Teacher Vlog Episode 3.3 | Progress

and then I was scrolling through her teachers connect so I'm here to close out this week's blog with my teachers connect check in this first question I haven't typed this response yet but it just caught my eye because I think my response I don't know if it's the politically correct response to have to this question but it's my honest response so I'm just gonna read this question give you my honest response even though I don't know that it's gonna be the right thing to say are popular but here's the first question good morning here today's outfit today I'm wearing a dress from Old Navy about this some time last year I think at the end of the year I'm wearing them with these grey wedges that you guys saw over the summer from DSW as far as accessories I'm just wearing this bracelet that I've had for a while from Tiffany's this ring right here is I think from New York and company but it's old and my silver fossil watch so that's it alright I am in the car on the way to Starbucks to pick up a iced coffee because I made a cold brew using the little contraption that I bought from Bath and Body Works not bad the Body Works Bed Bath & Beyond over the summer but it needs to wait for hours to brew so I need to pick up some coffee because I need to be awake for the children it is about 10 minutes to 7 I think what I'm going to try and do this is I do not go to Orangetheory on Mondays and Wednesdays so I think what I'm gonna try and do is not wake up as early as I would if I were going to launch theory but wake up earlier and get there earlier so I woke up today at 5:00 and yes it took me about that long to get myself dressed I'm just a very slow mover and they get to work earlier than normal normally if I go to Orangetheory I get to work right at contract time which is 7:45 so that's my plan as far as the weekend nothing extraordinary happened I did some work I worked out I ran some errands the usual as far as meal prepping I think somebody asked me about that and then I thought oh I never really mentioned how that's going it's not going I think I've just come to accept the fact that I'm not a male prepper which probably sounds odd because you know that I cook dinner on a regular basis through blue apron and even that has been hidden mist the past couple weeks but when I would mill prep it would have to be like over the weekend and I just find that over the weekend the last thing I want to do is just meal prep so so far for lunches I have been bringing salads that I was buying last year from bonds which is the grocery store one of the grocery stores out here I'm a little nervous because one of the reasons I stopped doing that is because the quality of the salads were not up to par at some point and I thought about increasing my blue brand subscription to a family plan and I don't know if I mentioned this before but then I decided that wasn't necessarily the best option for me so right now I'm having salads with yogurt and something along those lines for lunch and then as far as breakfast is concerned I didn't even I don't even have the energy to make those 8 cups and they're super easy to make but I've just been making like an open-faced egg sandwich which only takes a few minutes so you know you gotta got your strengths and your weaknesses and apparently my weaknesses are meal prepping I just can't seem to bring myself to do it I don't really have a reason why maybe things will change once I get like settled and simmered into the school year I don't really know what the reason is I just know that I haven't been doing it so when I get to work today I my plan today is to get classroom jobs established because I told my kids I'm working way too hard in this classroom doing all the little jobs that students normally do for me such as answering the phone turning on and off the lights things like that so I need to get jobs assigned and we need to go over the math quiz and they took on Friday there were some footage that I recorded on Friday where I was explaining how long it took me just to explain to the class how I wanted them to take the quiz and my expectations and breaking down the problems and making sure they understood what the problem was asking them to do but still I had quite a few kids that didn't be there follow directions or need to rethink some of their answers so I need to go over the quiz and get jobs assigned and maybe we'll be able to fit in taking a Wonder's assessment together for practice so I'm gonna get this coffee right now and then I'm gonna head to work which is just a couple minutes away so this probably be the last time I speak to you for a minute or two I'll see you later okay I'm going to try and do a quick check-in it's 1033 I have two minutes before the recess bell rings and this morning I got a couple things accomplished that I really wanted to I got their seat switched I do put them in Kagan groups I have this CD I will in the interest of time I'll try and show to you later but basically it's software where you can put in student information in terms of like scores test scores and it will create heterogeneous groups for you on the computer that you can kind of switch around and move around so I like to put my get kids and those kinds of groups and I always group them based on their reading scores so I got that done and I got their seats numbered which is also for Kagan so there's a seat 1 C 2 C 3 C 4 so I got that done I got jobs assigned in my class everyone in my class has a job I told them they will probably keep that job for the whole trimester because it just makes my life easier and so that was done this morning is one of those mornings where I just left Jenny and Peggy's room to tell them we will probably not be teaching a new math lesson today only because just assigning jobs and explaining what they were and getting their seats moved took a long time and now we are going over the quiz I have taken some footage on Friday didn't that I didn't include in last week's vlog because it would have made the vlog like super long but basically what I was saying is I spent a ton of time on Friday going over the quiz I don't know if that's about reading going over the quiz and kind of showing them things they wanted to pay attention to in the directions and the hope was that would make them do really well on the quiz but I graded the quiz over the weekend and there were quite a few kids that missed problems a because they didn't fully read the question even though we broke it down or B didn't follow directions so we're going over that and that's taking some time so that will probably take the place of my new math lesson today and Peggy and Ginny are in the same boat like they need to go over the quiz they're realizing they're behind so we will not get to less than 1.8 today so that's where I'm at they're gonna come back now I'm gonna read them a story we're gonna finish up going over the quiz and then try and work on wonders but that's my Monday as of 10:40 and 35 but I will check in with you guys later hi guys 532 to be precise here today was in fact a minimum day so you might be asking why are you still there Latonya and that's a good question it's valid but we did have active shooter training after school today and that lasted until about 3:30 then I came back to my room and just about cried because there came a point where I felt like I was literally walking in circles whilst shuffling piles of paper around but never really accomplishing anything so a lot of time was wasted with that then I got my bearings and got my life together and I at least got the agenda on the board and I remember to write the word save so that the cleaning lady would not erase it I got myself ready for tomorrow for the most part and I just had like things that I needed to put away because as you know I like to leave my classroom relatively clean so now I'm just getting my stuff ready to go home I have to work from home but I'd rather just go home and do it I need to finish lesson planning and I'm writing this on this handy to-do list that I bought from my happy planner um finish lesson planning hold on there's something else needs right okay and when I get my lesson plans done and have some things filled in that I need to finish working on I'll show you like the beginning stages of how I'm using this with my digital plans but I'm not quite there yet and I don't want to show you something if it's not really finished and so right now I'm packing up to go home again I think I'm here well I know I'm here but I think the only person left at this point with me is the custodian and the cleaning crew which is the story of my life and I don't know I don't know how to solve that column right now I think like I told some of you on last week's law through the comments I just have to accept that that's just the way it is for me like I typically am going to be the last one because I get here right at 7:45 but I do think I spend a lot of time like processing information and getting things ready for the next day not to say that other teachers don't but I think I just move slower in that process and that's okay that's just gonna have to be okay in the end it keeps me sane and I think it's good for the kids so today one of the other reasons why I felt like I wanted to cry is because it's everything it's just taking so much longer than what I needed to take and I just feel like every day I just get a little bit more behind of where mentally I want it to be so we didn't even get to the one-ders assessment aside from reading the second passage and that is something I'm just really not willing to skip because I want to do that with the class so that has to happen we didn't get to the math lesson which is fine because I had to review the quiz and I haven't started social studies which I wanted to do this week which I think I will so I don't know I think I'm just having the hardest time this year just keeping perspective of where we are in the school year I think I'm still living in the haze of what my class was like at the end of the year and how well-trained they were and I just totally forgot how much I'm an energy and effort it took me to get to get them to that point and I think in my mind I want my class that I have right now to be like my class at the end of the year but my class last year was not like this at the beginning of the year and I have to remember that I don't have to be patient until myself it's gonna be by right guys it's gonna be fine it's gonna be totally fine so yeah I'm getting ready Clinton to pack up and go home there's a stack of papers that I had that I can't find and let's hope that shows up somewhere I don't know what else to say so I'm looking for that I'm about to get a piece of chocolate I am now rambling so I'm gonna put my shoes back on because currently have on flip-flops I'm gonna go home and then I'm gonna get to work I will say this and I did wanted to mention I I mean we had an active shooter training at the end of the day and it's just so sad to say that that's like the state of where we are in education that now it's not just fire drills and earthquake drills which you know are natural disasters now we have to be prepared for that kind of violence on campus and I know the odds of it are minimal and that was one of the points they made at this training is that you know you have a better chance of being attacked by a shark than you do being in a situation where you have an active shooter but nonetheless like it could happen and it's just sad it's just unfortunate that school is not necessarily a place where you can just assume that everything is safe so it was definitely a downer and we got some good information we talked about lockdowns I don't know about you guys but for us and for me when I've had lockdown drills a lot of times we'll focus on teaching the kids where to go safe places to hide which is all well and good but one of the points that I got from it was that we also need to train kids early how to barricade doors and that's that so like when I have the next lockdown I will probably talk about okay guys if we found ourselves in a situation where was unsafe and someone was on campus with the gun we really want to do anything that we can to prevent them from coming inside so we need to barricade the doors and just start talking about some things that we can quickly move to make it so that it's harder for them to get in the reason I'm stopping us because I'm also realizing our doors open out and not in so I guess the barricade would still work but I think it just wouldn't be as effective because it's not like the person's pushing in the door all they have to do is open it up but it's just sad so that's what the training was about so I need to get home I actually have to stop at Target cuz I forgot to get some potty pads for my little doggy so have to stop and do that and then I need to get to work because I have to go to bed early because I have Orangetheory tomorrow so that was my Monday I didn't get nowhere near as much accomplished as I wanted to I got some things done but not everything and I don't know so I will talk to you guys tomorrow hope you had a great Monday oh I wanted to add a little positivity because I feel like I was sad just now and stressed but I got this in my mailbox this oh this is from a grandmother of a student that I had last year and her dad was super sweet super supportive if I said I needed anything for the classroom her dad was like the first one to donate more than what I needed and then the grandma wanted to be involved so she came in a couple of times a week to work with some students who were struggling readers and so she sent me this card and it says dear Miss Robinson I'm not gonna say the little girl's name but my granddaughter was in your third-grade class last year she shared with me her cast scores I'm so proud of her achievement this is directly related to your classroom instruction and expectations of student work I'm very grateful for your dedication to your students and dedication to the teaching profession what Sisir appreciation i these are the best for me this one really touches me for a lot of reasons because if you guys watched my video on becoming a better teacher one of the questions was what are you insecure about and one of my biggest insecurities is how parents and families perceive me because I do think by nature I'm a little bit more I don't know just like I'm not as overly or I'm not as a motive or whatever the word is for teachers that typically teach primary grades grades kinder person and third I never really worried about it in fifth because it's kind of the expectation that you'll be a little bit more like I don't know serious as a fifth grade teacher but not so much expected as a third grade teacher so I'm always a little self-conscious about what the perception is people have of me and I just appreciate this cart because she's attributing my style of teaching in my demeanor to the success of her granddaughter in third grade and she's a super sweet lady and I think there was a part of her in the beginning where she wasn't quite sure she felt like the rigour was too much for a granddaughter and you know and she was very nice about and we talked about the fact that some of the rigor is simply due to the standards but you could tell she was a little concerned because it was it's a lot tougher than most people know so it just really means a lot to me that she took the time to send this card and took the time to tell me that she appreciated my approach to teaching and saw that I do feel like I try and dedicate myself to being the best teacher I can be so this will go in this little envelope here I don't know if you guys can see it but it's this little gold envelope that I got from Target and I put all my cards in there from students and families but this will be one that I save forever so if this grandmother happens to be watching which I highly doubt thank you so much but I will definitely find the student tomorrow and give a thank you card so that she can pass it on to her grandmother so that in spite of me feeling like complete and utter train wreck like I'm running around in circles like I have no idea what's happening I have to remember that in the end it'll it'll be fine you'll get the job done so now I am really going home I will talk to you guys tomorrow good morning here today's outfit today I'm wearing this top from Old Navy that I bought at the end of last school year some white jeans from TJ Maxx these are my other granny shoes that I decided to keep we're trying them out today and then as far as accessories I'm wearing this gold necklace from Kate Spade that has a g4 Genesis a gold Michael Kors watch I have on some gold bracelets that are probably from Charming Charlie or something and I'm wearing my brown glasses today so talk to you guys later okay all right it's recess time I'm going to check in because I'm gonna try and be really diligent about just kind of sharing what I'm doing with wonders this kind of doesn't count because we are wrapping up the first theme for not unit the first like learning block I'm just going to start calling it theme because learning block is just too much for me to be saying at once but the first theme so this one was a little an ordinary like this is not how I would normally do it but one of the things I did want to mention is what we're doing right now is we are going through the weekly assessment with the class just to kind of show them and get them acclimated to what the tests look like just the format alone of these tests is something new for a lot of these kids so they just kind of need to be taught what it looks like how to navigate through it how to go from one page to the next how to read the directions what the directions mean if it says read these lines from the passage they need to be taught that the lines are actually right underneath the question and that they're not searching for the lines in the passage that just happened like I projected a question that said something along those lines as that said something like read the following sentences from the passages so I asked the student to come up and show us what are the sentences they want us to read and sure enough instead of looking at the sentences they had provided for the student to read she was just aimlessly searching for sentences in the passage so just teaching them how to navigate these tests what does it mean when it says the question has two parts how to drag things how to you know go back and forth and just to teach them like the rigor of these tests so I was talking to liza last night and she was asking me some of the things that I did with my class last year with wonders because I had some pretty strong language arts scores and I told her I really didn't do anything extraordinary but I did commit myself to saying okay I'm gonna really try and work on pulling small groups like the program suggests but one of the things I think I did was I explicitly which all the kids this is your comprehension skill this is your vocabulary skill so that they were actively aware of what they needed to prove that they had learned so as we're going through this test together for each question I am asking them right now are they asking you to prove that you've learned the comprehension skill or are they asking you to prove that you've learned the vocabulary skill and just making sure they can decipher between the two so we're doing it as a class I'm projecting it on the screen they're simultaneously answering it on their Chromebooks I will be giving them credit for this just to kind of give them some cushion with their reading grade and I I'm offering table points like I'm asking or reading one of the questions they're discussing as a group when they answer they have to give me the right answer and provide some text evidence as to why they feel that is the answer and if they can do that then they get a table point so other than that this morning we started the morning with our Fox time which is our universal access my 8 is leveling a few students that are kind of on the borderline of one level versus the other I am working on setting goals with my students it's a challenge right now I'm working with a group that is on the lower end of performance and it's phonics based and that is really my weakness if a student is struggling with phonics I have to really research what are some goals that they need to set and what those kids I really think instead of them just generating a goal because they really don't know what to do you almost have to tell them this is what I would like for a goal to be so as far as I feel about how that's going I'm not I'm not sure yet but I did do that and so when they get back we are going to finish answering the questions at least for part one then we're probably going to need to pause because I will have to start math at about 1050 because mrs. Robinson my aid for our SP will be coming in at that time so overall I feel much better today it's starting to feel like okay I'm getting a rhythm it's it's and I think it's just because I'm telling myself perpetually to just be patient to calm down it's okay if something takes a little bit longer you have to teach them how to do these things and everything will be fine so I'm doing a lot of positive self-talk right now but that's how things are going so far I need to eat my snack and get myself ready for math and I don't know sorry and I will talk to you guys like what guys it's what time is it why it's almost 5:30 I'm not the last person here Peggy's still here working hard there's Jenny I'm not sure what the three of us are doing but we're all working we all know what we're doing I mean I mean we know what we're doing but I'm just glad I'm not the last person here Jenny what are you working on I'm printing stuff and deciding on this cursive if I really like it I'm very I'm not very productive this is I think why does anyone have this happen where you just sit at your desk yeah and you know you have a bunch of things to do but you're mentally like you can't focus on what you need to do so you can't even really do it ladies this is why I go home because I focus better at home yeah I focus better at home than in here but they know I go home and then I have a dog and there's TV I start watching and I start calling people on the phone so yesterday I had that moment I was in my room I don't know what was doing in there I was just shifting papers around walking in circles I'm in my room right now and I know exactly what I'm doing I had a list I entered in some grades and I just I don't even really have anything to save me sighs look I'm not by myself for the outside there Jenny there's Peggy Ginny is going through this emotional turmoil about cursive writing she's looking for the perfect progressive progressive cursive set and she's been looking for days and what we tell her would you tell her look I said we have bigger fish to fry bigger fish so as long as they practice but you know what she's gonna find the right one and we're gonna appreciate it and the kids will they will have the most beautiful penmanship penmanship yes then all the kids of the world will be jealous he hasn't I don't know what I'm going home I don't think it's gonna be too long from now but I'm not I'm not by myself it'll be interesting we go back to the to the parking lot Oh so-and-so yeah yeah there's a couple cars they're always here later yes and then when yeah when I go outside and even that car is gone then I get really you've gone too far gone so I'm gonna go to my room and get it ready for tomorrow we have picture day tomorrow and peace oh you know the kids aren't gonna learn more but yeah so I just want to show you Jenni I will show you the library when Brendan's not in it with one bare foot and one sock foot good morning here stays outfit today I am wearing this top from Nordstrom Rack is where I got it from the pans are the pans from Kohl's that I shared over the summer during the summer haul and then I'm wearing these flats that I got last year from DSW I just had quite the debate as to what shoes I was gonna wear but I ended up with those I'm wearing this necklace that I got on clearance from Charming Charlie over the summer and it came with a set of matching earrings I don't know how good of a job I'm doing showing them to you but they're there and then this black Marc Jacobs watch so that's it it's picture day today so this is what I chose to wear and I will talk to you guys later [Music] it is 12:01 it is lunchtime and the simple fact that I'm even in my room at lunch it should indicate to you that I'm not having the best of days like had I known that today would go the way that it's going I may have just called in sick it has been hectic it is picture day we have PE and those are not super disruptive but it's just the timing of when those two things have happened on top of having Fox time which is our universal access time or small group time if you're not sure what that is has created a day where I can't get anything really up and running and I know it's not just me like I like my teammates are feeling like a little frazzled and some of my friends at another great level feel like I do right now which is that it's lunchtime and I have literally not taught my kids anything solid yet I've started a lot of things but not gotten anything done so I have started a math lesson and shown them one strategy but that's it and it's so frustrating I'm almost at the point where I'm now contemplating whether or not I even want to teach this math lesson I will because we started it but it's just it's just frustrating I came in early it was nice and calm I was like okay I'm gonna get some things done which I did I have PE I just was prepared for somewhat of a much smoother day or calmer day and it has been hectic like just I've had technical issues with my computer technical issues with the kids signing on to spelling city my class is just kind of out of source today not falling direction is not really listening so that's made everything take 25,000 times longer so it's just been a rough day and I have a staff meeting after school so I decided during my prep I told Jenny that I was gonna be eating lunch in here just because I feel like I need a minute I just needed like some quiet time to myself just to get my bearings so that's how Wednesday is going not not my favorite favorite day at the moment I mean on the upside the kids look great for pictures but I hate that feeling of like time is just slipping away and on a regular basis our time is already short with the amount of stuff that we need to teach so I'm gonna eat my lunch and then just relax for a minute I might run up to the office to make some copies because I did end up buying binders for my number of the day package that I showed you guys before I am going to do writing with my class and once that's keeping in mind that math happens and once I get those papers up I'll put those up so that you guys can kind of see what I do because that is a part of what I what I deal with wonders last year to prepare them for their weekly assessment so I will share that but I need a nap I just need like a good yoga class or something to just kind of take myself down and it is comforting to know that there's other teachers on campus feeling like this day has just been crazy like that so I'm gonna eat my salad because that's what I have for lunch in case you'd like to know since uh you know why not today for lunch I have this salad these come from the grocery store is it upside down no I don't think so oh yes yes it was a tomato and mozzarella salad that I will be eating and then I have yogurt lime I really like the Chobani lime Greek yogurt I put fruit in it but there's a big piece of mango in here so it probably won't fit but I'll probably put the strawberries and the blueberries in there and I suppose see this as a snack but I did it my cheese just a stick of pepper jack and then I have some almonds down here somewhere that's also so in case you're wondering what's in my lunch bag today that's what it was this lunch bag that everybody was asking me about so I'm gonna do that I'm gonna work on calming down and I'm sure I will check in with you before the day is over so it's 6:15 I'm still here I'm getting ready to go home let's talk about today today was one of those days in teaching where my frustration level with myself as a teacher with like just what was going on in my classroom with the schedule was like at an all-time high to the point where on multiple occasions I was like I just need to cry about this I did it I held it together all in all I think it was just one of those days where there were so many things going on with pictures and PE being changed and just the unstructured of unstructured miss that snot a word I know of that and then me being frustrated and that making my patient short that just created a day that I didn't love I did it did get to the point because I can't explain it away all on just at being pictured am PE it did get to a point where I had to have a little quick meeting with my class this year I have the most balance classes I've ever had in terms of gender I have 18 boys and six girls which I've never had any kind of heavy weight on any side of the gender scale ever before and it's it is it's different because boys a lot of times tend to be more active and require a lot more immediate like response to what they're doing so I have a couple of boys that are really active some boys they're just like the jokesters and want to just play around and joke around all the time and they don't really know that there's a time to place for that and so today in the past couple of days you know they just have really been doing a little too much for my liking so I did have a whole class meeting where I not only I didn't call anyone out and specific I said but what our biggest our biggest challenge right now with this class is that we have a lot of kids in here that really enjoy being the funny kid or want to be funny and get that attention or there's also kids who aren't necessarily trying to be the funny kid but they certainly are laughing and responding and reacting to what the funny kid is doing and that's just as disruptive and so and I said and we need to work on that and so I taught them the whole phrase there's a time and a place and just taught them if you see me up there or somewhere and I'm joking around and I'm laughing around then that's the time and that's the place but if you don't see me doing that that's a very big indication that it's neither the time nor the place so we talked about that and when I have conversations like this was my class I really do balance it with the positive so I did tell them I said now when teachers start a new school year the first question people always want to ask them is how is your class and so I said people have asked me that quite people have asked me that question excuse me and I've always answered it that my cat class is super sweet so it's not that I think that you guys are a group of bad kids or you're misbehaved I really do think that you're super sweet but you guys got to learn that there is a time and a place to joke around and that's what is getting us all tract so I literally feel like my kids do very minimal learning today I taught a math lesson but in retrospect I probably shouldn't have because by the time I taught it it was after lunch we had already had a lot of disheveled men throughout the day and it was a more challenging math lesson I'm just teaching them mental math strategies that are a little abstract for some of them but I did it because I wanted to feel like I accomplished something so the stuff that I wanted to show you for writing I think I talked about that earlier I can't even show it to you because we didn't do anything with it we got their little notebooks set up that I bought from the Dollar Tree my mom ended up coming in and helping me get their resource binders set up and I'll show you those when they get all put together but that was really that was really it I didn't even get to read to them today I was supposed to read them a book about being the tooth fairy didn't get to that and they definitely noticed so one of my weaknesses as a human being and as a person and this is gonna sound like obnoxious when I say now that I think about it but I'm not really good about like just cutting myself some slack and just kind of being realistic about what my expectations should be so I fully expect right now I should be in a smooth routine and I know I've said this in every vlog with it this this is really my struggle right now like smooth the routine not even so much with my class like I get that they're learning the procedures it is just I just finished talking to Liza it's just that it's so exhausting teaching them the routines and all that in the beginning of the year because you don't really have any downtime like every move they're make you're teaching them how to make that move you're redirecting them because they didn't do it correctly you're reminding them just it's constant so you don't really get a lot of time to sit down and just kind of have a minute or two but it's more so just me being able to get home earlier than 6:00 o'clock getting dinner cooked and having a meal that I prepared and sitting down I just feel like I have a good mix in the evening of like doing some things for myself and then doing some things for work and I I have not felt that way yet and this is rounding out the third week of school so when I say that to someone like I've talked to Jenny and Liza they're both like Latonya you really need to just kind of relax it's okay that you're not cooking dinner every day and that you've had take out each night that's fine this is just kind of the nature of the beginning of the year my mom just told me that cuz she was here and she saw me just being like so flustered by things so I need to just just just be a little bit more realistic cut myself some slack just take a deep breath it's gonna be fine I'm sorry this is so repetitive what I said last week but I mean this is just the reality of where I'm at I'm still in that mode of like oh like just want to get things going so that was my day today but what is nice what did happen to me today is after I checked in with you at lunch where I was initially telling you how flustered and frustrated I was I was in my classroom and I looked up because someone was knocking at the door and it was one of my students from last year and so I was a little baffled as to like why he was even here knocking on my door because it was just a lot time for me to be doing that so I got up and I went to the door and he's like oh I just wanted to come and say hi to you and I just really it just made me smile and it was just so sweet it was like what I just needed at that moment to know that I just need to relax it's gonna be fine so I never eat lunch in my room but today I did and then a student came by and like brighten my day so I'm gonna leave it's 6:18 I feel like there was something else I wanted to show you today oh I know what it is I have figured out a teacher hack that I'm gonna share with you so let me get this paper really quick hold on okay so after school I was making class sets of all these masters for a number of the day because these are gonna go in their resource binder and I'm sure you guys all know on the duplo machines which are those heavy-duty copy machines anything that has like a lot of black on it usually at least for us will cause the machine to jam like it'll make one or two copies and then tell you there's a paper jam on the ejection side and so I had even done this and lightened the machine so that these wouldn't be quite as dark and it was still jamming it and then I remembered last year because I had not these but a different paper that had a lot of black on it and that's when the secretary told me that's what's causing the masters or something the jam then I thought well I wonder if I can just minimize the amount of black that the machine is picking up by sticking the paper in a sheet protector and then copying it and sure enough that worked so if you ever have a copy that you need to make and it's jamming the heavy duty machines I don't know if they're called duplo's that's just what we call them where I'm from if you have that problem with the page like like this this would jam it for sure just cuz these black bars are here stick this in a sheet protector put the sheet protector with this in it on the glass to be copied obviously not in the top feeder where it like feeds it in and rolls out but where you open the lid on the machine and you lay it down and it will copy just fine and it won't you won't even know that it was in a sheet protector when you made the master so that is teacher tip 101 courtesy of Latanya save yourself some frustration with that coffee machine jammie by simply putting these types of papers in a sheet protector and going on your merry way so with that I'm gonna go get some frozen yogurt cuz it's Wednesday and I can get it for five dollars and load it up and then I'm gonna pick up something for dinner and I'm not gonna feel guilty about it cuz that is life and I might even door - cuz now I don't even want to go get it I just wanted to show up at my house and um that's it that's just what my life is gonna be this evening and it's fine so I'm done talking for the day you guys pray for me let's I will have a better day tomorrow I know that it can't get any more flustering or I don't know if that's a were you there can't get any more frustrating or stress-inducing as it was today so talk to you guys tomorrow good morning here's my outfit today the bottom line is I just want it to be comfortable after a stressful day yesterday so I am wearing jeans I'm just wearing a white top from Old Navy I'm wearing my white Birkenstocks and then just to make it look like I put a little bit more effort I put on this necklace that I got I don't remember where I got this from but I got it over the summer this is a Gurion a bracelet from Nordstrom this is a watch that I got over the summer from Nordstrom and that is it so I will talk together well good evening it's actually five o'clock on Thursday last time we spoke sorry for the sunlight I was I'm pretty sure I was just showing you my outfit of the day I haven't checked in at all since then I meant to check in at recess because my mom was in my classroom helping me prep something but then one of my parents from last year who has since become a friend came by and we chatted during recess I didn't get to show you but I am happy to report that I had a much much better day today I think me having that top of my class yesterday really did help because I could tell that they were really making an effort and I obviously went in saying like we cannot have another day like we did yesterday and of course the day was a lot more normal than yesterday with me today and all that craziness but we had a much better day it started to feel like I was figuring out my schedule for the day because that was part of the problem and I have accepted the reality that my schedule is not necessarily exactly the way that I would like it to be and I have to just deal with that so basically what that means is I have to accept the fact that first thing in the morning is going to be Fox time slash universal access like attendance and all that it happens quickly the aid is going to comment 8:30 and I may or may not be exactly ready at that time but I will be soon after so there's that right after you a it's gonna be 9:30 and I'm going to do wonders which I normally would do in the afternoon but we're just going to do wonders at that time because I have to do math later because they are SP schedules so we will start wonders at about 9:30 10:20 we will go to recess to 10:35 10:35 to about a quarter of 11 I will read the book that I read for the day we'll discuss that really quickly and between 10:45 and 11:00 we're starting bath bath will run until about 11:50 because that's when we have lunch and after lunch we will wrap up math then every wrap-up math will have to go back to Wonders and wrap that up because I just know that we won't be finished with wonders by the time recess comes back I just know that and then after wonders is what I'm going to hope and pray that I can squeeze into social studies and and in science one or the other I don't do both because I can't so that is kind of how the day went today and once I just came to terms with that I felt a little bit better knowing that in some ways my days is my days are kind of chopped together like that and the kids are better when you got for writing i introduced writing and the expectations for writing in my class i used step up to writing so i wanted to show you guys what i use to kind of introduce like the writing expectations that i've trying to afford to my class but i just didn't get a chance to do that so i will put that on my list of things to share tomorrow so we even got that done and it was good i feel like the kids are really starting to get to the point where they understand my expectation level and that i'm serious about it and then you know how I want them to conduct themselves and class and all of that but again even though we had a rough day yesterday I have to say it is a really sweet class even though it is heavily skewed with 18 boys and six girls a little bit more challenging to keep them under control for lack of better term so I'm telling you all this for my car because after school I got a very angry phone call from Liza because we have been talking about going to see crazy rich Asians since last week and I think we were actually supposed to go last week but it didn't work out and then we were going to go on a Friday because typically Liza's a little bit more free in the evenings because her husband I think it's off on Fridays or work works from home on Fridays but he couldn't do tomorrow so we had talked about going today and when we talked about it though I didn't feel like it was really set in stone and then after school she called me at about 4:30 or so and was mad that why didn't get in touch with her to let her know if we were going to the movies or not and I said well I was waiting for you to call because you're the one with the kids and the husband and the schedules and listen that so she tried to tell me that all I do is taking our friendship and our friendship is a one-way street and we both know that's not that's not the case so anyway I got my agenda up on the board and I left so I'm headed to Red Robin to meet her for dinner and then after that we're gonna go see crazy rich Asians and I won't be sure to let you know how it is I'm sure I'm gonna love it because everybody else is and I read the book the book was fun and light-hearted so I'm sure the movie will be the same so that is my check-in for the day I will try and check in with you when I get home and let you know how the movie was and if I don't do it tonight when I get home I'll definitely do it tomorrow so I'm gonna focus on my driving and I'll see you later good morning here's today's outfit it's Friday so I'm wearing another one of my shirts from teacher tees this is the last one that I have this one says teach and inspire I'm wearing them with these jeans that I bought from Nordstrom Rack over the summer and these sandals that are from Nordstrom that I've had for over a year that are choosing not to focus there they go and then I am wearing a silver fossil watch and some Alice and Annie bracelets so that's it happy Friday everybody hello it is 9:30 ish the kids just went out for PE they will be there until 10:20 and then they go straight to recess which works out quite nicely for us in third grade so I'm just checking in last night got home at about 10 ish from the movies with Liza crazy rich Asians was very funny very entertaining I highly suggest it if you just want to have a good laugh and a good time and then once bed went to Orangetheory got dressed here I am so I'm just going to show you what my plan is for today I am NOT going to teach a math lesson today because I really need to get this writing done so that we can move to the next theme with Wonders and that I can feel like we at least got through that we got through a practice round of writing so we are going to be using the passages from the first Wonders assessment but we're going to be writing this together on paper and then everybody just gets credit for doing it so the first step that I did let me see if I can show you a student's paper the reality is I only have time to do so much so the first thing I taught my kid yesterday I can't remember I showed it to you we're the unit this racer is from civics rating and they're just shows in their suite of intense rating there's a community of explanatory opinion writing the narrative and minuted in the structure of each tape crayons out - these are the three cares incentive and I have information giving your opinion and then we talked about a couple of those and then the third one that's on that she they did independently as a group and then I gave them table points if they were able to identify it so I told them when you're writing in this class that is step one when you're given a prompt you need to tap the prompt to make sure you are staying on topic that you know who you're writing it for so that you use proper language and I said in this class most of the time the audience is going to be me your teachers so it should be very formal writing and then what's the purpose are you going to be giving some information or explaining are you being asked to give your opinion or are you gonna tell a story so then we went over the prompt that we're gonna be writing together from the one-ders assessment and then we tapped that prompt so this says Howard Nina and Jayden alike at the beginning of the passages how are they alike at the end use text evidence to support your answer so this is the actual prompt from the first assessment I think I added the words or the sentence use text evidence to support your answer because I want them to know they have to do that but we said the topic was how Nina and Jaden are alike at the beginning and the end the audience is me Miss Robinson so I'm reminding them that it needs to be formal in nature and then the purpose is to give information the purpose was hard for them some of them thought they were going to tell a story and I think they think that just because we're using two stories and so for the kids that said that I said we're in the prompt does it say write a story about and then some other kids thought we were giving our opinion and I said it's only opinion if it specifically says give your opinion or use the word like convinced so we finally got to the point where we realize we're just giving information about these two passages we are not going to give our opinion about the story we're not going to tell a story about the story so that's as far as we got yesterday today the plan is this here is we're going to take notes on those two passages we're going to talk about how the character in the new school what was he like in the beginning what was he like in the end we're going to do the same for the character in the story or the passage singing out and then we're gonna find some commonalities between the two if I had to do this all over again I would probably have made this a t-chart but I did it so we're gonna do that and then the next step would be to start planning our paragraph I don't know how far we're gonna get today but that's my focus for the day is to get a good portion of writing done and then a little art project later so as I set you down that's where I'm at in teaching I'm not gonna spend too much time talking now because I'm on my prep and I have some things I want to get done but yeah that's Friday's so far feeling better feeling like maybe I'm getting to where I want to be in terms of how I feel about the flow of my day so when something exciting happens I'm sure I'll check in with you guys but until then I will talk to you later okay Friday is over it is about 340 and I'm getting ready to leave to join some friends for happy hour you should be proud I feel pretty good because I'm planned for next week for the most part there's a couple things I need to pencil in for my small groups with wonders and I can do that very easily I feel like I can go home over the weekend do very minimal work and still be fine when I come in on Monday so I'm very close to that goal that I'm gonna set for myself this year of just taking care of what I need to take care of on Friday so that I feel comfortable and confident enough to leave without any work like my goal is to just leave with the purse but I know this is the beginning of the year so I may not be at that point yet but I'm getting very close to that but before I left I wanted to show you guys the progress we made with the writing since I you know said I would and so that you guys can see the steps that I've been taking with my class with writing I did this with my class last year and I really felt like they got better in the process so today as I said we got to this point yesterday where we read the prompt tap the prompt what I do know is that the kids really need to learn what the word prompt is they still think when I say prompt they think the prompt is the story so we're gonna work on that but we took notes we finished the notes from the two passages my bad I should have made this chart better I should have had it as a teacher and I really should have had beginning and and but we may do so these are all the things that they said the student or the character and the passage new kid in school felt at the beginning if there's a check mark by it multiple groups said the same thing and then this is how we said that the character felt at the end and then we did the same thing with the second passage singing out beginning and check marks represent groups said the same thing as we did that one of the things I added to it and which I will continue to do in the future is I made mark on the passage where their text evidence was and I think I mentioned that earlier but not only did I have them highlight it because then I thought they may highlight it and then when the time comes to write they may not even remember what they were highlighting it for so I made them right next to it I would use text evidence or I would use this piece of text evidence to prove that the character was feeling shy at the beginning or to prove that at the end of the of the passage the character was feeling happy and confident so I just thought to do that at the very last minute and it seemed to work well so I'm gonna wrap up my class from blogging here but I know I will check in with you later because I need to share some of the posts that I responded to on teachers connect this week so I will do that sometime this evening when I get home but I'm gonna go relax for a little bit with my friends for happy hour I feel much better at the end of this week than I did last week so I'm happy that progress is being made and some of the reason that progress is being made is because I'm having to just be more patient than what I think I was so I'm gonna head out I'll talk to you guys when I get back for my happy hour hello it is now 8:30 I'm obviously home I've been home for probably about an hour and a half um I went outside and was talking to my neighbor for a while and then I was scrolling through her teachers connect so I'm here to close out this week's blog with my teachers connect check in this first question I haven't typed this response yet but it just caught my eye because I think my response I don't know if it's the politically correct response to have to this question but it's my honest response so I'm just gonna read this question give you my honest response even though I don't know that it's gonna be the right thing to say are popular but here's the first question it says this was posted by someone in Katherine and it says thinking ahead what are your go-to quick assessments when you give tests and do you differentiate I've read that differentiating test can actually help students do well on standardized tests because they are more confident and what they have learned over the year do you agree with this now I agree with the idea that having a test differentiated for your students to have the opportunity to show their ability does increase their confidence which then may in turn lead to better performance on standardized tests but the part of my response that I think may not be the politically correct response or maybe a little controversial is that I think it's totally unrealistic at least for me to be able to differentiate a test for in this case this year twenty four different students in my class in the way that most people talk about differentiation where there they may be taking a completely different version of a test than someone else and I know that there are programs that have differentiated tests like wonders for example has a weekly assessment that is meant for your on grade level student or your beyond even and then they have an approaching test which is kind of a scaled-down version of that but those are always addressed the situation I would say in my experience the most modifying of tests I've done have been for kids who are either in RSP and get modifications and accommodations or on a 504 plan like a behavior support plan and typically when it's been in terms of my in terms of differentiation is it may be differentiate it based on length like maybe it's been shortened it may be differentiated based on the idea that I have maybe for them set up some of the problems for them or provided them a little bit more support than I with the other student so for me when it comes to differentiating for every student I do believe that you can also think of assisting kids in different ways with the same test as differentiation I'm not sure if that's proper to say but I think it's more realistic for me now I know there's teachers out there that are able to do this and differentiate for all their kids and I know how they do it and kudos to them but I for me if I have a student that is taking the test that everyone else is taking but I know they're a little bit more challenged with let's say math then my differentiation for them might be reading the problem to them guiding them through setting up the problem but still making them feel like I'm not telling you how to set up the problem I'm just talking you through and you're telling me that I've done that for students over the years I've had some students where I've just told them you're only gonna do these problems I've read word problems to them and I'm talking about math because that's typically where I do most of it and or I have students where they complete the test and I'll correct it on the spot and give them the opportunity to go fix it so that's how I've done it um and I think that's the only reason I've done it is because it's just more feasible for me to do it I've never done it any other way because I just haven't been able to find the time or the resources to do that so I think in a perfect world yes every student would have a test that is specifically designed for them to be able to shine in the best way possible but it's just not the reality and then the fact of the matter is their standardized test isn't going to be differentiated so you don't want to differentiate too much to the point where they're not exposed to the rigor of the test that they're going to be expected expected to take anyway so that was my response to Katherine another question I answered is from Shante she wanted some ideas for book baggies for her first graders and I think basically she's not a big fan of using their ziplock bags and so I even though I've never taught first grade I know my friends in my previous school would buy little inexpensive looking canvas bags for their first graders and they would decorate them by writing their names on it and then put like a little die-cut situation on it and I want to say that they got those from Oriental Trading so I offered her that tip even though I've never used it before but they've been doing that for years and they seem to like it another person I responded to was name Brielle just because she hit right on the spot as far as what I've been feeling at the begin of the school year she said how do you get back into the swing of things when school starts I already feel like I'm drowning ha ha ha and I know I'm just adjusting to working again any thoughts basically what I've said to you guys through the vlog because I told her for me I have had to do a lot of positive self-talk and just dealing with the frustration of my workflow not being in place both at school and at home but on those days where I just tell myself you need to relax you need to give yourself some grace as well as your students some grace when I do that those days typically tend to be better but I would just say Brielle I would I would venture to say that everybody is feeling that way just with the beginning of the school year like things will simmer down we easily forget how hectic the beginning of the school year can be until we are thrown back into the beginning of the school year and then there was one more I answered I'm just trying to find the person's name so I can give the person credit it is from Megan and she wanted to know what is your exit routine for in being class cleanup etc do you have kids stand behind desk line up etc this for new teachers if you're out there sounds like such a minor thing like getting ready to leave and how do you want them to come in but for me it's one of the most important things I my procedure is this in years past I used to play the same song that I played in the morning for them to unpack I would play that at the end of the day and they had to pack up to that I haven't done that in a couple years I'm not sure why but I might go back to that this year but so far I will just announce you know we're getting ready to pack up I try and set aside at least 10 minutes for them to pack up because you'd be surprised how long it takes to get those backpacks packed up and get their things together and I remind them that nothing should be left on their desk nothing should be left in their chairs nothing should be left on the floor no jackets no nothing I have two students whose jobs are to check the lunch tub to make sure everybody has their lunch bag and once they're packed up they need to sit down if we have time and I can remember I collect the pencils from the day they get table points for their pencils and I have pencils now to sharpen for the next day and then while they're packing up I am actively watching the pack up I'm not doing anything else really while they're packing up I'm watching them pack up if I see that someone's leaving something out I'll let them know someone's something you need to pack that up so and so you can't leave anything on your desk and then when everyone's packed up in my class the symbol to show that you're ready is they put their elbows on the table like this and we use this a lot like when the phone rings in my class elbows on the table when the speaker comes on and the principal's making an announcement elbows on the table it just ensures that they don't have anything in their hand that they're paying attention so they get all packed up they sit down put their elbows in the table sometimes I let them know the table group that's ready first we'll get three table points and do things like that and then once everyone's packed up the student who keeps track of table points will tell me which team had the most table points for the day that team gets a starburst which is a big deal in my class right now and they get to line up outside first after that team lines up then I just or I have the teams that had the second most points the third most points and so on line up after them but the rule is excuse me the rule is they are not dismissed or alarm let me back up the rule is they are not allowed to line up until everyone is seated and someone else mentioned that in her comment like my class knows that they have to be seated to be allowed to line up that they are not allowed to just pop up and leave when the bell rings or just do anything with the bell rings I always tell them the bell does not dismiss you I do and I always feel so old-fashioned when I say that because I'm sure I had teachers that said that and now I get why they do it because if you just let them get up when the bell rings it's just like a madhouse I don't even let them one of my biggest pet peeves right now and I'm training my class not to do this they think that any time I have them pack up it's like immediately time for them to go which is not true because sometimes I will have them packed up good 30 minutes early just depending on what we're doing I might just want to get that out of the way and they'll put their backpacks on and just be walking around with their backpacks on so I don't let them do that but they have to be seated for the table group to be allowed to line up and then when the bell rings I do walk them to the pickup area and you know say goodbye to them to have a good day and that's pretty much it so that is my exit procedures now I know I'm going to be posting a question on teachers connect in just a matter of moments it may be tonight I may need to do it tomorrow but my question to you guys is if you could change one physical feature of your classroom what would it be and the reason I'm asking that question is because at my old school I had two whiteboards in my class I had one at the front of the room and one at the back of the room and I did not realize how valuable that back whiteboard was until I didn't have it so I have been making anchor charts and I want them to be out on display and I am finding the hardest well I'm having the hardest time figuring out how to keep them displayed yet use the whiteboard at the same time so right now they get clipped on the whiteboard but then when I need to use the whiteboard I have to move it so if I could change one physical feature of my classroom it would be the addition of the whiteboard at the back of the room so for teachers connect at least go on today to respond or so for teachers connect if you're a member go on and answer that question for me if you would change one physical feature of your classroom what would it be if you're not a member of teachers Connect become a member for free so that you can answer that question for me it would just be fun to see what would be the things some of us would change but that is it all in all I feel much better this week the last few days have been promising we are getting there my kids are getting me I am getting them I feel like we did some heavy-duty lifting and learning this week and that makes me feel good so that's great I came home tonight I have minimal work to do over the weekend so that's progress but I'm just happy to start feeling a little bit better I'm nowhere near where I want to be but I'm getting there so my battery's about to die I'm gonna say good night goodbye thank you for watching give this video a thumbs up if you haven't make sure you subscribe if you have not done that make sure you sign up for teachers connect because that is free and that's another way for us to interact and make sure you hit the notification bell so that you know when I've uploaded a new video but you can pretty much bet that I'm going to upload a video on Sundays at 8 a.m. West Coast time but that's it until Monday I will see you guys later I hope you enjoyed the block and I hope that you have had or having an amazing weekend I'll talk to you guys Monday [Music]

Channel: SmartieStyle

Views: 5,468

Rating: 4.9295154 out of 5

Keywords: progress, vlog, teacher vlog, teaching vlog, blog, teacher blog, day in the life, daily vlogger, a day in the life of a third grade teacher, back to school

Id: hokkINsgLxU

Length: 70min 7sec (4207 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 26 2018