We did it! We made it through the first day of school, and all three of us had a great first day back to school.
Speaking of school, last week I shared a special day I had with Hadley before she started Kindergarten, and now I’m sharing about the day I spent with Hayden.
Hayden had similar day, but he still got to choose some of our activities. After dropping Hadley off at the sitter’s house, Hayden and I went to the same park to walk the same trails…
…and he completed the same nature scavenger hunt. My other cute little lefty:
It was a nice morning!
Then, we headed to get a gas station treat. He chose Twizzlers and an Icee.
After that, we spent some time at a pet store. During this summer, both kids had gotten little fish bowls, and his fish didn’t last very long. So, on this day, we went and picked out a new fish…
…and took it home to put it in the fish bowl.
Then, it was time for lunch…at Chick-fil-A.
Like Hadley, we went and played a couple of rounds of putt putt golf.
I’m sure he beat me! 😉
Then, it was time for tennis!
He used to spend lots of time running around these courts.
After tennis, of course we had to cool off with some FroYo!
A sweet treat to cap off a sweet day with Hayden! It was a special day, for sure.
Yesterday was a really productive day at school, my new classroom is ready to go, and I have the first few days planned.
I’ve put a lot of time, effort (and money!) into my new classroom, but I know it will be worth it in the end. The good news is that for the next few years, I will be in this classroom, so I won’t have to do as much next year.
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a few things I’d purchased for my room, and today, I’m giving a little tour of my space.
Here’s a peek at a few of my favorite things in my new classroom.
This little purple stand came from one of my trips to Five Below. I will have a few meetings on Zoom, so I can prop my computer on it, but for now, I’m using it for my phone which then gave me a little bit of space underneath for pens and pencils.
Behind my desk, I have some shelves, and I’ve made the most of them. I have a few decorative items, things students have given me through the years, as well as trays for the papers I need to pass back and binders with my unit plans in them. This space is a mix of cute and functionality.
Earlier in the summer, I shared that Hadley helped me put up the bulletin board paper and border and that “August me” would thank “June me” for doing that task. Well, it’s true! It was nice to have the paper and border up, and Hadley helped me with the parts of speech and writing posters a couple of weeks ago. This is a colorful corner for sure.
Hadley also helped me put up my magnet border, and these white board magnets also make my white boards more colorful. Now, I need to actually write the date, learning target and success criteria for tomorrow. (I honestly loathe writing the LT and SC…the kids don’t look at it…it’s all for show!)
I’ve had these “how to pass” and “how to flunk” posters my entire teaching career, so of course they had to go with me to my new room. The banner brightens up this wall, and I outlined the posters with border.
Every year, some student looks at these and says, “Oh…it’s easier to pass than to fail?” #myworkhereisdone !
Under those posters, I put a cute lamp from Home Goods and new trays for papers. My old ones are the traditional plastic ones that I’ve had for years, so I did purchase these new wire ones in a fun purple color.
A few weeks ago, Hadley helped me with my faux bulletin board. When I show it to people who stop by, they think it’s an actual bulletin board. haha
I’ve had the “what good readers do” criteria for many years, so I thought this was a fun way to display that info.
This little calendar was an impulse buy at Michaels. It makes me feel like an elementary teacher because I feel like many of them have the flip calendars on their white boards. I love how colorful this one is.
I’m going to put a few school related items on this white board, but the clock is a fun touch, and then I added two baskets for papers I will need for class.
You know I love a lamp!! So, I picked up another cordless lamp from Walmart for my desk.
Lastly, this little note pad has come in handy the past week. I picked it up at Michael’s (I think?), and it’s helped me stay organized lately.
The school bell officially rings tomorrow! The thing about having to go back over a week before students start means that I’m definitely ready for the kids to come to school and for classes to start.
Hello and happy Thursday! Well this week is just trucking right along. With school starting next week, it got me thinking about the kids and their elementary school years. I feel like I’m always nostalgic for those days. Today, I’m taking a look back on something fun I did with each kid before they started kindergarten.
I was so nervous, but also excited, about the kids starting kindergarten. I wanted to spend a day with each of them before we all went to school. So, I chose a day and let them both choose a few activities, and I sprinkled in a few as well.
Here’s “Hadley’s Day” in 2015 before school started.
I dropped Hayden off at the sitter’s house, and Hadley and I went for a walk in a nearby park to get our day started.
We did a scavenger hunt while we walked. My cute little lefty:
We’d been on these trails before, and she had a great time.
We found everything on the list!
After that, we made a pit-stop at a gas station, and she could choose whatever she wanted…apparently, her love for sour candy started early!
Then, we stopped by the dance studio and signed her up from classes. In kindergarten, she took a combo ballet/tap class, and that was the start of her falling in love with dancing.
(This pic is at one of the classes once those started…missing a tooth and smiling!)
Then, it was Taco Bell time. Hadley still loves Taco Bell…I think she’s had it twice this week!
After that, I took her for a pedicure. This was her first time getting one, and I found a place that had the chairs for kids. She’s been a diva ever since. haha
Then, it was time for putt putt golf which was the perfect way to cool off on a hot summer day.
One more treat for my sweets…we stopped by the cupcake place, and she chose a cupcake for herself…
…and for Hayden. She’s still a very thoughtful girl.
As you know, I’ve always made a big deal about going back to school. I want the kids to be excited about the start of a new year. We used to take a day to get back to school haircuts and go by school supplies followed by lunch. Sometimes, we still make it to the outlet mall for them to get some new shoes. At this point, some years, we’re just winging it!
During the elementary years, I did a back to school breakfast …
…and in middle school we did a back to school brinner.
Last year, we went to IHOP for dinner a couple of days before school started. I hope we get to do the same thing this year.
Anyway, this was a special day with Hadley, and I will share Hayden’s day soon!
I hope your week is off to a great start. Well, this time next week, I will be at an all day professional development with my fellow high school teachers. To say that I’m clinging to summer would be an understatement. That being said, there are a few things I that I actually look forward to when going back to school…buying my new lesson planner and desk calendar as well as setting up my classroom.
This year, I moved rooms! Moving rooms is a headache, but I was able to get a much bigger classroom after a fellow co-worker retired. So, setting up my classroom has meant a bit more than in years past…by a bit more, I mean what used to take about an hour has now totaled about seven hours of classroom set up…so far!
I’m not sure how many educators read my blog, but you might find other uses for my purchases too. Today, I’m sharing some of my recent classroom purchases.
This wall clock is something that I’ve had saved on one of my Amazon lists, and decided this was the year to buy it on Prime Days! I have it all set up, and I love the fun colors.
My new room has a few bookshelves on the wall, and these clear book ends have worked well for my teaching resources.
I saw this game and thought it might be a fun bellringer idea. I haven’t even read the rules…haha!..but the cards have random ideas…anything from pickles to Harry Potter to public speaking. Anyway, I think this would be a great way to get my students thinking…pick five topics, then rank them first to worst and tell me their reasoning. We’ll see how it goes.
I bought these binders last year, and they worked out perfectly for the four English 1 units that I taught. So, I bought the same four pack for my English 2 classes this year. (I have English 1 and English 2 this year)
With the binders, I bought another pack of dividers. I don’t need a full set per binder…just a few tabs.
Screenshot
I was so excited about the next two items…both magnets.
How cute is this magnetic border? I bought two packs, and Hadley helped me and put it around my white board.
Then, I decided to order this pack of colorful whiteboard magnets. Yes, I can erase the whiteboard every day, but some magnets will stay put all year (like the date, agenda, etc), but I can move around the colorful magnets for classes and activities.
Not the best lighting, but here’s my board:
…and magnets:
I have a “comfy” corner with a chair and a lamp. This rug was a good fit for the space.
Thanks to chrome books, we need lots of extension cords and plugs for charging, so I bought this 5 foot power strip…
…as well as this 10 foot one. In my new room, only two of four walls have outlets which means I’m using lots of extension cords and power strips.
I also purchased this magnetic dry erase marker holder. I have two white boards put together, so I figured these would be good at each end of the boards.
Lastly, I’m cheating on “Happy Planner” with this Hadley Designs planner. I’ve purchased other Hadley Designs things like lunch box notes when the kids were in elementary school, so I knew this would be a good option. My school is moving to the traditional A day/B day block schedule, and the layout of this one seems like what I need.
I also purchased these Hadley Designs parts of speech/writing posters to use to finish up my last bulletin board.
Screenshot
During Prime Days, I also bought the rolling adjustable podium that I’ve had on my list, and Trav just put it together for me. It’s perfect for the front of my classroom. It seems to go in and out of stock, but this is the one that my friend has and it seems the same as what I purchased.
Screenshot
The same friend has these light covers too. How cute! Classroom lighting can be harsh, y’all! I haven’t purchased them yet, but I just might in the future.
Besides Amazon, I picked up a few organizational things at Target and replenished some school supplies at Walmart.
I know this may seem like a lot, but most days, I’m at school more than I’m at home. I like for my room to feel organized, cozy, and a spot that students will enjoy. Also, next year I definitely won’t have to buy as much because I will mostly have what I need for this classroom.
If you are an educator (former or current), I’d love to hear what you teach/taught and how many years you have been/were in the classroom.
{This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Thanks for supporting my blog.}
How was your week? Ours was really good. Some mornings, the kids have slept in; some mornings they’ve gone to sports performance training. We’ve been to the pool a bit. Hadley had a sitting job, volleyball, and pool time. Hayden has power washed for a few people, gone golfing, and continues to run. So, every day has been different, but we’re settling into a bit of a routine.
As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.
With this first full week of summer under our belts, I have a lot of favorites to share:
Last Friday, we celebrated my niece’s birthday! She’s 8 and oh so cute. We had cake…
…and then kids swam in the pool for a bit. It was a lovely Friday night.
Saturday was the state track meet, and Hadley ran in the 4×200 relay and the 400m race. When the kids started this season, we truly had no clue what to expect. Of course, with every race, they do their best, but qualifying for state is different than qualifying in middle school. Hayden was a very supportive brother for both of Hadley’s races, and she also had a lot of family there cheering her on.
Her relay had a PR and placed 7th overall, and she ran a solid 400, placing 8th. She’d hoped to break 1:00 in the 400; she was close, but fell short of that. The top 8 receive medals, so I think earning a medal for both races eased her mind a bit. No matter what, it was such an amazing experience for her to run those races as a freshman coming out of one of the toughest regions. Hayden had an awesome season as well.
We were blessed with some amazing photos…a friend of my brother-in-law’s is a photographer for a local news outlet and took these photos of Hadley to share with us:
…and…one of the kids’ friends and teammates has some serious photography skills. She took these pics which I love.
Hadley with her bling:
It was a beautiful morning for a track meet…and then it was time for Railbird.
After the meet, we made a pit stop at Chipolte because my girl was hungry and she went home to shower and change for the Railbird music festival. She was gone from 3:00-11:00 hanging with friends and listening to some of her favorite country music artists.
Also, how brave is she? We ordered these boots last minute, and she wore them to the festival. Who breaks in new boots while on her feet for eight hours? This girl! haha
Oh the things we do when we’re young! Also, bonus — we wear the same shoe size!
Sunday was fun as we went to a graduation party…and the sweet graduate is headed to MIZZOU this fall. What a small world.
My mom came to visit, and we went to First Watch for breakfast before she headed out on Tuesday morning. The avocado toast I ordered was delish, but even better was the “Watermelon Wake Up” juice that I ordered. 10/10 recommend!
On Wednesday, Hayden caddied a round of golf for his friend who was playing in a tournament. It was a hot day, but I know he had so much fun.
While Hayden was on the course, Hadley was driving me around town. She drove me to Hobby Lobby, so I could check out their bulletin board paper selection. So, because of Tik Tok, I’m just now realizing that Hobby Lobby has quite a few school/teaching supplies! This roll of cute polka dot paper is exactly the width of the bulletin board. My mind is blown. I’ve always used the rolls of paper that we have at school, and you end up having to overlap the paper. Please know, that the last time I put up a bulletin board was five years ago…and I won’t do another one for a few years. High school teachers are very different than elementary teachers. haha!
I’m changing rooms for the upcoming school year, and Travis helped me move my stuff on Tuesday. After Hobby Lobby, Hadley drove us to Chipolte (she loves a burrito!) and then to school where she helped me put up my new bulletin board. My August self will thank me later! That being said, I’m finished thinking about school for now!
I added a few June reading trackers to my Instagram highlight. Please feel free to use them and tag me. I love sharing what others are reading.
I was out front watering my ferns and flowers, and noticed that I have two pretty blooms on my hydrangea bush. Hydrangeas and peonies are my fave flowers in the summer.
Favorite Mom Meme:
Hello, summer!
Share Our Lives:
It’s hard to believe but we’re almost halfway through 2025…and we have another Share Our Lives link up…We’re sharing unique things about where you live. I can’t wait to read those posts.
TGIF! Today is officially my first day of summer, and I’m ready for it.
As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.
Well, I’m keeping it short and sweet this week!
We haven’t had a ton going on besides wrapping up the school year, so today I’m sharing the last day of school pics.
It was raining on Wednesday morning, so the traditional last day of school pics were taken on the front porch. Wednesday afternoon and evening turned out to be lovely, but Hadley had track practice and Hayden went and played golf with a friend. I’m glad I snagged the pics when I could that morning.
Ready to wrap up the school year:
I hopped in a pic since we never got a Mother’s Day pic a couple of weeks ago. Then, I had to rush off to school and they went in the house to have breakfast.
We all had a really good school year. The kids did a great job navigating a new school, keeping up with their classwork, earning good grades and juggling their schedules with academics and athletics. I think they learned a lot this year, both in the classroom and in regards to how high school works, in general! It’s tough being a freshman…and they made it! haha
I had a really good year overall. Of course, I had a couple of classes this year which I hadn’t had in a while, and I had to get used to having some of my kids’ friends in my classes. The class of 2028 will always hold a special place in my heart for quite a few reasons!
I’m thankful for a great freshman year for my kids and the same can be said for year 23 for me!
Besides the last day of school, I have a driving update….riding in the car with them has been a bit easier lately. Obviously, they’re still getting the hang of driving, but each drive has gotten better. Hadley drove us to Starbucks on Sunday, and that was quite the treat! Hayden drove me to get ice cream the other day, and did just fine on quite a busy road.
I’m glad we have some down time in the summer to keep working on their driving skills.
Favorite Mom Meme:
Isn’t this one so true? haha
Weekly Recap:
I had a few posts this week in case you missed one:
I hope your week has started off on the right foot! Today, we don’t have school as we typically have election days off…but I don’t know that there are any primary elections today?
As the school year wraps up, I feel like my to do list is a mile long, and my brain is in overdrive, but that’s just how it is every year.
Today’s post is a Teacher Talk Tuesday post all about end of the school year things you might not know teachers deal with as the school year wraps up.
Ten things you might not know about end of the school year.
One. Testing!
Testing, testing and more testing. All of our 10th and 11th graders take the ACT the second Tuesday in March. The juniors’ scores are a part of our accountability, and the sophomores get a good (and free) practice run before their junior year.
We have KSA (Kentucky Summative Assessment) within the last two weeks of the school year. Again, it’s the sophomores and juniors that test. This year, we did two tests on Tuesday and two on Thursday last week. It was kind of nice to have a day in between of testing for a little break and to have a normal Wednesday schedule for the school.
Two. Schedules.
As the school year wraps up, we anxiously await hearing what our schedules will be for the next school year. Yep…high school teachers don’t necessarily teach the same thing from year to year.
Love that for us.
Some years we’ve gone into the summer not knowing what we will be teaching the next year. Last year, we found out right after spring break which was unprecedented! This year’s timeline was very fair and we found out last week what we will be teaching…but not necessarily the schedule with class periods and planning periods. I think we will know that soon.
This year, I teach English 1 (Adv. and co-teach). Next year, I will have the same, but with two English 2 classes. At the moment, I don’t know that I’m thrilled to have three preps, none of which are any kind of elective. Nothing is set in stone, so we’ll see how it shakes out.
Three.Classrooms.
Our classrooms can change year to year, but it’s not usually something that’s mandatory. More than likely, if a “better” room opens up, based on seniority, a teacher can request to move to a different room for the next year.
That being said, there have been times where admin has requested certain teachers move to be closer to their department or maybe a first year teacher is moved next to a veteran teacher.
If you do move rooms, it’s probably quicker and more efficient to move what you can yourself. Of course, custodians will move heavy things like filing cabinets, but anything that’s manageable, it’s best to do yourself (and/or with help, of course).
Before the end of the school year, we always have to label our desks, bookshelves, filing cabinets, etc with our room #, so that when things get moved out so the custodians can wax our classroom floors, everything *hopefully* gets put back where it belongs. We often even draw a “map” on our board where certain tables and bookshelves should go.
Four.Purging and freebies.
Teachers love to give things away. At the end of the year, there’s usually a good pile in the workrooms with “free to a good home” note stuck on whatever…anything from bookshelves to books to lamps and more.
I try to throw away/recycle/organize every day in May…thinking my future self will thank me later!
Five.Meetings.
We have after school trainings before testing, and our weekly PLC (professional learning community), department and faculty meetings continue every week after school.
That being said, for teacher appreciation week a couple of weeks ago, we received “the gift of time” with our weekly meeting canceled.
The day after the students’ last day, we have a faculty meeting and wrap up the school year.
Six. Planning for next year.
In late April/early May, we start receiving emails about professional development plans, dates to save, etc. for the next school year. Sometimes, this info is overwhelming as we’re just trying to wrap up this year and now we’re being told to think about the next year.
We have to do “safety trainings” every year, and they are typically due by Labor Day. These trainings can be started after our last teacher work day, and most of us knock those out in the summer. These trainings are over anything from blood borne pathogens to how to safely climb a ladder to school safety. I swear that they add more and more of these every year, and we probably watch 12-15 hours of trainings that don’t count as professional development…Just another part of our glamorous job!
Seven. Technology.
Students turn in their Chromebooks with three days left in the school year. That means that their final exam has to be on paper which is actually my preference anyway. I’m always happy when they turn in their Chromebooks and have one less distraction.
Eight. Final exams.
For the English 1 final, students are taking our unit test which is multiple choice, so that will be easy to grade which I appreciate as well.
At my school, final exams are worth 10% of the students’ overall grade.
Also, the last three days are a different kind of schedule as we see some classes for an hour and then two classes for two hours for them to complete their finals. It’s a weird schedule, and I wish we’d just do two days of three finals each and let students go home early. That would be way less hectic for sure!
Nine. Teacher work day/flex time.
The day after the students’ last day is always a teacher work day. We start with a faculty meeting that typically lasts a couple of hours. During the meeting, the admin talk about end of the year things and we always celebrate retirees. (Lucky them!) I do appreciate that we aren’t “just meeting just to meet” and when we are finished we get the rest of the time in our rooms. Typically, there’s an end of the year check list that we get a few signatures on like that we submitted grades, technology is accounted for and more.
I’m really grateful that my district does “flex time” because that means we don’t always have to make up all of our contract days. We account for our hours missed for snow days, for example, and submit a form with hours we worked outside of our contracted school day. Some years, we don’t have any hours, and this year, I had to submit a form documenting 30 hours. For example, if I didn’t turn in hours for today, I’d be at school without the students. This was an odd year where we did have four traditional snow days rather than NTI online days. So, those four days at 7.5 hours a day equals 30 hours we document. If I didn’t submit the form, my last day of school would be June 3 instead of May 29.
Ten.Graduation.
All of the high schools in my district graduate at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. While teachers have always been expected to attend, this is the first year that it’s required. I’m always surprised that it hasn’t been required in the past. This is also the first year that teachers will have the black graduation gowns with the hoods from our colleges. I always love graduation, but I do feel like the bigger schools rush through and it’s not as personal as graduation is in smaller schools.
Well, we’re officially down to five more days of school. I can’t believe I’m wrapping up my 23rd year in education, and the kids only have three more years left of high school! I’ll try not to think too much about that and enjoy my summer with them…the last summer with them relying on me to drive them where they need to be!
I hope you are having a great week. Today, I’m sharing a Thursday Thoughts post.
On the WordPress app, they usually post a daily prompt and this one struck a chord with me the second I saw it:
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.
I immediately thought of the kids’ elementary years. Starting in kindergarten, I knew from the start to treasure that phase of life for them. While I know I’m blessed with two kids, having two at once just makes it feel like time moves that much quicker. And…I feel like I don’t get to experience certain phases of life and milestones again since we don’t have a third. There was one first day of kindergarten. There was one 3rd grade zoo field trip. There was one Dr. Seuss “Cat in the Hat” performance. So, I always made it a priority to help with the class parties, take a personal day to go on the field trip, buy them too many books at the book fair and more.
After elementary school, the “magic” of school and learning seems to slip away a little bit more every year. Also, there just aren’t field trips, field day, chorus concerts, class parties and all the other special events that elementary school provides.
The kids made so many memories during those years, formed friendships, learned so much and had so much fun. So many of their core values and experiences that shaped them as learners and little humans happened in the classrooms in that building.
Covid put an end to that. They went home on Friday, March 13, 2020, finished their 4th grade year on Zoom/Google Classroom, spent most of 5th grade doing work at home or at the neighborhood “pod” of classmates. They went back to school wearing masks on March 3, 2021 but with plexi-glass around their desks as an attempt to minimize germs. Their 5th grade graduation was held in the gym, but no family could attend. Instead, we watched at home via the live stream.
I’m so thankful the kids were celebrated and were together with their classes, but it would have been nice to have the option of an outdoor ceremony or even a limit of two family members per student.
I know the administrators were making the best decision at the time, and I’m grateful for technology to still “be there” for the special milestone.
Registering for Kindergarten:
First day of K:
Last day of 5th grade:
{I must admit that I did love being at home with them during the online school days. I’m blessed that I could be home with them thanks to my job as a teacher too. I was never a stay at home mom (besides in the summer), and (mostly) loved helping them with their school work and having some extra free time with them…but I do think we were out of school for entirely too long! We all should have headed back to the classroom sooner.}
I will always look back fondly on their elementary school years.
We owe a lot to those teachers and that school. It’s bittersweet that we didn’t have the proper goodbye.
Well, we’re on week two of two actual full weeks of school which means I’m back to packing my lunch. I’m sharing what I’ve been packing in my new Bento boxes.
While packing my lunch is still a dreaded task, I’ve been enjoying it a bit more lately and trying to find new lunch ideas. I’ve shared time and time again that I love a “snack plate” for lunch when I’m at home. The Bento Boxes are a way to take my snack plate to school!
I always save gift ideas on a few Amazon lists because I know when the holidays roll around, I need to share ideas with family members. I’d requested some Bento Boxes, but this set didn’t work out because the lids wouldn’t stay snapped on.
My first lunch was Dill, Sea Salt, and Olive Oil Triscuits (my fave!), cheese, grapes, prosciutto, rosemary almonds (my fave!) from Trader Joe’s, and some cottage cheese.
Once I realized those containers weren’t going to work, I ordered myself this set, and they’ve been perfect. The layout is a bit different, but they’ve been working out just fine.
Another lunch: Triscuits, cheese, a hard boiled egg, carrots and Ranch (the Ranch didn’t fit in the box), and my favorite sweet treat…a “Snack Select” from Aldi that has little bites of chocolate, dried cranberries, and graham cracker bites. Little squares of cheese also come in the pack, but I had those later.
On this day, I had a peanut butter roll up (tortilla), Babybel cheese, and cucumbers and Fritos (Trader Joe’s edition) to dip in Trader Joe’s Buffalo dip. I also packed a pudding for dessert in my lunch bag.
One day, I had salami, cheese and crackers from an Olli pack…adult lunchable. I put those things in the Bento box and then added in carrots, Chex Mix, and trail mix.
One day this week, I packed two turkey sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls, cottage cheese and carrots. Then, I packed some Girl Scout cookies…two Thin Mints and two Peanut Butter Patties. Did I need four Girl Scout cookies? No. Was it necessary? Yes…because otherwise, my family hogs the cookies, and they hardly last a couple of days in our cabinet! That being said, Hayden stopped by my room and ate one of the Thin Mints. See what I’m talking about?! haha
I’m loving my new lunch bag. I’d had the same lunch bag for eight years, and the time was past due for me to get a new one. Again, I had this one saved on a list as a gift idea, and it’s perfect. It holds so much, and I love that there’s a small zip pocket on one side and then a larger pocket on the other side.
Just this past weekend, I packed this full of snacks for our weekend in Gatlinburg for Hadley’s volleyball tournament, and it held so many snacks!
It comes in quite a few colors and patterns…and it has a 15% off coupon right now. (Just FYI!)
So, those are a few of my lunches lately. This week has been a bit different because we had a little chili pot luck yesterday with the teachers in my hall, and then we’re having a SOUPer Bowl soup/chili pot luck on Friday. So, I only have to pack a few lunches this week!
‘Tis the season for winter weather! In the past few weeks, we’ve had a little bit of everything – ice, sleet, snow, and frigid temps. Today and tomorrow are to be the coldest days of winter so far.
All of the snow days got me thinking about snow days through the years!
When I was a kid I don’t really remember having tons of snow days, and I also don’t remember how we were notified. My mom was a teacher, so I’m sure she would find out and let us know. I assume those snow days were reported on the news and would run across the bottom of the screen….I do remember that in high school.
My first year teaching, there was a school phone tree, and I did get a few phone calls for snow days, and then I’d call the next number on the list!
When I moved to Kentucky, my first year here was the 2004-2005 school year, and we didn’t have a snow day until late February or early March. I remember asking Travis if it snowed here! haha
For most of my earlier years in Kentucky, we’d get an automated phone call and probably an email. For twelve years, I taught in a more rural county, and we would miss more days than the city schools like Lexington where we live. I do remember waking up some mornings and checking the local news to see if we had school or not.
We would also rarely have those days forgiven and would have to make them up. In 2014, we had probably fifteen snow days. To alleviate some of the time we’d have to make up, we added twenty minutes to the school day after spring break. The students made up a couple of days at the end, but the teachers were in school until mid-June! No ma’am! I remember being so annoyed…making up our time for two weeks after the students got out.
The following year, my district applied for NTI (non-traditional instruction) days. This was kind of a new idea although there were even more rural/mountain towns who had been using NTI. For NTI, we gave out packets with ten days worth of work. At this time, students didn’t have Chromebooks. So, students knew to complete the assignment(s) on the days we had off. Once we returned to school, students had three days to complete and turn in the assignment for their attendance to be counted for those NTI days. Honestly, it worked fairly well, and even like what I do now, I incorporated grammar, short reading comprehension passages, etc. So, it was work we would have done in class anyway, but I saved it for NTI. On those NTI days, we were expected to work from home, and we’d fill out a time sheet with what we worked on.
It’s crazy to think out “antiquated” this process seems compared to what we do now although there are still some similarities.
In my county, NTI days started after Covid. We truly never thought we’d ever be 1:1 with technology with the number of students we have in our district and the various demographics that we have of our student populations. During Covid, our county was out for almost a year, so we all became very acclimated with Zoom and online assignments.
Not only do these kids not have to wait for the school name to scroll on the bottom of the TV screen (although it still does when we don’t have school), they can also find out via social media, sometimes quicker than I know!
As parents, we get a text message and an email…sometimes, we receive a phone call. I hate the phone calls at 5 am! As teachers, we get an email and a text.
For NTI now, we post assignments to Canvas, and have two hours where we are expected to be on Zoom in case a student has a question or needs help with their work. The district assigned the time frames and elementary have earlier Zoom hours, middle school is around lunch and high school have the later afternoon shift.
I take attendance based on who has completed the assignment by the end of the day. If a student turns in the assignment the following day, I will change their attendance from absent to present. Once we get back to school, students have three days to turn in the assignment just like how we did at my former district.
I assign work similarly to how I did when students had packets, but now I use IXL to assign grammar and Newsela to assign reading passages. I will also assign videos that have to do with what we’re learning and have students complete a 3-2-1 (which varies)assignment. For example, they will submit three facts from the videos, two questions they have and make one connection.
Last week, when we finally went back to school on Thursday, I did start class as if it was the first day of the semester. We went over classroom expectations, but then I gave them a work day on the three NTI assignments. I found that about 90% of my students completed their first NTI assignment the day it was assigned, but then that dwindled to about 50% of students completing the third NTI assignment. Since we hadn’t had in person school in almost a month, I figured we could all ease into the semester.
That being said, I did tell my classes now that we’ve discussed NTI expectations, if we’re out one day, then I’m not giving them a work day when we return. If we’re out an extended amount of time, that’s different.
I also told my students if we’re out this week, we have to wrap up To Kill a Mockingbird, so I’ll upload the PDF of the chapters we need to read and give them an assignment.
I feel like what we make up year to year is different. I do think my district goes five days more than we need to, so students don’t always have to make up every day. We have a day in March that’s always marked as a day to use if needed. Before NTI, we also would add days to the end of the school year, but I hope that’s not the case this year.
If the governor declares a state of emergency, which he did after our recent snow/ice storm, we can apply for up to ten days to forgive.
That being said, of course, teachers have to make up their work days. Often times, we’re able to “flex” our time if it’s just a few days. We fill out the flex form with any work/meetings that we do outside of our contract hours. My former district didn’t do that, but I appreciate that my district does have that as an option for at least a few days.
Once winter is over, the school board makes these decisions for students and for teachers.
Unpopular opinion — but I love a snow day…but I also love to get back into a routine…which has proven hard to do lately! There hasn’t been a school year in my teaching career that we haven’t had a least one snow day.
showmeandsweettea.com 