How Children Succeed, Teacher Treats, & More

Greetings, friends!

It's my greatest hope that by now everyone is finished with school.  I can't imagine still being in school.  (And if you are I apologize!)

I have a lot of thoughts to share today, so grab a Diet Coke, or a water with some cucumber and lime in it (my current favorite) and settle in.  =)

First, I want to recommend a book to everyone.  I already recommended it on IG, so I'm sorry to be redundant, but this book is so smart.  The entire time I was reading this book I just kept thinking "Yes, yes, yes!  You're exactly right!"  I read it really quickly; in a week, and if I hadn't been in school part of that time I think I would have read it even faster.  So, the basic premise of the book is that reforms targeting reform schools haven't been successful in closing achievement gaps because reforms aren't targeting the "right parts" of kids.  I feel that's a terrible synthesis, but it was so engaging and I really think the author is totally on target with his ideas.  I don't want to give away the entire text, so I'm not going to share too much. If you're an urban teacher, I firmly believe you should find the time to read this book this summer!  It's absolutely relevant to anyone in education, but it's particularly relevant to teachers in urban education.

Next up, I finally got around to ordering some gorgeous teacher goodies from C. Jayne Teach!  If you're not familiar with her goodies, check out her website right here. She makes adorable products to make teaching easier.  When I finally got around to checking out her shop, it was really difficult to stay within my budget!  Her products are all adorable!  I know that a lot of other teacher bloggers have purchased her Teacher Anchor and that it's gotten a lot of positive reviews, but I'm going to a new school next year, and I don't totally know how planning works there, so I was nervous to commit.  But I got some ADORABLE stickers with my name on them so I can tag things that belong to me before I loan them out to other teachers.  Super cute!  I kind of want to tag everything in my office with them, but I already know those things belong to me so that seems a bit superfluous.  I also ordered her Student Conference Notepad, which is so dang cute!  It has spots for reading, writing, and math as well as each day of the week.  And each sheet is 8.5x11 so if you want to put it into a binder for tracking it will measure the same as a standard sheet of paper.  I can't wait to use it with my kinderbabes next year!  I think the only downside for me is that the boxes are a little small, and I have GIGANTIC handwriting, but that's totally a personal problem.  Not a design problem.  Here's a pic I snapped of my order.

Also, I was sort of a moron with this order.  At first, I forgot to put the personalization in my order for the stickers, and then I had a panic attack because when I tracked the package USPS said it was already delivered and I hadn't received the package yet.  Both times Chandra was so patient and nice to me.  She totally didn't make me feel like an idiot and she was incredibly helpful and responsive.  I would absolutely recommend ordering from her shop!  I really can't say enough about how adorable her products are, and how easy it is to work with her.  Plus, I would way rather support another actual teacher and human that I (kind of) know over a corporation.  Small business, whoop, whoop!

Lastly, this is something that's been weighing on my mind this whole week, especially as I read How Students Succeed and this super smart blog post from Carolyn.  One of my love bugs this past year is such a mess; he lacks a lot of foundational skills and is constantly seeking sensory stimulation in literally almost every way possible.  He has terrible impulse control and really struggles to pick up on social cues and meet classroom expectations.  It's really difficult for him to be independent; even when he's engaged he's coming up to me about every minute for some positive reinforcement.  BUT he's really sweet as pie.  A complete and total love bug.  However, it was incredibly challenge to manage him daily with 24 other kids in the classroom.  The point of this and what's on my mind is that there are definitely times this year when I lost my patience with him, and I feel really guilty about that.  I know he has a rough time at home and I know that I need to be a positive model for him.  It was really difficult, and I feel like I let him down at times and I think that I feel additionally guilty about not going back to the same school next year and not being able to continue to be a part of his life.  Have you ever had that lingering feeling that you didn't do your best for a student?

Okay, y'all.  Thanks for sticking with me through all of this!  Have a great weekend!  I'm hoping to get some new products up on Monday, so keep an eye out for that.  =)
xoxo

I love a good party.

Alright, y'all.  I made it!  Teachers have one more day of school here in DC on Monday, but we're all done with the childrens.  I'd be lying to your face if I said this wasn't an incredibly difficult year, for a wide variety of reasons, but we finally made it through.  I just have one more day of classroom packing, and then it's summa time.  Wooooooo!

Once again, to celebrate a glorious end to the school year and an all around great weekend I'm linking up with one of my blog crushes, Michelle over at Fabulous in First for her Sunday Smorgasbord.  (By the way, I literally always have to say the word "smorgasbord" really slowly as I type it so I don't misspell it.)

Without any more rambling, here are my Sunday randoms.

{ONE}

I've got World Cup fever!  Y'all I get so dang excited about the World Cup...almost as excited as I do for the Olympics.  Maybe even a little more excited because it happens less often?  I love global competition.  Today, we're going to a neighborhood watering hole to watch the US/Portugal game and I'm so darn excited.  Can you hastag in a blog post?  Because I'm so into #1nation1team it's not even funny.  

{TWO}

As I shared in an earlier blog post, I'm switching schools AND grade levels for this upcoming school year.  The amount of things I don't know about what I'm doing come September gives me daily anxiety, and I was honestly just thinking the other day about whether I had made the right choice, and then yesterday I got a little care package from my new school.  It was the sweetest thing.  I came home from a board meeting and I saw that there was a package outside our door.  I hadn't ordered anything lately, and I didn't think Mr. Spouse had either.  I picked it up and the return address was my new school, so I figured they had mailed some forms to fill out and a welcome letter, but I looked inside and it was full of swag!  It was so cute!  There was a letter from the principal, letters from current students welcoming me to the staff, some school swag, and 2 books to read!  I'm already about 50 pages into this book, and I can't get enough.  Hubs has tried to talk to me multiple times today and I just keep saying "yes", "uh-huh", and "sure".  

This book is so smart and incredibly fascinating.  I would recommend it to any teacher, but ESPECIALLY to teachers in urban areas.

{THREE}

Sometimes I have really great ideas that turn out to be not so great.  This week's is committing my first 3 days of summer vacation to norming the DC-CAS, DC's standardized test.  I do it because generally it's pretty easy work, they pay well, it's cool to meet teachers across the district, and it gives me an interesting insight into standardized testing, even though I've never taught a testing grade.  However, I now have had more exciting offers come my way and wish I could do funner things the first 3 days of break than norm a test.  #liveandlearn

{FOUR}

As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be teaching the kinderbabes next year.  Almost all of the teacher blogs I currently follow are aimed at the 1st/2nd grade band.  A few outliers here and there (Fifth in the Middle, Oh Boy Fourth Grade), but I'm looking for really excellent kinder blogs to follow as I only have a few on the roll right now.  I currently follow Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade, Tara at Little Minds at Work, Greg at Smedley's Smorgasbord, Hadar at Miss Kindergarten and Elizabeth at Kickin' It in Kindergarten.  I'm pretty sure those are the only kinder blogs I follow.  I'd love some more suggestions!  I feel like reading about other K teachers will help easy my anxiety.  =)

Enjoy the rest of this lovely Sunday, and if  you still have nuggets to teach this week I hope they are calm and mellow!
xoxo

Sunday Smorgasbord

Y'all. I am so dang excited to link up tonight with Michelle over at Fabulous in First.  (She doesn't know it, but she was the first teacher blog I ever followed and I think she's so dang smart and creative.)  To celebrate summer, she has an adorable weekly link up where you share basically anything you want. So I'm going to share a few random parts of my life, and if you feel compelled/inspired to do the same you can find her blog right here.
                                                  

{one}

*Dramatic pause/sigh*  I. am. still. in. school.  And we have 2 more whole weeks, plus a teacher work day.  (That means I'm workin' for the man until June 23rd, in case you're not sitting near your calendar.)  Thanks, worst winter ever, and all of the federal holidays ever.  At least starting this week we're starting end of year celebrations.  This Tuesday is Field Day, one of my most favorite activities every year.

{two}

Yesterday, we had our housewarming party.  Yesterday was June 7th.  Y'all, we moved in February.  I don't know why we always do that.  But the weather was beautiful.  We fired up the grill and it was so nice we were even able to hang outside and use our new Tiki torches.  I always hate how much work you have to do before you have a party, but I sure do love having them.  I just love when all the people I like the most are all together for any reason--housewarming, wedding, just a Friday night.

{three}

This past week I started a pretty intense diet.  One of the fitness blog's I follow does some seasonal Shreds, and I've been making excuses to myself about why I haven't been losing the weight for about 6 months now and I finally decided it's time to do something about it.  It's a pretty serious adjustment--no Diet Coke (say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!)--but I'm totally on board to build a better, stronger me.  However, I will say that these guys have totally gotten me through this week.  They generally hold me over from breakfast to lunch.  I've tried a couple different types this week but these Almond & Coconut ones where the best.  By far.

They totally kept me on track.  They're sweet without being over the top.  I just really can't say enough good things about them.

{four}

One of the most adorable of my nuggets made this picture for me earlier this week and gave it to me.  She said "Here, Mrs. Wilser.  I made this for you.  It's a picture of Egypt.  I read about it on RAZ Kids."

 I love how spongey first grade minds are.  And I love when they love to learn.

Okay, kids.  That's all you're going to get from me tonight.  It's 9:55 and I still have a few jobs to finish before I can call it a night.  I hope you had a great weekend, and that the summer breakers amongst us take advantage of their no alarm mornings.

Happy Monday!
xoxo

June Currently

Hold. The.  Phone.  It's June?!  What the heck happened to May?!  I really feel like I just celebrated my birthday.  But really that was almost 6 weeks ago.  So dang crazy.

Here in DC we still have THREE FULL WEEKS of school.  It's true.  My summer break doesn't start until June 24th, and then because I'm going to a new school and have new teacher orientation I go back August 6th.  We're also hosting one of our nephews for a week over the summer, and we have some family travel to do.  I know that every summer feels crazy, but I really think this one is going to zoom by.  Well, without any further ado, here is my June Currently.

I think all these things are pretty straightforward, so I'm going to leave you all here and take myself outside in the sunshine.  =)  Have a great Sunday, friends!

xoxox