Skip to main content

"How do you do it all?"

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...
Post a Comment

End of the Year Blues

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 are feeling about school ending, and let the conversation open.  Assure your child that it's totally normal to feel this way.  

In class, we talk about 'enjoying our strawberries', or trying to stay in the moment.  We are going to enjoy our last week together and know that the last day might be hard on some of us, but that's okay.  We will support each other because we have grown together as a family; as Meucci's Crew.  





No matter what, I assure these kids that 'once a Meucci kid, always a Meucci kid' and they can't get rid of me. HA!  

If you need me to be any bit of help through these feelings, you know how to get a hold of me.  I remember crying so hard after leaving my favorite teacher that the only way my mom could calm me was to call her so we could talk on the phone.  PLEASE call me if that will help.    

Have a great day.  Let me know if you need anything.

Sincerely,
K.D. Meucci

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"What workbook should I buy my child for the summer?"

The school year is winding down and parents start thinking about summer learning. This is a question I see a lot at the end of the school year and I'm happy that summer learning is on their radar because the 'summer slide' is real. While a workbook isn't a terrible idea, and it's certainly better than doing nothing, there are better ways to spend your 30 minutes of daily learning over the break. Here is the email I send to parents this time of year with my thoughts on summer learning. Dear Parents, It's getting closer to the end of the school year.  There is such a thing as the "Summer Slide" where students slide backwards academically.  A 1996 study by Harris Cooper found "that all students lost at least a month of math skills every summer, with an average loss of 2.6 months." Three researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that "two-thirds of the ninth-grade reading achievement gap could be attributed to how students spent thei...
Post a Comment
Read more

"How do you do it all?"

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

On Oct. 7, my life did a 180.

On Oct. 7, my life did a 180. In August of 2021, I checked in with my general doctor because I was having what I thought was feelings of anxiety caused by starting another school year during a pandemic.  All the stress that teaching brought last school year was about to continue and the unknown of it all makes teaching even more difficult.  I was experiencing lightheaded episodes, slight vision changes, and exhaustion.  My mother has multiple sclerosis, so I thought that might have been the cause of these feelings.  My doctor scheduled tests to explore.   I was diagnosed with a breakthrough case of Covid on September 21, then isolated myself away from my family in my home for 10 days.  Being away from my two children, Mario 7 and Mila 5 was the most difficult part of the quarantine.  I managed to get by with a relatively easy case of Covid because I was vaccinated.  After I was back to school for a week, I was still experiencing lightheaded e...
Post a Comment
Read more