Someone asked me, "How do you do all of this and have a young family?" I am used to hearing people say, "Do you ever sleep?" Yes, I sleep. In fact, I need at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Rest is important for me to function at full speed as well as for my recovering brain. It's a fair question. When I was a beginning teacher, I would arrive at school early in the morning and stay there until past dinner. Then, most nights I was doing work at home before bed. It would've been really difficult for me to be an excellent teacher if I were just now starting with littles at home (not to say that others who are just starting and have littles at home can't be excellent teachers, just that it would've been hard for ME). But due to that hard (and likely unhealthy) work back then, I have a lot of strategies in my teacher tool kit and many resources to pull from. I also spend an hour each day in the summer working on resources that will help me durin
Dear Parents/Guardians, Your kids have almost made it through what might be the most difficult year of their little lives. They have worked hard, made new friends, learned a lot, and grown in ways we might not have expected. It's natural that the end of this year might bring on really big feelings for these (still) little kids. These feelings might present themselves in sadness and tears. They might also show up as anger, hyperactivity, and/or potentially annoying behavior. Feelings about all of this ending- their time in elementary school, with me, with their friends, etc. are a lot of feelings for children to try to control. Also, some kids feel perfectly fine about the year ending and are thrilled to say goodbye. It may hit them a week or so into summer, or maybe not at all. All of this is okay. Now is a good time to have a talk with them. Wait until your child is quiet (bedtime is a great time for me to talk with Mario) and ask what they are excited about, how they a