17 Days

Well Garrett and I have finally made it to the wonderful month of September.  Any teacher could easily vouch for me that August is the absolute craziest, busiest, most draining month of the year therefore making it through the storm that is "back to school time" is an achievement to be proud of.  Things at school have finally calmed down enough for me to catch up on some sleep, spend my evenings doing more than school prep, and get back to some routine.  One part of August (or all summer really, lets be honest) that I am not so proud of is the lack of healthy food intake and physical activity that occurred.  After spending all spring excited about the Body Pump challenge at the gym I spent the summer on a sabbatical from the gym to say the least.  My food decisions for August were even more embarrassing.  I am pretty sure I ate out more during the month of August than I did the rest of the summer combined.  When you are spending 12 hour plus days in your classroom sometimes Little Caesars is just the easiest choice for dinner! While making these reflections about the last few weeks and months I told Garrett I thought we needed a cleanse.  It is time to get back in the gym, make healthier food choices, and maybe (hopefully) lose some weight along the way.  A friend from work had gone through a diet in the spring called the 17 Day Diet and since then I have heard of several others who had experience with that diet as well.  Each time I heard about the diet I was told how successful it was so curiosity got the best of me and I spent some time on Google trying to figure out what the deal was.   The first time I read about the diet (about a month or so ago) I immediately decided there was NO WAY Garrett and I could do it.  I revisited the diet again this week however and for some reason it seemed more manageable, or maybe I just seemed more desperate for something to help us get back on the healthy wagon.  We discussed it and basically decided we could do pretty much anything for 17 days (forget the fact that it is actually 4 cycles of 17 days with the 4th cycle being focused on learning maintenance).  There are two requirements that won me over for this diet: 1) You are not allowed to let yourself stay hungry. Snacking and filling meal sizes are perfectly acceptable as long as the foods are on the approved list. 2) During the first couple of cycles the only workout requirement is doing some type of activity for 17 minutes a day. Just. 17. Minutes. I love that.  So after plenty of research, and writing down A LOT of recipes we finally gathered the courage necessary and we went to the grocery store.   This trip to the grocery store was far from our norm because instead of stocking up on beef, breads, desserts, and plenty of International Delight coffee creamer we spent most of our time in the produce section with a quick pit stop on the meat aisle for some chicken breasts and ground turkey.  If you know my husband at all then you know the worst part of that last statement is the "ground turkey".  If it was up to Garrett eating ground turkey would be a sin and every meal would have hefty helpings of beef and bacon.  The only time during Garrett's and my engagement that I legitimately thought Garrett might call it all off was the time I brought turkey burgers over for a cookout.  That is probably the most disappointed he has EVER been in me.  As much as I know he hated the looks of our shopping cart last night, Garrett did his best to stay positive and supportive.   After unloading all of our groceries I looked in the fridge and was certain that I had never seen it so full of produce and other healthy foods at one time before (see below).

Granted there is still plenty of unhealthy stuff in there that may just get thrown away as our self control begins to waiver.  Today was Day 1 and so far we have been very successful.  We both had yogurt and fruit for breakfast (to take care of 1 probiotic and 1 fruit serving) and had salads with some lean protein for lunch.  For dinner I tried to be creative so I made a slightly altered version of a turkey burger recipe I found online with a side of asparagus.  I made the burger patties out of ground turkey, grated carrots, minced onions and a little bit of cajun seasoning.  The burgers were then placed on a portobello mushroom I had sauteed in olive oil and garlic.  I covered the burger with a mixture of sauteed onions and bell peppers and even a sprinkled some fat free cheddar cheese on top.  I absolutely took a picture of the final product, well aware that I am likely to be judged for doing so.  I apologize for it being so blurry, I didn't realize how blurry it was until after the meal had already been devoured.

The verdict of our first dinner on the diet is different depending on who you ask.  I absolutely loved the burger and the asparagus.  I gobbled it up with a smile on my face as Garrett choked it down across the room.  He did admit afterwards that the burger "wasn't that bad".  I will definitely take that as a compliment. :) Anyone willing to send up some prayers that we survive the next 16 days (I need small goals at a time) we would greatly appreciate it.  No matter whether any weight is actually lost we at least hope to come away being a little more health conscious... at least until all the holiday feasting begins.

Back to School Scavenger Hunt

"Back to School" is becoming increasingly true for me as tomorrow is my first day of back to school inservice and I am only a week away from welcoming my new class of sixth graders! I have finally put the fun Pinterest projects aside and starting preparing for Open House and the first week of school.  If you are a list maker like I am then you might recognize the picture below.  

This yellow notepad has been my lifesaver this month.  I started making "To-do" and "To-teach" lists on this pad of paper some time around March of this last school year (about the time we finished up end of year Benchmark testing).  These lists largely stemmed from procedures or concepts that my students struggled with that I knew I needed to teach RIGHT AWAY at the beginning of the school year.  I gradually added items to the lists as I would think of them, knowing that if I didn't write them down immediately I would get to August and have no clue what I needed to do!  One thing I did not learn in college was how to truly have an effective first few weeks of school.  Simply reading Harry Wong's "The First Days of School" did not prepare me for what to do and expect those first weeks of having my very own classroom!  Last year (being my second year of teaching) I had somewhat of an idea of what to teach and this year I have a little more of an idea but I am sure I will be changing my first week lesson plans every single year as I continue to learn from my experiences.  


Teaching procedures to ANYONE can be boring but middle schoolers can be an especially difficult audience to keep engaged while learning procedures.  I do my best to balance the "boring" stuff with a lot of hands on activities that allow my students to talk and walk around.  Something I had discussed with my amazing, awesome, incredible, wonderful co-teacher of mine (her name is Beth and you will probably hear about her frequently) is having a joint scavenger hunt on the first day of school as an engaging (hopefully) way to tour the school with our kids.  Although most students at my school are returning students I still think it is important to take a class tour of the the school not only so new students learn their way around but also so my partner teacher and I can clearly set our expectations for our students no matter where they are in the school building. Yes, sixth graders ideally SHOULD be able to walk in the hallway, sit in the cafeteria and line up for a fire drill without too much instruction but that is just not reality.  We have learned over and over the importance of going over these procedures with our students throughout the school year.  And yes, we do make our sixth graders still walk silently in a straight line while traveling from place to place.  Even though we are a middle school, we function largely like an elementary school and we have to walk quietly in the hall in order to not disturb other classrooms.  Therefore getting some practice walking in the hall the correct way is not a bad thing on the first day of school.  
With all of those thoughts in mind I got to work yesterday coming up with scavenger hunt clues that could guide our students through a tour of the school.  Most of the clues are kind of corny and are fairly easy to figure it out but I still think it is much better than listening to Beth and I talk to the whole time in our best tour guide voices.  The clues allow the students to do the guiding and all Beth and I have to do is just give some procedural information at each stop.  A preview of the scavenger hunt is shown below. 
I developed clues for all of the following places:
1-Hall
If you are interested in the entire scavenger hunt click here to download it for FREE from my Teachers Pay Teachers page.   Clues are numbered for how I use them in my school but can easily be renumbered according to the best route for your school.  I will have to get back with you after next Monday to let you know how it goes with our kids! :)
What are some of your favorite back to school activities for teaching procedures or for getting to know your students?  Good luck with ALL of your "Back to School" plans!

2-Nurse's Office
3-Main Office
4-Computer Lab
5-Playground/Recess Spot
6-Cafeteria
7-Restroom (we will discuss water fountain procedures here as well)
8-Music Room
9-Gymnasium
10-Fire Drill Spot
11-Art Room
12-Back to the Classroom

Stations in the Middle School Classroom

With the start of school just around the corner (or already passed for some) I figured there was no better way to start of my blogging experience than with sharing a project I have been working on at school.  I have decided that it is much more entertaining to make fun Pinterest inspired crafts for the classroom than to actually get down to the nitty gritty organizing and planning that I should be doing so I continue to distract myself with different projects.  One of the larger projects I have been working on is creating tri-fold boards for each of the different stations that I use in my sixth grade classroom.  Using stations (or centers) in the middle school classroom is so much different than for younger students but it is still possible AND effective.  I know everyone has their own preferences when doing stations in the classroom but there are two things that I have found are absolutely necessary when using stations with sixth graders.

1. The teacher MUST be mobile.  I do not use stations to teach mini-lessons, teach guided reading or do anything else that requires me to stay in one spot the whole entire time.  If I try to stay still too long my students think it is free time to do whatever they want as long as it LOOKS like they are working.  They need the idea of knowing I could stop by to check on them at any moment to keep them motivated to work.  This may just be a lack of classroom management on my end but I am at least aware of it and therefore I stay on the move.  I do sometimes sit down and do a running record of a student's reading, give a DIBELS assessment or have a conversation with a student but I don't stay put for too long. I make a point to get around to every group at least once during stations to see how they are doing.

2.  There MUST be clear, precise instructions at each station.  These of course have to be accompanied by clear procedures (that have been modeled and practiced) as to what to do during stations.  My goal is that all directions are so clear that there is NO WAY a student could need for me to answer a question for them (especially when they have so many other students they can get help from).  My students know that during stations they should probably be bleeding if they need to come find me during stations (not really, but kind of). I like to be free to work with any student I choose (especially my struggling learners) without having a line of other students behind me waiting to have questions answered.

This second self administered rule for stations has meant that I have spent A LOT of hours preparing for stations.  There have been many afternoons I have sat at my computer typing out directions, rereading them through the eyes of an 11-12 year old and thinking of any other possible questions they might have.  It was pretty regular this past school year that at 5:00 or 6:00 on a Tuesday night I would still be at school getting everything ready for stations the next day.  It became so draining that by the end of the school year stations were happening less and less.  So one of my many summer tasks on my to-do list was to figure out a way to make stations seem less cumbersome during the school year.  Between a lot of Pinteresting and a lot of educational blog reading I finally came up with the idea to create tri-fold boards with permanent station options for each of the stations I have.  This means a lot of preparing up front, but very little planning during the school year.  I also wanted to have a way to choose exactly what was going on during stations so on each board I decided I would leave a spot for a "Teacher Assigned Task".  I plan on training my students to make sure that if a "Teacher Assigned Task" is given that it is number one priority and once it is completed then they have the freedom to choose anything else on the board to do.  There are so many reasons I love this plan.  First of all, students will have CHOICES at every single station.  In sixth grade there are only so many things that motivate students and freedom is one of those things.  Secondly, these boards allow me to remain ORGANIZED even when the hustle and bustle of the school year is upon me and I lose my OCD tendencies.  Lastly, these boards mean that it will be possible for stations to occur with absolutely NO PLANNING at all if I so choose.  Of course I want to tie in stations to whatever skills are being taught that week but if there is ever a week (which we all know there will be) in which I am beyond overwhelmed with conferences, assemblies, research projects or whatever else it may be, I can still pull out the station boards and have stations run just as smoothly as always.

To help you understand just what exactly these station boards look like I have provided pictures below. The options on each board consist of simple reading and writing tasks, to games I have pulled from resources such as www.fcrr.org, to activities I have found on Teachers pay Teachers, to games or activities that I have come up with out of no where.  Some options require access to a computer so those options are only available when I have rented one of our schools laptop carts or when I have set the station next to my two student computers that I have in my classroom.

Hopefully these thoughts have helped some of you who struggle with stations in the middle school classroom as well, and if you have ANY ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them.  I am always looking for new things to try with my students.  I hope you all have a great start to the school year!