teaching life
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Procrastination
I know that I usually write about preschool – some kind of activity, or assessment, or curriculum, or something at least slightly related to teaching so this one is a little bit of a stretch, but let’s get real for a minute. It’s usually pretty easy for me to sit down and write a blog post. I enjoy it, and I love the topics that I write about – but this week I can’t seem to get out anything that I want to share. I had a bunch of posts about seeds planned, but I must not be very excited about them. This is probably because I’m a terrible gardener,…
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Great Gadgets for Teachers
Since I shared how wonderful and amazing my sewing machine has been for the classroom in yesterdays post, today I wanted to share a post that I originally wrote for the blog two years ago about some of my favorite gadgets for the classroom. I still love love love all of these items so I’m sharing this post from July of 2014 below: There are a few tools that I have collected over the years that have made my job a million times easier. Now is the perfect time to share my list of awesome tools because you still have time to splurge on a couple of these before school…
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So close I can feel it!
I have always worked for schools that are open year-round, so the week between Christmas and New Year is the longest break I get, and it goes way too fast! This year I have plans to get some work done and do some major relaxing! Sleeping in! Sleeping in is one of my favorite things in the world, I love waking up and knowing that I can lay there for as long as I want. My body would naturally sleep until 11am and stay up until 2am if I let it. spending time with family and friends. This is huge for me, I have 8 days off and I already…
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Christmas Questionnaire
I love any opportunity to share a little of myself with all of you, so I’m linking up with Fabulous in First, here are my answers to the Christmas Questionnaire; 1. When do you decorate?I always decorate the day after Thanksgiving. My house is pretty tiny, and I only decorate my living room and my kitchen, so it only takes a couple of hours. I love to turn on Christmas music or find a cheesy Christmas movie on Lifetime to listen to while I decorate. When it’s finished everything feels so festive, I love being able to enjoy it for an entire month! 2. Elf or no Elf?No elf for…
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Wisdom for the overwhelmed
I try to keep my posts at least somewhat related to preschool, but we are all multifaceted individuals, and the things that are on my mind at the moment have nothing to do with school. This fall is a bit overwhelming for me personally – My sister and my husbands brother are both getting married within a month of each other, and in between those two events I also have two big marketing events for school, oh yeah, and I’ll be speaking at the NAEYC Conference in Dallas (Eeeek!). All of these events are awesome, but there is a lot of prep on my end, and I’m already feeling like…
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Practicing Professionalism
How many times have you heard “Oh, your job is so fun, you get to play with little kids all day!” Yeah, and can you still manage to keep from rolling your eyes? I’ve found that the more professionally I behave, the more that my job, and the challenges it presents, are taken seriously. I’ve always worked at lab schools (with ECE students from local colleges and universities), and I’ve often had students who don’t take my work seriously because I am young, and in some cases, younger than they are. So over the years I’ve come up with some tried and true methods for being taken seriously, which has…
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Preschool Stains
It is impossible (seriously IMPOSSIBLE) to go a single day in a preschool classroom without getting a stain on something. It could be the carpet, a child’s clothing, the teacher’s clothing, dress-up clothes, a nap blanket, or a lunchbox. If it’s in a preschool room, it has the potential to get a little messy. This is for two reasons; Small children do not comprehend the word “careful”. No matter how hard they try, they are not completely steady on their feet, and with a lack of balance comes a general unsteadiness that makes carrying things incredibly difficult. This being said, children need to have these experiences. In my classroom, students…
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The best clothes for preschool teachers
Teaching preschool is not an easy job. While I absolutely love my students, they can drain me emotionally and physically, and they wreak havoc on my wardrobe! Washable paint is not always washable, and more often than not, I really have no idea where that stain came from or what it is – and sometimes it’s better not to know. I’m really lucky because I’m allowed to wear jeans to work – we’re expected to be participating in activities with the children, which often means on the floor, or outside making messes, so it is expected that we will get dirty. Thank goodness that this is understood, but this means…
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Preschool Teacher Wardrobe – Summer Edition
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Finding Balance
I really needed this long weekend. I mean I REALLY needed it. This weekend I was able to take the time to find myself again. Though I didn’t go on a trip or do anything exceptionally spectacular, I did get to do some of my favorite things. I wandered the fabric store, spent tons of time with my family, read a book, ate lots of ice cream, laid out in the sun, roasted marshmallows with my favorite people, and slept in! It has been far too long since I’ve made time for these things that mean so much to me. Over the last six months I have completely given myself…
