August...a teacher's perspective

AUGUST

July is magical.  It's beautiful, albeit a bit hot.  Sundays don't carry the same stigma they do during the school year, and you're not a slave to the clock.
[During the school year...Friend:  What time is it?
                                         Me:  1:37 pm
During the summer...Friend:  What time is it?
                                   Me:  I dunno.  July sometime?]

And then August hits.  It's bittersweet, in many ways.  Bitter because, well damn, you're that much closer to 9pm bedtimes and 5:30 am wake-ups, never mind the scads of responsibilities you're about to take on.  Yet it's also sweet, because it's a little bit exciting.  And you’re so close to fall!   You’re so close to football season, sweater weather, season premieres of you favorite shows (I’m partial to Criminal Minds and Modern Family….oh, I just can’t WAIT for those shows to come back #ilovedrspencerreid)…I could go on and on about the wonders of the fall season (but I won’t).
And then, those school supplies start showing up on store shelves, and you can't help but feel that back-to-school buzz.  Fresh school supplies...ahhhhhhh.  And the new school year also brings fresh beginnings.  You have a fresh set of kiddos, and everything is just...new, and clean, and, well, FRESH.

As the beginning of the school year starts to loom closer and closer, here are a few of my personal tips to make August sweeter rather than bitter-er....is bitterer even a word??  Hmm, maybe I should have used July to brush up on my grammar...

Stock Up

If you are a teacher, you LOVE school supplies.  I know, I get it....I'm not psychic and reading your mind, I just KNOW and UNDERSTAND that excitement.  School supplies are never cheaper than in August.*. This is your chance to stock up!  If you are a K-2 teacher, buy boxes of crayons and markers.  Maybe even go crazy and buy some colored pencils!  Personally, I love getting notebooks.  You can get composition books totally on the cheap, and spirals can go for as little as 10 cents...and sometimes even a penny!

Stock up now.  These items are non-perishable and don't ever expire.  When you get a new student in January, or you need to replenish boxes of worn down or broken crayons, or you get crazy and decide you want 22 matching fluency folders...you'll be glad you happen to have those extra supplies on hand.

Plus, it's just fun to shop for school supplies (says the teacher who also used to think homework was fun...true story).

*I don't think so anyway.  I can't say I've done any studies on the topic, but it just makes sense, right??

Organize and Clean NOW

I'm not going to tell you how to organize your classroom.  You'll have to find your own methods that work for you.  If you want recommendations, Google "Teacher Hacks Buzzfeed," but make sure you have 3-4 hours to kill before going on that scavenger hunt.

But I will say...organize NOW.  Label your manila folders with student names, set up spots where you know you'll need to file papers, whatever is going to make things easier for you come September.  You may promise yourself that you will clean out your cabinets or cubbies every few months (I always did), but let's be real here...Not.  Gonna.  Happen.

Do all the Cutesy Things You Won’t Have Time for During the School Year

Disclaimer:  I love having a THEME for my classroom.
Yes, it’s true.  I blame it on my childhood living in Florida and the fact that I enjoyed theme park weekends on the regular (so much so, in fact, that the staff actually started to recognize us).  But I digress…
I’ve been partial to classroom themes since I began my teaching career.  In fact, it was one of the things that made me excited to start teaching in the first place!  (says my husband, “I know you’re a dork because…”) I’ve decorated with underwater/beach/pirate regalia.  I’ve dabbled with Dr. Seuss and Peanuts characters decorations.  I was even inspired by the Guns ‘N Roses song “Welcome to the Jungle” and created a Jungle-y/Where the Wild Things Are classroom.  This upcoming year, I’m exposing even more of my dorky side and going with a Harry Potter-themed classroom as I make my way up to 3rd grade.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Every August, I put a good chunk of time and effort into creating little nuances to bring my classroom theme vision to life…and then I don’t think about it again until I’m taking my decorations down in June.
I like to use the beginning of August NOT thinking about ways to help my students become lifelong learners and successful students (sorry principals)…I have the next 180 school days for that!  No, I use that time to create cutesy fun things…last summer I made personalized reader’s notebooks and painted a bookcase…this summer I am very impressed (shameless plug coming up) with my Harry Potter-inspired wand pencils.

So go ahead and spend time on Pinterest looking for fun classroom-y do-it-yourself projects. Then throw on a DVD (I’ve been watching season 5 of Beverly Hills 90210 the entire summer, and loving every last second of it!) and make those projects come to life.

Relax.  Enjoy August to the Very Last Drop.

Because once the school year starts, relaxing will seem like a distant memory.  Enjoy your Sundays. Watch a movie (I recommend really any Lifetime movie...this is your opportunity to watch that cinematic greatness without feeling guilty!), catch up on DVR without worrying about papers to grade, tests to create, morning work to organize, or lessons to plan.  Sleep in.  Take naps.**  Just enjoy your time sans school responsibilities.

**That is, if you don't have kids.  If you DO have nature's cruel alarm clock, grab whatever sleep you can.

A Teacher's Ode to Summer

Thank you summer, for allowing me to lay on my couch and watch 4 straight hours of Beverly
Hills, 90210

Thank you summer, for reminding me that there is life after a 10pm bedtime.

Thank you summer, for sleep.

Thank you summer, for allowing me to binge on Lifetime movies, without thinking Oooooh, 
I should probably be grading something right now…

Thank you summer, for giving me the opportunity to go to the movies…on a Sunday night…to
 the 11 o’clock showing!

Thank you summer, for giving me more than 15 minutes to eat my lunch.

Thank you summer, for showing me what the gym looks like at 11am on a weekday (seriously,
 what do these people do??  Don’t they have jobs?)

Thank you summer, for reminding me that I actually have a first name, and my first name is not
Mrs., nor is it Teacher.

Thank you summer.  You will be missed.  Let's do this again real soon.  10 months perhaps?

Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Teaching...I Learned in a Restaurant, Part 1

One of my career aspirations was to be a waitress.  At T.G.I. Friday's.  Oh yes, I set my sights high.  I was just in awe of those uniforms.  So many cool pins, and hats, and FLAIR! I even remember playing restaurant and pretending to be a waitress with my tiny notepad.  I was so cool.  Don’t be jealous.

Unlike my myriad of other career aspirations (actress, fashion designer, singer), I actually achieved this one.  For a long time actually…perhaps longer than I had originally had intended, but whatever.  I began my restaurant career at a theme restaurant in Orlando as a hostess.  From there, I moved on to a popular chicken wing establishment, a few other theme restaurants, and some fine dining places thrown in the mix.  I loved it.  I thrived on it.  I met some awesome people.  I still firmly believe that restaurant people are some of the best people EVER.

But all good things must come to an end.  I still pick up a random restaurant shift every once in awhile, but tips are no longer my major source of income.  No, that honor belongs to the school district, or the government, or…well, to be honest, I actually don’t know WHO writes my my monthly checks, but some money is direct deposited into my account each month, and I think that is just fantastic.  Thanks teaching!

While I no longer put “waitress” or “server” on the line next to employment, I am forever grateful to my days (and nights) in the restaurant business.  In fact, I learned SO MUCH from my various restaurant jobs that I put to good use in the classroom.  For example…

How to Eat Really Fast

On paper, teachers get an average of 20 minutes for lunch time.  And this seems like a good chunk of time, enough to allow you to eat at a fairly leisurely pace.  But then you have to account for life:
*Subtract 1 minute as you wait for the kids from the previous class to vacate and clean the table.
*Subtract 2 minutes as you help a student who forgot his lunch number pay for his food.
*Subtract the 1 minute it takes to walk from the lunch room, stop at your mailbox, and get to the staff lounge.
*Subtract 2 minutes for the time it takes to run back to your classroom because you forgot your water bottle (insert appropriate #smh motion here).
*Subtract the 30 seconds it takes to walk from the staff lounge back to the lunch room and pick up your kids.

*Subtract 3 minutes as you get your class up and remind the appropriate students of their weekly responsibility to wipe down the table an sweep up under the table.

So that leisurely 20 minutes has now dwindled to negative 2 minutes.  No, only kidding.  Rather, 20 minutes is now roughly 10 and a half minutes, give or take a few to account for random emergencies that pop up (a parent wants to have a mini-conference with you as you drop your kids off, a student loses a tooth, this is now the end of the world, and they need you to walk them to the nurse ASAP, etc. etc.), but also for those days when everything goes right (think of it as making every green light as you drive to work) and you have *gasp* 15 whole minutes to yourself.

Granted, I shouldn’t complain, as I’ve had a fair amount of practice with, uh, abbreviated lunch times.
A server’s lunch break is usually…
2:00pm:  Order food from the kitchen because the lunch rush is over.
2:08-2:10 pm:  Get four brand-new tables in a span of 2 minutes.
2:11pm:  Watch as ordered food arrives in the window.
2:12-2:30pm:  Gaze longingly at said ordered food as you take care of your four new tables.
2:30-2:33pm:  Bring your food to the back and shove it into your mouth before your tables need anything.

Oh, and of course there is the joy of hearing the rumor that there might be "dead food" in the back.  In server speak, this means that there is some food that has been prepared and is no longer needed, or, “bonus food,” as I like to refer to it.  When this happens, severs immediately become vultures and descend on said food, until it is nothing more than an empty plate in a matter of mere minutes.