Skip to main content

"Fun you" versus "school you"

I have this phrase I use with my family & friends, where I say I'm "Fun me" or "School me". I use this because when I'm on break, or it's summer, I have a tendency to do more! I stay up late (ugh I just HATE 6 am), I go out with my friends, I'm generally way more relaxed...I think we can all relate. Well I started thinking about how we're starting school soon, and how I hate that I lose this feeling. The feeling of being relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to take on the new year. Right around February in particular, it feels hopeless! 

I've always wanted to have a great blog to share, and to be honest I get so wrapped up in school, that I don't' devote the time. Even when I was in college and especially today, I heard about teacher burnout. These great, amazing teachers that dedicated a LOT of their personal time to the profession. Then, poof! They're retiring, or choosing another profession. That's why I think it's vital to remember to be your "fun you" once in a while. So here's my version of Glamour's "Hey it's ok if..."

Hey it's O.K. if...

 you take YOU time.
  • I try, key word TRY, to make at least 1 day a week where I leave work early & just come home. No gym, no extra curricular, no Twitter chats. I like to come home, and just do what I want to do. Cook, read, spend time with family / friends. Now, obviously if you have a family & other responsibilities this may be different. But the key is to take a break from school related materials. I love teaching, but I am also a person with other facets. 

 you don't work too hard on a Monday. 
  • One of my coworkers always says this. Some of us are probably thinking, "What?!" That's a busy, busy day! I agree. However, if you've traveled abroad I think of it like that. Her Dad is from Italy and I think he's instilled this into her. I think it's great! I know when I studied abroad in Spain, my Sra. would come home early some days & go to the beach. Maybe this day is your "you time". 

 you eat takeout. 
  • One of my favorite things is not having to make my lunch! I make my lunch every day, and when we have an institute or a 1/2 day, I love that freedom! It saves me time at night ,and time in the a.m. when I'm leaving. Why not set aside some dinero, even if it's $5 & order Jimmy John's at least once a month. Or, come home & order that Chinese you've been craving. 
every lesson isn't perfect! 
  • This one's a hard one for me. Teaching Spanish 1 is a constant battle of trying to engage & enlighten students into your love of the language, so that they continue on with their language journey. I love the honesty I've read in the blog community about the journey to becoming a better teacher. I've wanted to have a proficiency based classroom for some while now. I started to slowly implement this, and now I'm finally getting there. Will it be 100% perfect? No, but then again nothing in life is. Relax. It's ok, we'll get there. 
you get sick.  
  • Last year in May, I had to miss 4 days due to a sinus infection. I even tried to go in one day & was so dizzy I had to go home. I've always tried to keep my health up, and it's gotten better with more years of teaching. However, it's ok to be sick! If you truly can't focus to teach, then you're doing more harm than good. Not to mention it's not cool to spread the germs. So try to remember that when that guilty feeling comes over you that you're missing work. 
I'm sure I could come up with a lot more ideas, but why not continue this on Twitter?! Use #heyit'sOK to share some of your ideas to stay sane and maintaining your #funyou during the school year. 


Also, for those days when you feel so drained & don't know why you're in your profession read through a "Good News Folder". I love this idea I read from Martina Bex's blog:


Hope you all have a great school year! Thanks for reading! :)


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Classroom setup día 1

I FINALLY made it into my room to really get into setup. I went in last week to bring some stuff, but I spent a good 3 hours there today. So I thought I'd share some of my new creations. One of my bulletin boards. This is just a beginning of the year one. I include famous Spanish-speaking celebrities, with some quotes around their faces. Then I include some common careers where Spanish can be helpful! I decided to make a 1 MINUTE UNTIL DISMISSAL  sign(s) that I found on Pinterest here .  No where near as together, but I like the setup for now. Then I decided I needed a   "Voice-O-Meter" (Contador de la voz) .  This is a change-up from my stop-light format I used last year. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to leave it one the ribbon. Finally, I really liked all the elementary ed curtains I saw on Pinterest, but thought this might be a good idea to top my blinds: PAPEL PICADO! :) I just liked the way that my back white board looked, so ...
6 comments
Read more

So far

It's hard to believe that we're already a few weeks into this school year. It's been going well. I wanted to touch base & let you know how some of my ideas have been working out so far. TWO WEEK MODEL First of all, I love this idea! I think it's going to keep me on track in the long run. My students are still only in the input "week" (I teach block schedule, and don't see the students every day. Every other day for 63 minutes). We had so many drills last week, that I lost class time in almost all of my classes. That being said, I love what I'm seeing so far! I had a handful of students volunteering for reading items in Spanish, which was awesome! Even if they made mistakes, this format of the input week gives them the time to get used to hearing the vocab. for a long time before they're saying it. I used this reading  to go with their Subject Pronouns grammar section just yesterday, and I'm really impressed with how much they were abl...
4 comments
Read more

Back to School Blessing!

What?! Already?! Yesterday in church, we received the "back to school blessing" for teachers and students. It seems like summer just started, especially because we had a lot of snow days this winter. At any rate, I thought I'd share some ideas that I've been creating for this upcoming school year. What does my grade mean poster? On certain in-class assignments, I assign students a check system. It's something that I started doing, mostly because my cooperating teacher did this when she graded. I don't like to do this for everything, but when I was looking through Pinterest this summer, I saw this: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/282389839110118519/ *please reference the pin above, I'm not sure who created this, so if you know, please let me know!* It made me realize, this is basically what I've been doing. So I've created this . It reminds of a proficiency based scale at the bare minimum. I don't use as many numbers, as I use symbols...
2 comments
Read more