liked having the puppy with him because he is so excited,

So here we go… We have until the middle of May to prepare for this new journey that we are taking on. I am so excited that I am sharing this experience with the love of my life. This will definitely be a subject that I post on frequently.

My Fitness Plan - July

I thought I'd go ahead and share my fitness plan here to keep track of what I am doing and share with others. Each month I'll post my new plan for you to see. My schedule changes enough that I do have to mix up what I do at the house and what classes I attend.

Workout Schedule:
Sunday - My day of rest
Monday - Zumba with Desiree followed by A to the 3rd. (Arms, Abs, Ass)
Tuesday - Zumba with Jerry and Chris
Wednesday - Zumba International
Thursday - Zumba with Jerry followed by 3x20 with Angel (Bootcamp)
Friday - Zumba with Desiree followed by A to the 3rd.
Saturday - Zumba with Will and Zumba International.

Three days a week I always attend two Zumba classes in a row, but Saturday can be iffy. The Saturday class is very intense and on average burns anywhere from 800-1000 calories. I stay for two classes if I missed any classes earlier in the week (rarely) or If I'm still feeling super energized.

Food:
I am struggling food wise. I finally created a good food plan during the end of the school year and into the summer session but I fell off the wagon once school let out. I started buying junk food and drinking soda again. We also stopped cooking because of Chris's oral surgery and cooking healthy for one is tough. This week I'm starting fresh again.

I am going back to my Fit and Fresh meals with fruit for snacks during the day since Chris will be back at work. Then in the evening I'll be cooking for two again. The soda is officially out of the house and the junk food... Well I ate most of it :/

I'll create and post a full meal plan for the rest of July tomorrow. :)

Zumba

One of my main goals at this moment is to live a healthier lifestyle along with gaining weight.  While I did keep up with my Ensure diet plan (doctor recommended) I had trouble with the idea of gaining weight through calorie consumption only.  I also have been suffering from not having enough energy. Chris always told me that I needed to work out to have more energy. Personally I thought the idea was flawed because working out makes me tired, not energized.  I am now biting the bullet by admitting that I was wrong, don't tell my husband.

My friend D and I started going to Zumba together before school ended. We've been attending for about a month now, with a goal to attend five days a week.  At first I was very hesitant because I have ZERO moves.  I am one of those classic white girls that cannot dance.  Throw in my insanely long and skinny arms and legs and I pretty much look like a cricket trying to dance. I'm not ashamed to admit that. :)  So despite looking like a hopping cricket I love this workout because I don't feel like I'm working out.  The studio that D and I work out at has multiple classes of different types of Zumba so that you can really mix up your workout.  Each time I've gone I've left saying "That is my favorite class now!!" for all classes except one.  They even have two classes that are not Zumba related but allow you to build up and tone your muscles.  One is called 3X20 and it is more of a bootcamp class and the other is called "A to the 3rd" which really means "Ab's, Arms, and Ass"

Today we went to a regular Zumba class and then to the A to the 3rd and I'm telling you... A to the 3rd killed my abs.  I had to stop multiple times during the ab workout because my ab muscles were burning  to the point that I just had to rest.  It was painful but in a good way and I cannot wait to go back in the morning.

Week One... Deemed Successful

I just completed my first week of being the grade level chair.  I am happy to report back that this week was deemed successful.  My team had everything turned in three days before the deadline and everyone feels ready and excited for Monday.  This summer each team was also challenged to come up with a grade level chant for the students to say when we have "roll call" at our assemblies.  Pre-K4 - 4th grade all wrote and developed their own roll calls and guess who won..?  Pre-K4!!  We only had one day to develop and practice so in general it was a little rough but with time we'll have it down :)

Here is the first part of the video.

and here is the rest of it.... but it cuts off at the end.  I'm not sure what happened to cause that...

Monday marks the beginning of the new year (kind of).  We will have the three and four year olds in our classrooms however they officially are called "rising 3's" until August when we officially call them Pre-K4 students.  Due to overbooking issues we had to change the class list and just keep the kids from each class together but move their rooms.  While I have the kids for the summer, I will not know until August which kids are my Pre-K4 kids.  I have a good idea, but somethings may change.

I'm slightly nervous about the start but it will be fine :)

We Made It....

I said goodbye to a teammate on Friday and through the tears we managed to laugh about the events that transpired this year.

 We lost two team members to other jobs at the start of the year, gained Head Start as an entity within our grade, and had to abide by new rules that we never had to have before.  No more mini-fridges, no more cooking, no class pets, losing our ability to use the playground, assessment periods for Head Start and our own school meant we went a full months of just assessing the students without pulling small groups, dual report cards, drops in responsibility.

Megan and I (yes, two Megan's on our team) laughed while we talked about how we both prayed at night that the other would show up to work the next day.  We honestly didn't think we would be able to make it to the end of the school year with all of the changes that transpired and all that we had to deal with.   We both had difficult classes in different ways and we both cried too many times to count this year but in the end we were successful.

Our students excelled in their learning and we managed to not quit mid year.  We both honestly believe that our teaching years cannot get any worse than what this year threw at us.  While Megan is leaving to work on her masters degree, I will be staying on and was hired on to take over as grade level chair.  I honestly hope that I am as successful and supportive as she was this year to the new teammates that we'll have.  We are once getting two new team members but luckily this time it is during the summer and not at the start of the school year.

This summer I plan to teach summer school for two weeks to the new students moving up from Pre-K3 to Pre-K4.  After that... RELAX for a full month.  What a way to let the stress go before we head back into the new year.

I don't know what I'll do with my free time this summer, but you can bet that the first week will not be devoted to teaching.

Naive

... that is what you call a teacher that believes that the last day of school will be a fun day without any problems.  I honestly thought my tough kids would give me some kind of break.

BOY WAS I WRONG!

I only stepped away from my class once for a quick bathroom break and when I got back I found out four of my students decided to STAND on the lunch stools at the same time chanting. What the heck???

At the feeder wise school assembly (Elementary, Middle, and High school all in the same gym) two of my better behaved kids decided that they would chat it up while the region leader was speaking.  That's not too bad until their voices became louder and other students started complaining. I attempted to nip it in the bud with two warnings and then the third time I had to have the students come sit by me.  The fact that they had to move and sit by me finally showed them that I was disappointed and yes one of them resulted to loudly sobbing because he was upset he had to be moved.

Then at dismissal one of my students threw up and I quickly rushed him to the trash can that was literally a maximum of five feet away. That's not the shocking part.  In the time that it took me to get him to the trash can (mere seconds) another child decided to throw his own backpack in the ill child's vomit and then put the vomit on his "friends".   We quickly put a stop to that and then when it was time to go he threw a fit about having to wear his backpack.  Why? Because it had vomit on it.

Yes kids will be kids... but man mine really took advantage of the fact that they only had one teacher today and that it was the last day of school.   I was very disappointed to say the least and was definitely ready to go back to my classroom and have some caffeine (Pepsi).

Needless to say I had some wonderful  moments in my classroom Friday as well.  My girls just wanted to sit me with during center times and play hairstylist and the boys and I played parking lot math.  The students as a whole were excited to take home excess supplies, and chasing each other on the playground one last time was wonderful. :)

So now I say goodbye to the students of 2025 and hello to the students of 2026.

I have one week off before we go back and start planning for summer school.

GLC 1

Tomorrow is my first big grade level chair meeting (GLC from here on out). I'm nervous, excited, and praying that I didn't bite off to much. The agenda is massive and I don't know how we will cover it all but it will be interesting.

Tomorrow is also the Celebration of Learning. This is basically a giant two hour party to celebrate the hard work our students put in through our 10 month year from 7-5:30 daily. At my school we work hard so that we can play even harder. I signed up for this committee as well as many others this year. So what this means is that I need to get to school early with two other teachers to get the centers for the courtyard ready. Yikes...

My goal for next year... Don't over book myself. So i arrived home at 9 tonight and in a mere 6 hours I have to go back to work. Will I be staying up late tomorrow? Probably not. I will be exhausted as well as the kids.

Nap time will follow the party, thank goodness....