Classroom Management

This school year I have the honor of being a leader for co-hort group of new science teachers. We have had a few meeting this year and yesterday's topic was classroom management. Your first year of teaching everything rides on how well you manage; one simply cannot teach if you cannot manage your classroom. It can be terrifyingly stressful for a newbie if it doesn't come naturally, and it doesn't for most. I have heard statistics such as 1/3 of new teachers will leave the profession within 5 years and often the reason cited is they couldn't pick up on the management aspect. Unfortunately it's not something that is taught in most education programs at the college level, often you learn from experience.
I had a really tough first year, I started in the January after a few teachers had already ditched my position, was on a team with all brand new teachers and I had zero experience with middle school. I worked my butt off but most of the time the kids would not listen to me.  It was devastating to me. I started the next year strong and really have just gotten more comfortable and as a result better with management year by year.
Here was my words of wisdom to the co-hort.

1. Focus on the positive. In the school I work in we follow PBIS, it stands for positive behavior intervention supports. That means focus on the good kids and try (as long as they are not doing anything really bad) to ignore the bad kids. Example- This morning I asked three times for my students to take their notebooks out, looking around I saw only one kid followed my instructions. Instead of getting upset, I said "I like the way Mary followed instructions". Everyone stops, looks at Mary, takes out their notebooks. Mary is rewarded with praise for doing the right thing. Everyone else is ready to start class. Win-win!

2. Sweat the small stuff-or don't, but pick a side. I'm on the don't side, probably because I teach seventh grade. Let me explain- either you can be really strict (sweating) or learn to ignore behaviors as long as they don't break any major rules. Pick a side and stick to it, or else you will confuse your students.

3. Get the parents on your side. Good tip- during the first week of school try to call home (if you teach upper grades try to enlist your team and each take a class) and just welcome them and ask if they had any questions or concerns. That way when you have to call for a disciplinary issue or because Johnny is failing the parent doesn't always associate you with negativity and in general they are more apt to work with you.

High Five for Friday

1. We looked at our first wedding venue this weekend. We loved it but everything must be brought in so we figured it would be a lot of additional work too. We even thought about booking but decided to look at a few other places before just to compare.

 2. Love getting home everyday to a new engagement card! Apparently Hallmark is lacking in their choices.

 3. Ahhh! All my magazines arrived at once, lots of reading to do this weekend :)

 4. Apparently my students really like my mother. I even had a mini lesson on Ms. Miss and Mrs. because a.) they were confused that my name was going to change and b.) alot of adults still don't know the difference. Guess I needed to explain it better!

5. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Link up with Lauren at From my Grey Desk!

Spring Must-Haves

Spring Must-Haves by pearlspencilskirts featuring printed scarves

Print top, $21 / J.Crew pleated mini skirt / ELSE mint green jeans / Madden Girl patent leather flat, $36 / Forever New printed scarve, $21

Chocolate companies listen up!

The other night as I was biting the ears off my chocolate bunny, I came up with an idea.
 Not so much an idea as a question- Why don't candy companies market teachers?
I mean honestly, they are serious customers.
Think about it: We buy candy constantly in an effort to reward (bribe) our students, we also have ridiculously stressful days where we search through classrooms asking fellow teachers for chocolate (believe me I don't search that hard). So Hershey's I hope you're reading, and that you give me a piece of the cut ;)

This message brought to you by my absolute favorite only in stores for a few more days:

Source

High Five for Friday!

This Friday I've decided to link up with Lauren at 'From my Grey Desk' for High Five for Friday. Here are my top 5 from this week:

 1. Spring needs to get here: Pronto Tonto. I know I live in New England but this is getting old.

 2. Yay! I will finally have siblings, and awesome ones at that.

3.  For my ladies! Oh Pinterest you have the best wedding ideas.

4. And sometimes at the end of the day, you just gotta remember; It is what it is. Saw this one in Homegoods and seriously considered purchasing.
5. Also, this Friday makes it a coveted long weekend since Spring break is now gone! Have a fabulous weekend everyone! Happy Easter!

How engaging!

So, first I would like to apologize for the hiatus in posting. The past week I have only had one thing on my mind...and that is my engagement to this wonderful man.

The past week has been so exciting! and overwhelming, stay tuned because there are now two guarantees for the future: 1.) I will have straps on my wedding dress (thank you Kate Middleton for bringing sleeves back) and 2.) this blog will probably focus on wedding planning for the next 16 months.

Follow me on Pinterest for some of the ideas I'm thinking about for the wedding: Mkdubs

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ahhh- St. Patrick's Day, when everyone who has a drop of Irish blood in them insists on eating corned beef (although there is still debate on whether the Irish really eat it all that much) and drinking Guinness. While I certainly look Irish (my students tell me all the time) I can only say that it makes up about 25% of my ancestry. Sadly, I must confess, I'm not a big fan of corned beef and Guinness. I'm more of a Shock Top and turkey sandwich kind of girl. I realize that's not going to sit well with the Irish readers, so keep reading.
So last week I decided that I was going to try to make corned beef more appetizing for myself. I also decided that because I am a busy teacher with lots to do that it needed to be made in the crock-pot. However, I could not find a recipe on-line that 1.) was made in the crockpot and 2.) had ingredients that were in my pantry. So I decided I would improvise, and for one of the few times in my life, it worked!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 small corned beef brisket (about 2 pounds)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Trim excess fat off corned beef.
2. Boil the corned beef for a few minutes to cut down the saltiness (if you enjoy the saltiness of this meat, then I would say omit this step)
3. Mix honey, dijon mustard and brown sugar together.
4. Place corned beef in crock pot, if it came with a packet of seasoning throw that in also.
5. Pour mixture of honey, mustard and brown sugar over beef.
6. Cook on low for 7-8 hours, high 4.

I forgot an "after" photo, but I was very good. Falls apart on it's own and great for sandwich making.

Slainte!