Small Goals: April 2017

I have found it to be such a wonderful practice to set small goals at the beginning of each month. It really helps me to feel motivated as I go into each new month, and helps me to focus on the most important parts of each aspect of my life. Thanks to Jennifer from The Yellow Brick Road for the prompt each month- be sure to check out her post if you want more inspiration to get you going this month!

Last month's goals

First a look back at last month's goals, which were to file my taxes, arrange at least one play date, and to practice even more grace and peace, particularly at school. I feel pretty good about all of those! I was able to file my taxes in one (albeit long) afternoon, arranged a pretty awesome playdate with 4 other girls (2 from each of the girls' classes) to go to a Michael's crafting class, and I have been very conscious about continuing to show grace and peace in my classroom (and I think it has helped!). So on with this month's goals!

1. Upload the 2017-2018 planners!!!

Just talking (or typing, rather) about planners makes me want to squeal with excitement! You guys, I am so close to having everything ready for the new school year's planners and I can't wait to share the new versions with you! If you want to see what I'm talking about, take a tour of my current planner here, or see the planners I have in my store (they get updated for free each school year around this time) here. And stay tuned- I'll most definitely be sharing my shiny new planner once it's ready!!!! :D If you're already a proud Organized Chaos planner owner, be sure to check your "my purchases" for updates in the next couple of weeks- I know many of you have been chomping at the bit like I am! ;)

2. Enjoy time with family

Spring break is starting up soon for me, and with my birthday happening this month as well, I'm looking forward to having some relaxing time with family. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can enjoy being out in the warm sunshine too- last month's weather was just awful!

3. Get ready for my spring concert

I can't believe it but there are just a few more rehearsals left with each of my choirs before our spring concert, and this time I'm pulling out all of the stops with some massive combined numbers that include all of the choral and instrumental groups. If I can pull it off, it will be amazing. If I don't, it will be sad. I want to make sure each of my groups feel very comfortable with their music this month, so that next month when we start combined rehearsals, we can focus on logistics and ensemble skills rather than the technicalities of individual parts. I'm excited to see it all come together!

That's it for me this month. April is my favorite month of the year, so I'm looking forward to great things! What are you most looking forward to this month? What are you hoping to accomplish? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Can We Please Stop the Countdowns?

So I am currently in the last week before spring break, which means I am hearing "____ more days until break!" a LOT right now. When we get back from break, it will be "____ more weeks until summer!", and no matter what time of year it is, there's always the classic, "it's almost Friday"! There is always something to look forward to, right?!? What may come as a surprise is that I very rarely hear these comments from students- it's almost always the adults who are counting down the days and weeks. And I'm over it. I'm done with the countdowns- I think those seemingly nonchalant statements are wreaking havoc on our school climate.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, because not only do I hear people counting down the days until their next day off at school, but I also see it a lot on social media- memes about teachers waiting for their next vacation, dreading going back to school on Sunday night, hanging onto their sanity for dear life before a break... I get it. Teaching is HARD. Like, really hard. And it's only getting worse. The demands put on us by politicians, administrators, and society in general are often just straight-up out of control. Budgets are tighter, and so are our schedules. And I know I'm not the first one to say that it seems like each kindergarten class that enters, the kids are a little less prepared for school, a little less respectful of authority, a little less caring about their success at school, and a little more able to make us lose our minds trying to get them to just. sit. still.

I get it. There have been days when I've closed the door to my classroom and just cried. Last year I ended a choir rehearsal early for the first time in my career to try to get the kids out before the tears started flowing. I didn't quite make it. There have been days this year when I've gotten so upset with a class that I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

But here's the thing: I really think we need to change our mindset. Stop always telling ourselves that if we can just make it through a few more hours, we can get to the fun part of our lives. Stop telling ourselves that we just have to survive a few more weeks of torture and then we can relax. The more we find our comfort only in our lives outside of school, the less we find comfort within our walls. The more we tell ourselves to just survive a few more days, the less we expect of ourselves and our students in those days.

Don't we want to make our schools a place where students want to come? Then why would we publicly announce that we don't want to be there ourselves? And what are we communicating to our students about our relationship with them when we talk eagerly about our next time away from them? It seems to me we are presenting the subtle message that we don't enjoy being around them, and we in fact prefer our time away from them.

I'm a firm believer that words have power. When teachers and students always hear people talking about how much they look forward to leaving school, it changes our attitudes. Instead of counting down the days until the we can leave, I'd rather we spent more time talking about what's happening in the present moment, right there in our classrooms. And if we're talking about the future, let's look ahead to where we hope our students will be in 10 years. Let's find out what our students want to do when they graduate from college. Let's talk to our colleagues about how we can teach that unit in a more exciting way next year.

I'm not saying we shouldn't need time to decompress. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be able to vent our frustrations. But I am making a commitment to talk about what I love about school, about my classes, and about my students, not about all of the reasons I can't wait to leave the building, get away from my students, and take a break from my work. I think the more we can talk about reasons we want to be in school instead of out, the less trapped we'll all feel and the more we can actually look forward to coming to school each morning.

I hope you'll consider joining me. No more countdowns.

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Weekly Tasks to Stay Organized

One of my first answers to the question, "How do you do it all?" is ROUTINES. I find it so much easier to get things done when it is incorporated into my routine. I shared a while back the tasks that I do monthly to help me stay organized, and today I'm sharing the main things I do on a weekly basis to help keep me sane throughout the week.

1. Organize calendars

So I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to calendars. My excuse is that I have a lot of information to manage in my schedule, but really and truly it helps calm any anxiety I have over juggling too much information in my brain and I feel much more confident starting the week when I have everything written down!

I write down important appointments, school events, and other information I need to plan my day (outside of the classroom) in 2 places on a weekly basis: my weekly dry erase calendar that hangs on my wall in my command center, and my weekly planner pages. Writing it in my planner obviously helps me get all the information I need to plan around for my lessons and write down everything I need for the week in one place. I write down important appointments and events in my command center so that I see it each morning as I'm getting ready for the day, whether I have time to glance at my planner or not.

As I'm filling out my weekly calendars, I always check my monthly calendar in my planner, my school's calendar, my staff meeting schedule, and my children's school's schedule to make sure I have any information I need for that week added to my weekly calendar. It takes some time to go through each week, but it's well-worth it!

2. Laundry

I know not everyone has this luxury, but I learned quickly that it is worth it to me to buy enough clothes for me and for my daughters so that I only have to do laundry once a week. When the girls were babies I was doing laundry every few days, which was OK since I was not working then, but I cannot fathom trying to do laundry during the week right now, so having enough clothes to get us through the week keeps me sane. Unless something unusual happens, I always do my laundry on Saturday and/or Sunday and that's it for the week!

3. Weekly cleaning

Besides laundry, I've also tried to make it a part of my weekly routine to vacuum, water the plants, and clean the toilets each weekend. Getting in the habit of always doing it on the weekend makes it easier for me to remember to do these tasks that I otherwise would conveniently forget!

4. Lesson planning

As I new teacher I spent a lot more time planning my lessons on a daily basis, but now I try to have all of my lesson planning done for the week before Monday morning each week. The best thing I have done this year is to plan out my lesson plans in greater detail at the beginning of each month as well, so my weekly planning is mostly a matter of plugging in the next lesson and making sure I plan around any school events, class parties etc.

5. Sort through mail

I try to manage my mail as I go, but usually by the end of the week I have a pile of unopened mail that I stuck in my "in box" during the week. I try to take some time each weekend to go through the pile so that I can start each week with a clean box.

6. Meal planning

I have been doing weekly meal planning for about 4 years now and it is amazing. I rarely go to the grocery store more than once a week, and I don't have to scramble around on a week night trying to figure out what to make for dinner. If you aren't doing this already I highly recommend it- here is a post I wrote on my meal planners. Each weekend I plan out my meals after going through my schedule, so I know which nights we might need to eat out, or when I should plan to put something in the crockpot for a busy evening, plan out lunches for me and my daughters, and make a grocery list from those plans.

Those are all of my weekly routine tasks that help me stay on top of everything throughout the week. What about you? Which tasks are part of your weekly routine? Let's hear it in the comments!

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March Favorites 2017

We made it through March! I say this every year, but March is one of those months that I love and hate at the same time- so many wonderful things happening but there are SO MANY THINGS! Haha. I'm going to be sharing my favorites this month with some of my photos from Instagram- I hope you find some new things to love and I'd love to hear your favorites in the comments below!

1. Music In Our Schools Month

I have to start my March favorites with Music In Our Schools Month! I brought back my annual Rhythm Battle and Disco Duel events, but both of them got facelifts this year and I loved it! I also added a new idea this year with my Song Suggestion Box, where teachers, students, and parents were invited to request their favorite songs to be played over the morning announcements each day in March- everyone loved it and I'll definitely be keeping it for next year! Read all about what I do to celebrate MIOSM in this blog post.

2. IKEA plush food

My daughters and I stopped in at IKEA a couple of weeks ago and picked up these plush food sets- what a perfect toy for snow day fun! Each of the girls made their own cooking show creating some pretty *cough* interesting concoctions. And fun bonus: these are great for school too! There are tons of fun songs, especially for kindergarten, that these would make great props for (think John the Rabbit)- and they even inspired Jennifer from SingToKids to make this cute singing game called All the Little Rabbits! Seriously, these things are so cute and perfect for spring (and they're cheap too!).

3. #31daysofrhythm

What an amazing collaboration. I joined up with over 20 other music education bloggers to share a new rhythm teaching tip each day this month, and it was amazing! To see all of the blog posts that were shared this month, head over to the Music Ed Blogs Community page on Facebook. We're also putting together a MASSIVE rhythm teaching resource including all of the posts from this event plus tons more resources, so be sure to stay tuned by following the Music Ed Blogs website. Seriously.

4. Blog Posts

Every Friday is Fermata Fridays on my Facebook and Pinterest pages- I "hold on" to a great blog post I find from all over the internet! Make sure to follow me so you don't miss my features each week- here are the ones I shared this past month (click the photo to visit the posts- trust me, you won't be disappointed!):

So much to love this month! :) I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the things that brought joy to my life this month- now it's your turn! What did you love this month? Favorite new food? New lesson idea? A fun moment with your family? Let's hear it in the comments! :)

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