Hug your babies tight

This week has been emotionally draining. On top of being 8 months pregnant and not getting more than 5 hours of sleep a night, we have been busy. 

On Wednesday, I attended a funeral for a 18 month old. She was a granddaughter to two people who may be the nicest I have ever met. Janet is an educator who used to be the instructional coach on our campus. She moved to the district level and has since retired, but I remember attending various staff parties at her house. She is not only a mentor to many, she is like a grandma--too. She always had Diet Coke in her fridge and candy on the tables. I have never heard her utter an unkind word about anyone. Her husband Ray, is one of those people who may intimidate you at first. But, as you start to talk to him you realize he is wonderful and a totally devoted husband and father. When I was pregnant with our first daughter, my parents had not yet moved to Texas--Ray and Janet offered to babysit. 

When we heard Brooklyn--Janet and Ray's granddaughter passed away, we knew we needed to do something. 

Luckily, our Executive Director of Academic Achievement along with some other amazing people in our district took a little of the burden off the family--they bought food and created a sign up for the funeral dinner. We had spots to bring food, set up food, serve and clean up. People signed up in full force. There was quite a bit of food left, which is great news because the family is big and very close knit. 

I have no idea what they are going through. I feel so sad for them. I have no idea what to say. (I do keep thinking of this blog that I follow, "Life without Nash: Life after the loss of an infant." http://whennashsmiled.com/ Check it out if you have time.) 

However, as I was talking to my boss, I asked him what to say to someone who just lost a loved one. (He used to be a pastor.) He said, "Don't say I am sorry. Just let them know you are there for them and you want to help." I felt like that was good advice. 

When my husband and I went to the funeral home for the visitation--Janet and Ray told both of us, "Hug your babies tight. You never know how much time you have with them." 

I loved this advice and I made sure I hugged my girl extra tight. I have really been trying to make more of an effort to be present with my three year old. I know that there will come a day when she won't say, "Mommy, come play with me."

My precious girl with her Papa. 

Born to Teach

As my daughter has been around teachers her whole life--my mom, myself, my husband and my sister, it seems only natural for her to become an educator.

However, I really want her to be an engineer, a doctor or a pharmacist.

Last time I asked her, she wanted to be a mermaid.

She is three.

Yet, as I listen to her and I hear how she talks to others I can tell she is a natural teacher.

At daycare, after circle time is over, she actually leads a second circle time at with all the younger children. She leads them through songs and encourages them by saying, "yes so and so, that is right."

She helps her teachers manage the other students. Keeping kids in line, redirecting them when needed.

I don't want her to be bossy, but at the same time, I want her to be a leader. I want her to be comfortable speaking to large groups.

It really makes me wonder if someone can be born to teach. She emulates her teachers so well, and even when she was less than two, she idolized Miss Ashley who was the librarian who lead story time at the public library.

On Superbowl Sunday, during the halftime show--she lead my husband and I through her own version of circle time. She sat on our ottoman and read us two books. She sang us songs and encouraged us to participate.

No joke.

Taking down the Christmas Tree....

Tomorrow we go back to work after being off for over two weeks. UGH. I am tired just thinking about it. Thankfully, at this stage in my pregnancy I am drinking coffee again and I have a feeling I will need it.

One thing that I just can't bring myself to do...take down the Christmas tree. 

I was going to take it down yesterday while the hubby was at the Alamo Bowl, but I just couldn't do it. 

I think what really got me was my three year old singing, "Kris Kringle--Jingle, Jingle, Jingle." Yesterday. Yes, all the Christmas music is gone from the radio, the Christmas shows are no longer running on ABC Family and the Hallmark Channel, all the Christmas stuff in the stores is 75% off or more...but I just can't do it. 

I think if I keep my tree up a little longer, I might be able to keep that "Magic of Christmas" just a little longer for my three year old. (And myself, I love having my house decorated for Christmas.) 

The hubby told me he would help me next weekend. We have so many boxes and decorations that need to be packed up.  

However, what about the three year old? Will she be ok? She still asks "where did the Elf on the Shelf go?" I keep explaining he went back to the North Pole, but she can't quite wrap her brain around it. I would hate to traumatize her. 

I wonder if we could keep the tree around just a little longer? Maybe we will be sick of it in March? I will have a whole week off for spring break. 

Think I could convince hubby to keep the tree up until then? 

Dealing with Infertility: Adding to our Family

It is really hard for me to believe that 2015 is coming to a close. We have had a great year.

I got a new job in August as a Digital Learning Coach, the hubby is still Assistant Principal at a school in San Antonio. Our daughter is doing great in "school/daycare." She is starting to get potty trained...still having a few accidents. And, our biggest news is that we are adding to our family!

At the end of May we will be welcoming a little girl. We have no idea what her name will be, but so far, she is healthy.

It wasn't easy for me to get pregnant. We tried for almost two years and had no luck. When I started looking into the root of the issue, the first time I went to the doctor--I had been told it was probably a timing issue.

I went back in June and told my doctor I had a feeling something was off. She ran a bunch of tests. My thyroid was fine (darn, I was hoping that would have explained the weight gain.) She scheduled a hysterosalpingogram--basically where they shoot dye through your fallopian tubes. Sure enough one of my fallopian tubes was blocked. I also have a strange shaped uterus and my hormone levels are a little below normal. Three of the four things you can have wrong with you when it comes to infertility were present. My doctor was not very confident that she would be able to help me. I cried, a lot. I didn't want to go through IVF, but could not get pregnant on my own.

We took two rounds of Clomid. The first time, nothing except for major headaches (both literally and figuratively). I was on vacation in South Padre and had to drive to Brownsville to get an ultrasound and blood tests. Timing with Clomid is vital and you also need to be monitored for cysts. That whole thing in Brownsville was more of an ordeal than it should have been. The second round of Clomid made me super tired. So tired, I was falling asleep in church.

I didn't know until 6 weeks later that that was the round of Clomid that worked. After trying for two years, each month was so disappointing. I had convinced myself surely I wasn't pregnant. But, I was.

And now, we are going to have two girls!

This scares my hubby just a little since he comes from a family with four boys.

But, he is an amazing dad.

I am pretty psyched because I just adore my own sister.

5 things I don't miss about being out of the classroom

I have officially been in my new job for three months. Today, I spent most of the morning working in a classroom with a teacher. (So exciting, because usually I get to work with adults.) She is having her students use two apps for presenting Sock Puppets and Toontastic. I was there to help get them set up. We also were trying to figure out ways for them to save without posting to the YouTube Channel. 

Anyway, the whole point of this blog is to write about 5 things I don't miss about being out of the classroom. 

1. Lesson Plans--Our district has a common lesson plan template that looks to be very labor intensive. I don't miss having to do lesson plans, especially when I had three preps. 

2. I don't miss calling parents. I always loved calling parents about a discipline issue and then they turn it around and blame me for their child acting up. Super. Fun. 

3. Dealing with Classroom Management--no matter how fun and engaging I tried to make my class, I hated when I had to discipline a kid for something. Maybe he pushed his buddy, maybe he took someone's phone...whatever the issue, I never liked having to be the adult and step in...or write referrals. Writing referrals is horrible because of number 2....calling parents. 

4. Eating lunch in 10 minutes. Yes, I know teachers are supposed to get a 30 minute duty free lunch, but this doesn't happen. 

5. Holding "it." With my new job I have the luxury of going to the bathroom anytime I want. It is amazing. 

So, those are my top 5 things I don't miss in being out of the classroom. 

PLTW Training: Master Teacher Reflection

I have been teaching Project Lead the Way curriculum for the last 4 years, and I absolutely love it. I love the way that they teach “new teachers” curriculum—by having them go through the lessons and do the activities that their students complete.

I applied to be a Master Teacher in January. I had to make several videos and then I did some online training modules. I had to get 2 letters of reference.

I got accepted and then that meant I was able to train adults to learn the curriculum. I am going to travel to two places this summer—Spokane, Washington and Las Vegas, Nevada.

This past week I was able to travel to Spokane, and I worked with 5 teachers from Spokane Public Schools to learn one of the curriculum modules from PLTW, called Science of Technology. This is one of my favorite modules because it involves ice cream, roller coasters, making and testing glue, nanotechnology labs, and simple machines. It is a lot and when I think about how much we covered in three days I am amazed.

Since I had not trained adults before I was nervous. Luckily, I had an amazing Master Teacher (I was the Apprentice Teacher), I was able to learn so much from her. I also got to present on one of my favorite things in the world to talk about “Recruiting Girls in STEM.”

Spokane was absolutely gorgeous. It is in the mountains, they have water (and waterfalls), pine trees, some rolling hills, low humidity and abundant sunshine. My hubby came along to and loved seeing the sights in Spokane. He walked the trail, found some amazing restaurants and visited four of the campuses that were close by.

Like any teacher, this experience helped me to reflect on what I want to improve upon for my next training.

1. Time—There is not enough, and we are going to have to stick to deadlines better. There may need to be more homework assigned, but we also need to realize that the adults have lots of responsibilities when they head home each night—not just school related responsibilities.
2. Discussion is vital—even though we are on a time crunch, we have to allow for discussion. This is what helped our group in Spokane because they were able to see how the curriculum would work for them.
3. Advance Planning—communication between the affiliate, the master teacher, and myself is important. We have to make sure the supplies we need are there ahead of time and we need to know who is presenting what and how we are presenting it.

We had a great group of teachers and it was such a positive experience for me. If I didn’t have so many other responsibilities at home, I would seriously consider traveling and training more this summer. However, mommy, grad school, new house, wife duties—they all have to take priority. (I am ok with that.)

Here is a Flipagram that I made to highlight what we did. You can check it out, here:


http://flipagram.com/f/YA7p7KnirS

Five Things I learned from having an all-girls STEM class

This year I was lucky enough to have 24 girls in an all-girls STEM class. It was an idea I proposed to my principal almost 3 years ago and for the 2014-2015 school year we were able to make it happen.

I loved having my all-girls class. I loved them for a million reasons and I learned a lot from just teaching girls (and I was used to having almost all boys in my classes)—so they were a welcome change.

1. Girls love working in groups even more than boys do. I think it is the social aspect, but I never heard them complain when I assigned them to a group and I never had anyone ask me if they could “just work alone.”
2. Girls love to see how engineers make a difference in the world. The idea of an engineer being a super hero really resonated with them. If you haven’t seen this video, you have to check it out. https://vimeo.com/86537339
3. Girls will bring in their own materials from home. For example, when we would do Genius Hour, my girls class was the most organized, the most on task, and they brought in the most materials. I had one girl who made a dress, and bought the materials at Hobby Lobby—I had another group make ice cream and bring in all the supplies they would need—another group made a birdhouse and used some leftover materials from their recycling bin.
4. Girls can be nice to each other. Maybe it was my group of girls—they were just not the catty type?  My experience in the past with girls (even coaching them) was that they were really mean and kind of awful. My girls in my STEM class were amazing.
5. Girls don’t need boys to work with in a class. In fact, if they don’t have the boys as a distraction, they seem to be more at ease working with tools, they aren’t afraid to take the lead on the project; they are more willing to speak their mind.
    
   I don’t think I will be able to have another all-girls class this year, but I really feel that being able to have them for one year was amazing and a great experience for them and me. I know they will do great no matter what class they take or who their teacher is, but I hope we started planting some of those seeds to get them excited about a future career in STEM.