Sydney's School Stories

Summer!!! Summer is the time of year when teacher rejoice and what we look forward to all year.  In the past I've always worked summer school - it gave me extra money and I always worried about not having enough to do. People hate on summer school- but it is nice to get to get extra income (*side note- unfortunately many teachers rely on supplemental income) and I got to do creative technology camps and learn new skills. The past 2 years I didn't work during the summer because of the pandemic and this year I was honestly just too burnt out.  This summer I am approaching my time off in a whole new way! I am healing. I am resting. I am smiling.  This past school year was exhausting. I was in a new role and the learning curve was very high. I worked with students who needed a lot of support and some who could be extremely physically aggressive (I still have scars / marks that I'm healing). I am tired of fighting for support for my class / students. To add to that- we all jus...

  2021-2022 A Year In Review- Big Leaps & Persistence I’m finishing up my 6th year teaching! This year I took a big leap and went from teaching upper (general education) elementary to teaching kindergarten/1st grade special education. For me personally- this was my most challenging year. It was challenging to go from fully remote to in person, from general education to special education, and work with aggressive behaviors. In this post I want to share golden moments (good things to cherish), what I’ve learned, and some advice on persisting.  Golden Moments I made a lot of new teacher friends! The connections and community of teaching is something that is irreplaceable.  I worked with some really cool kids. The kids had a lot of needs and different struggles but they also reminded me daily of childhood joy/innocence/enjoyment in small moments. They laugh and love bubbles, playing with toys, Peppa Pig, and playing with water. The kids have a strength that is special. Th...

  PSA: It’s ok to leave your computer at school      Leaving your computer at school is 100% ok. I leave my computer at home on most school nights and weekends. Why? I try my best to do my prep work during my prep time or lunch. I don’t make/create many materials that are too time or material intensive- unless it’s something I can see the kids using often (Ex: IEP materials).       What are some of my favorite activities in a self-contained K/1 class? I really like cut & paste activities for counting, dot-blotter activities, cut and paste sorting, etc.  Leaving my computer at work has helped me to keep my work at work so that I have more freedom at home.       Now I still will check email at home or work on an IEP if I have something coming up. I will work on creative projects or school work occasionally. The big difference is that now I don’t put pressure on myself to do work at home- it's only if I want to.  Pri...

  Hello Internet Friends!  It has been a few years since I’ve done a blog post and quite a bit has happened since then- a global pandemic being one of them. I can’t really blame my lack of writing on the pandemic though- I stopped blogging in mid 2019. I decided to give my blog a facelift (Thanks to Simply Stella design It’s now 2022 so let's do a little world/life/teaching update! Pandemic. I couldn’t do an update post without mentioning the pandemic. In the 19-20 school year I was teaching 5th grade and honestly struggling with student behaviors. I had some kids who were really anxious and depressed. In March 2020 (like the rest of the world) I sent my kids home one day thinking I’d see them all in 2 weeks as we waited for the mystery virus to cool down- little did we all know lol. The rest of that school year actually wasn’t that bad- we all adjusted fairly well to remote learning and I grew closer to my kids who were struggling with anxiety because the peer pressures of sc...

  My 3rd year of teaching ended last week. It was a fast whirlwind year that was filled with many ups and downs. I will be honest in saying that it was one of the most difficult years I have had so far. I also learned and grew more as a teacher than in any other years. As I reflect here are the big takeaways from this school year.  I went to a lot of professional development trainings outside of my building this year. I had students with challenging behavior and I didn't feel like I had all of the right tools to help my students succeed. I went to PD about special education and behavior! I became more understanding about students with special needs. I learned so much about working with students with trauma, ADHD, and behavioral needs. One of my closest teacher friends is a life skills SPED teacher and we went to a lot of trainings together. I have learned that so much a population of students who are frequently underserved that I hope to possibly get a special education endors...

  As a teacher you are often also take on the role of- counselor, mentor, friend, parent, guide, and social worker. The key similarity of all of these roles is the importance of creating connection with students & developing a relationship with others.  I didn't know that relationship building was such an important part of being a teacher until I had a classroom of my own.  Last year I had a group of students that I bonded with quickly and easily- we had a lot in common and had similar family/life backgrounds. I was really lucky to share my interests of Pokemon Go, music, and TV shows with a majority of my students. We had so much fun laughing together and I had a group of sweet helpers who liked spending their recesses with me so we could hang out. My class last year was the group that taught me the "heart" of teaching.  This year I have a much more difficult group students. It is not that they don't have their charm- they really do, but most of students have ha...

This is the second post of my "3 Schools in 3 Years" series. After you have (mentally / emotionally) processed that you are moving schools or classrooms it is time to get down to the process of packing. Here are my top 10 tips for packing up your room in preparation for moving. Share with your students that you are moving . I told my students that I was moving schools because I was feeling stressed and on edge- I knew I wasn't being the more "present" teacher I could be and wanted to share what was going on in my life to my 5th graders. I also want my students to know how they can contact me next school year and not be shocked when if they come to visit in the future and can't find me.  Start early. I began packing with 3 weeks left in the school year. I started by packing things that students couldn't see- such as curriculum I was done teaching or teacher books. If you start the process early you won't feel overwhelmed at the very end of the...