{It's Homecoming Week! I'm the student council sponsor and I have the smallest group ever with only 11 students. We are responsible for decorating the stage for the coronation, organizing the actual ceremony, dress up days, Spirit Assembly and games, and Homecoming Dance}


6:00 Wake up and began my busiest and longest day of the year.

1st Hour: I walk in and a sub is in my room. I have never had a sub on this day ever. I almost can't believe it. Basically I lucked out that no one was absent and they had to send our permanent sub somewhere. I had nothing planned but students just finished a handout that they started the day before. I am off to the gym for Homecoming rehearsal. We lift down a stair case and two platforms from the stage to the floor, set up giant cardboard pumpkins and glass slippers {can you guess our theme?}, turn on blue lights, and start organizing the 26 students involved in the coronation ceremony. Lights out, mics on, spotlight shining, and....go!

2nd Hour: I go check on students in the home ec room who are making jello and pudding for the Spirit Assembly games. We have some missing pans so I go out to my car and find them. We wrap up the first run through. Adjust and start over. We have to finish by 10:00 because we have a fire drill which they were already nice enough to move back from 9:00. At the end of this second time we have to put every thing back up and clear the gym.

3rd Hour: Fire drill. We come back inside and send students to class. We tried a new idea of a meme contest but I never figured out how to pick a winner and didn't even have them turned in until Thursday afternoon. I brainstorm with principal and he decides I should hang them in the lobby and have middle school students vote. I proceed to tape them up and individually visit each middle school classroom to ask for their votes. Back to the principal's office to brainstorm the cafeteria set up for the dance tonight.

4th Hour: Check on students in home ec room who are baking 8 dozen cupcakes and making pink lemonade for the dance tonight. I plan with students who are decorating for the dance on how and when to set things up since the concession stand for the two basketball games that happen before the Homecoming coronation and dance. I go round up the supplies: napkins, tablecloths, cups, lights, and deliver to home ec room. Back to principal's office to brainstorm how to set up a t-shirt table to raise money for Student Council.

5th Hour: He finds me an awesome cart so I go organize the shirts into piles by size, then make and print signs to hang in front of each pile. Ironically, the mom who has volunteered to help me sell them e-mails me and we hash out the time and plan for the night. Student Council also does a big fundraiser for Valentine's Day so all morning I've been tracking an order from Sam's Club for 300 carnations, hoping they will come in before lunch. After lunch I am booked every minute until midnight. I start getting supplies ready for the Spirit Assembly that starts immediately after lunch. {I already have 12,000 steps by this time.}

Lunch: On my way to get my lunch, the district secretary calls me to let me know the carnations just came in. She has volunteered to open them for me and get them organized into buckets with water and solution. I almost cry at this offer since I have zero minutes to spare. After I finish eating, the elementary school secretary catches me in the hallway- the florist is on the line saying that she gave the wrong order of flowers to my dad. While she stays on the line, I call my dad and send him back to the florist to get the Queen's rose bouquet. Lucky timing? I think not. Jesus has my back.

12:45 My student council meets to get our tubs of supplies and lay out a game plan for the assembly.

1:00-3:10 Let the games begin! During our assembly we play tug-of-war, 3-legged race, 4 corners, hungry hungry hippos, scavenger hunt, hunger games relay race, jell-o eating contest, inch worm race, chariot race, and 3-point shootout. While I am tallying the points, the cheerleaders getting ready for their dance. We announce the winning class- seniors- and hurry to get everything cleaned up before the bell rings.

3:15-4:15 Even though I need to get home and get ready to come back, I still have last minute jobs to finish. I have to proof 14 pages that my mistresses of  ceremonies will be reading and print out final copies. Print out pictures of the court. Deliver last minute dance supplies that I forgot earlier to the home ec room. Finally head home.

4:15-5:30 Go home to grab some food. Laminate the pictures of the court as last minute gifts. Curl my hair. Change my clothes. Sync my phone so that the cheerleader's dance song is on my phone so the girls can practice one last time. Back to school I go!

5:30-6:00 I'm back to school carrying my own Christmas lights to use for dance decorations as well as the Queen's bouquet. I go to the dressing room for the boys and girls. I lay out pictures, programs, and the engraved keychains we've ordered as gifts as long with the flowers each girl will carry. I need a box to put the rest of my programs in so I dump out a box from my cabinet and finally head down to the gym. I'm also the cheerleading coach and the game starts at 6:00. Luckily I walk in the gym and there is an extra 10 minutes on the clock. My girls are warmed up and ready to go.

6:00-8:45 I am now wearing my cheerleading coach hat and at halftimes and between JV and Varsity games, I am circulating to make sure no one needs anything and to check on my t-shirt selling volunteers. Between games I record my girls doing their Illinois loyalty dance. At halftime I record them doing their hip hop dance....and the crowd goes wild. We win 83-44! As soon as the games end, I switch back to my Student Council sponsor hat. My teacher bestie heads down to herd the cats while I open up the stage and the dads in the crowd help me lift down the steps and platform and so on. We get everything ready to go in about 12 minutes. Let's get this show on the road!

9:00 The ceremony begins. I stand by the mistresses of ceremonies during the coronation. At one point, I realize I've forgotten to take the crowns out of the display case. I literally run down the hallway to the lobby just to see that my teacher bestie already had everything under control.

9:45 The ceremony ends. As the crowd mingles, takes pictures, and celebrates, I rush to the cafeteria to get the dance started. My student have already plugged up the lights, poured balloons everywhere, and set up the food and snack table. I turn on the music and then head back to the gym to herd the cats toward the dance.

10:00-11:00 I hide in my little closet in the back of the cafeteria playing DJ on my laptop and iTunes while the 30ish kids who stayed are having a great time.

11:05 I hit the lights and start kicking people out, asking them to take cupcakes and pop balloons on the way out. We get the cafeteria cleaned up pretty quickly but then we have to put all 20 tables back. There are 4 student council kids left at this point and their boyfriends who help. Next we go back to the stage to pop all those balloons and unplug everything.

11:30 All the kids and the superintendent are gone. It's just me and the janitors. I push a cart of random leftover supplies back to my room. I have to print out blank bell ringer templates for my students because I can't be trusted to get to school early enough on Monday morning to do it.

11:45 I'm home. I am cleaning my makeup brushes while I cook chicken strips for a late night dinner.

12:00 I crash on the couch with my chicken strips and "This Is Us" playing. I chase that down with cookies and milk and fall asleep to the joy of having no alarm set.

I ended the day with 28,040 steps which is my personal best and is a total of 12.47 miles.

P.S. It took me an hour just to type all of this! And teachers everywhere know how many millions of tiny things I left out!

6:00 Wake up and  get pretty.

7:42 Arrive at school and drop off my lunch in the home ec room so I won't have to walk all the way to the office. Head to my room to get my cooler and race to the cafeteria to fill it with ice and water. (Students aren't allowed to bring food or drinks so we provide water in our rooms.)

1st hour- We are finishing six problems on the right side of our INB about parallel and perpendicular slope. Students seem to be taking each problem in stride and doing well. Glad I already have the next activity prepared....although it takes the majority of the class period to finish those six problems. Now students get out dry erase markers to practice on the desk while we play a game of trashketball. Two problems later and the class is already over.

2nd hour- Students are finishing a handout from yesterday to prepare for a quiz over reciprocal functions. Everyone starts and finishes at different times and I wait for everyone to be finished before starting the next activity. We are making an almost-fortune-teller-cootie-catcher for our INB notes on quadrantal angles. Why does it take 8 upperclassmen 40 years to cut and fold a piece of paper? Even following my verbal directions, with the picture on the board, and my completed example, students still mess up and have to start over. Never give up teaching students to follow directions! We don't even have time to start writing in them before class ends. :(

3rd hour- Algebra I has a quiz today over finding intercepts and graphing horizontal and vertical lines. For practice, all I made was a boring worksheet of 12 problems. I remember an idea from someone's blog post about a buried treasure powerpoint game that I downloaded. Every slide has ships on them and students get to a click a ship to find the treasure. I tell students they get one click after I have checked each set of 4 problems. The winner gets a baby butterfinger. I spend the rest of the class period bouncing back and forth across the room to check answers- I don't even have time to print out an answer key. Students are HIGHLY engaged. As they finish, they start gathering around the board, waiting for the next person to click, in expectation of who might actually find the treasure. It's adorable. I stop the class and handout the quiz. I probably burned more calories traversing the room than I did all day.

4th hour- Almost scripted word for word...thanks for the dry run first hour. I have a class full of boys and basketball players who expect to be awesome at trashketball. It's a very humbling game. All students in each team have to agree on their answer so a lot of good discussion is happening. We also get done with only two problems. Crazy how consistent(ly slow) I can be.

5th hour- Students are finishing a quiz while I make an answer key for the study guide they are about to take. I cleaned out a binder last week that I thought I didn't need so there went a few answer keys. The last page I'm getting all wrong answers but students are starting the study guide and need my help while I'm feeling anxious about the last page. Luckily, nobody gets that far by the end of the class period.

Lunch- The bell rings at 12:10 which means I get down to my food around 12:15 and then have to be back in my classroom and ready to go by 12:30. The healthy lunch plans are  joke at our school and the teachers are having a fit over what is served while I eat the leftovers my mom saved for me. I've been trying to convince these people for two years to just bring their lunch every day...

6th hour-My rowdiest class is finishing the quadratic formula and are taking a quiz today. I put one problem on the board for them to review first. As I'm walking around, the levels range between not knowing the first step, not knowing which numbers are a. b. and c and students who finish the whole problem independently. After the quiz it's time to start the dreaded........word problems!!!!!! It takes forever for students to fold two pieces of paper in half and tape them in their notebook. I give a lecture about how these problems are hard, now is the time to focus, stop playing and distracting others....We finish one problem and class is over.

7th hour- My class of five is taking a quiz over simplifying rational expressions. We just finished trig identities so I feel like this is going to be a piece of cake. By the time we finish reviewing so that they feel prepared, there is only 15 minutes left of class. There are 6 problems and only 1 actually complete the quiz. To be continued. Literally.

8th hour- It's my plan period but I have to sub. I bring the class to my room since no plans were left and they play on chrome books and talk while I grade papers and get things ready to copy.

3:20 It's time for cheerleading practice. There is also an after school BETA club meeting to prepare for state competitions in March. Since my whole squad is in BETA club, we split up time between the two. I'm excited that I will get to go home early.

4:00 Practice is over and I have more papers to grade and copies to make so I don't have to take anything home.

5:15 I guess I won't be going home early...

6:00-10:00 I need to make an answer key but I messed up on it so many times already that I'm too tired and unmotivated to do it. I dread it all night and end up not doing it. I finished walking to get my 12,000+ steps in, I pack my school bag for the next day, and do some scripture journaling.

11:00 I decide to go to bed 'early.'

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of? What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal?

Every day I am worried that my pacing is so far from ideal but I balance in the tension between pacing and giving my students enough time to process and practice. When some students tell me I move too fast, I almost cry with frustration. I'm on unit 3 or 4 in every class with anywhere from 10-12 units on my pacing guide. I'm lucky to do 6 units all year long.

I am proud of how often I ask students to tell me what is different about each new problem and how often I ask them to explain why and how.

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately? 

I'm looking forward to my three day weekend and my upcoming Unit Circle project in trig. Even though we've just had a two week Christmas Break I'm praying for a snow day on Friday so I can have a four day weekend.

A challenge for me lately has been trying to decide a focus for growth this year. I am feeling pretty basic and like I'm at the peak of my math abilities. I want to work on the things that have the most impact on student learning, but how do I decide what those are?

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

 I heard a girl in the hallway call another girl a fat b*****. A few minutes later she came to return my pencil and I pulled her aside and told her I heard her. I told her that as a female, we should never call other female's that word since so many men already do. She nodded and went in the room. That may not be my best response but it was off the top of my head. She walked out and said, "Ms. Miller I am really sorry." That was a moment we wouldn't normally have shared.

Overall, I am having some really funny and interesting conversations with almost every class on a regular basis. We have inside jokes and favorite memes and I just feel really open and close with the majority of the students.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Reread More Good Questions and work on questioning skills, make answers keys beforehand, continue my work life balance, and blog more often!

I promise I didn't go through and pick out the 10th as a day that mostly falls on weekends...but it sure seems like it!

Today I had my alarm set for 9:30 but my dad woke me up at 9:00 to work on a pipe. I got up and got ready for lunch with my friend at 11:30. Leaving my house around 10:45, I had to stop by the school and set up a laptop for the music at tonight's Junior High Prom.

Lunch with my friend lasted until 1:30. I ran a few errands around town until 2:30 and headed back home to baby-sit my niece and nephew from 3-6.

My sister got off work and my parents joined us all to go to a live Nativity scene acted out at a nearby church. We finished there and went to McDonald's. Then my sister and I ran to Wal-Mart to get a few groceries. We got home at 11:00 and all I could think about was how grateful I was that I didn't have school work to do. This is the first weekend since school started that that has happened. We finished last week up with semester review and this week we are doing semester exams and papers which meant nothing for me to create/prepare.

I have been counting down the days since Thanksgiving for this break to come. Over Thanksgiving, we had a basketball tournament over an hour away and we played a game every single day except Thanksgiving. I also had to fit in baking desserts, cleaning house, decorating for Christmas, and my regular school work into each of those  5 days. Since each game took anywhere between 4-6 hours of my day, I didn't really get a break at all.

COME ON CHRISTMAS.

6:00 Wake up and get ready for school.

7:42 Leave my house for school- I live 5 minutes away and I'm still late. :/

7:54 I have enough time to turn on my air fresheners, clock, and SMART board, put away my stuff and it's time for class to begin!

1st hour- We start math talks with this problem: "Which is greater, 65 x 47 or 67 x 45?" and the struggle is real! Students don't have any strategies to share other than write them on top of each other and multiply them. Students are finishing a handout on angle proofs and then taking a quiz. While they are working, I am trying to cut up task cards for third hour and grade fourth hour quizzes- I always promise to return things I grade the next day and I didn't feel like doing it last night. Of course I'm also answering questions before first hour takes their quiz.

2nd hour- We are finishing cutting our 'slices of pi' for our lesson about radians (Thanks Mimi!). It's taking forever and I start to wonder if it's worth it. We arrange them on a unit circle to visualize the angles in standard position- I question them on what quadrant it's in, if it's close to half a circle or whole, and what that would be in radians. Next we will move to drawing the angles and not need the pi pieces anymore- did I just waste a class period for nothing? :/

3rd hour- We are struggling through number talks again, even though I change the question to just 65 x 7. One student volunteers how he thinks I would do it- they know I base things off of 10's. He suggested 65 x 10 minus 65 x 3. So that was nice. We finish our notes in our INB and then I hand out a graph to each group to work. We debrief and then do one dry erase problem before starting task cards, At the end of class students comment on how fast the class went by and always does- I'll take little success where I can. =)

4th hour- Between classes I am making 93 copies of next week's bell ringer since I am leaving school at 11:30 for a SAT workshop. This is a repeat of first hour. Once again I am trying to grade fifth hours quizzes and get sub plans printed out while also answering questions,

5th hour- I forgot to tell students that I would be gone today and we didn't get as far as I wanted to yesterday. That means I taught them how to solve quadratics by square roots in two minutes with two problems. Luckily, my sub is a retired math teacher. I gave him the answer keys last night and he reworked every problem 'just for fun'. #blessed

11:39 I leave school and head to a SAT workshop that is 45 minutes away. It is also the same SAT workshop that I attended a month ago, ironically, in my last blog post.

2:17 The conference is over and it's the start to my 3 day weekend. Time to shop!

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of? What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal?

A good teacher move was adjusting the number talks questions and some good questions I asked today. Definitely worry about the balance of a hands-on lesson and it's payoff  in trig.

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately?

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas break! My challenge is now that cheerleading practice has started, I'm staying even later to get things done and getting even less sleep. 

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

Our Student Council had a chili supper and a student that's not even in StuCo stayed to help clean up. She stayed longer than anyone else and we ended up talking for almost an hour. I've been trying to connect with her anyway- she's had some intense life stuff going on and needs a good adult role model.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Keep working on a better work/life balance. I will survive!

5) What else happened this month that you would like to share?

I'm getting a new phone finally!

Today is Columbus Day which means we are out of school. We actually have a 3.5 day weekend. On Friday we had our Regional Teachers Institute until noon. I'm always excited for long weekends so I can catch up on the extra stuff I have to do or put off.

Nothing this weekend went as planned. I did not even touch my school stuff until today. Which was not the plan.

8:48 Wake up. Make myself go back to sleep.

11:00 Wake up again. No shame since I average 5 hours of sleep or less during the school week. Eat breakfast, scripture journal, straighten up the house.

11:45 Get to work on my laptop. Update my trig lesson on finding an angle with trig ratios to include text problems where students have to draw their own diagram, Updated notebook file that goes with it. Create solving trigonometric equations interactive notebook pages, a pong review game powerpoint, and a quiz for my senior math class. Next it's on to Geometry- I update the interactive notebook pages I already made for conditional statements with a foldable I made a few years ago since I feel like it is a better fit. Update notebook file to match. Next create new interactive notebook pages for deductive reasoning, a pong review game, and a quiz.

3:00 Eat lunch while watching Jimmy Fallon. When I'm done eating I walk around the house watching tv on my ipad so I can get steps in. My goal is 12,000 a day and when you don't go to work and spend hours on your laptop, it's hard. When my show is over I start walking around with my Bible...gotta get those steps.

5:15 Back to work. I need to make a practice activity for Algebra I inequality word problems. So I google problems and create...you guessed it- a pong review game powerpoint. It's my go to activity. Then I, you guessed it again- made a quiz. It's almost the end of the quarter so I make up a binder check 'quiz'.

6:00 I have more work to do but I'm running low on motivation so I start wasting time on e-mail and social media. Then I realize I haven't read any blogs lately so I catch up on those.

7:30 I remember I need to create and print posters for our Student Council Socktober drive. Cue google images and pinterest.

8:00 Realize I should eat dinner. Eat while watching TV and again finish my show with walking around the house. I'm only up to 7700 steps.

9:00 Spend 30 minutes doing my workout and walking around for a cool down. Pack my lunch and get my breakfast ready for tomorrow. Pick out my outfit.

10:00 Shower.

10:15 Get out the ol ipad and go for another walk. I walk until I reach my 12,000 goal which brings us to

11:15. I sit down to start this blog post and realize that I forgot about the 92 bell ringers I need to respond to plus the 9 trig quizzes, 10 Algebra 2 tests, and 8 geometry quizzes I have to grade. And I wanted to paint my fingernails.

This was an embarrassing post to write- I don't know if it's because I'm bad at managing my time or because I feel like I have to justify how I spend it. Or maybe it's because my job is like a second job on the nights and weekends. I never feel like I've done enough. Not to mention I have a painting project in my downstairs bathroom that I didn't even get to touch this weekend.

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of? What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal?

Zero teacher moves today.

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately?

I spend so much time putting together notes, practice, and quizzes from my curriculum. It's mostly formatting and copying and pasting. As soon as I feel accomplished for having everything prepared, I start questioning if it's the best way to teach it. I can't feel content.

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

I've been getting along better with a colleague at school. Although it's been unintentional, I know that it's healthier. I'm still getting better at laughing and sharing things with the students. Although I've always felt like I shared a lot with students but somehow this year seems different.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Keep working on a better work/life balance. My weekends are consumed with school work in an attempt to free up my week nights but I still can't seem to leave school before 5:00. I do know that next year will be a million times better. With my curriculum, I am finally aligning things in a way I am mostly satisfied with. I'm making notes of things to change or fix for next year and even doing some now if they are quick fixes. NO MORE STARTING OVER.

5) What else happened this month that you would like to share?

I've been teaching trig identities for the first time. I have struggled, actually sat with the kids and worked the problems along with them, and got to the point where I could make up problems for the students to practice.

11:41 Off to do at least another hour of work!

My normal routine is to do all my shopping and errands on Friday nights so that I have nowhere to go on Saturdays and I can do all my work and clean all day Saturday.

I have a lunch date with my bestie on the second Saturday of every month so my plans were already thrown off. I thought that I would stay at school and work a lot on Friday, get groceries after my lunch with my friend, then come home and do the rest of my work.

Friday my sisters messages me at the end of school and needs me to baby-sit my niece and nephew. Well there goes my working Friday plans.

My mom sets up a birthday lunch for my Grandma, who is visiting from Florida, for Saturday at 6:00 at a place an hour away.

Well there goes my working Saturday plans.

I am a routine person so I really really really hate when my routine is interrupted by someone other than me.

Routinely throughout the day, I just stopped myself from worrying about school.

Mental speech: "You still have Sunday to get things done that must be done. No, you can't do everything you wanted to do. Yes, you will have to work more weeknights this week than you want to. But enjoy the moment! You are having lunch with your best friend and dinner with your grandma! Those are fun things that you like doing. So do them!"

Even when I am not at school, or doing school work, I'm planning/worrying about school work. But I can't let that overtake my actual life.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to create a better work/life balance.

I'm doing it.

I'm not perfect.

But I am present.

1) Teachers make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming. When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher move you made that you are proud of?  What is one you are worried wasn’t ideal? 

I am proud that I chose to put my personal life above my professional life and enjoy my weekend. It was all ideal. =)

2) Every person’s life is full of highs and lows. Share with us some of what that is like for a teacher. What are you looking forward to? What has been a challenge for you lately? 

I am looking forward to a school year when I don't have to slave over everything. A challenge for me lately is getting things done on my plan period. It is the last hour of the day and I am so tired and spent that I zone out on my e-mail and the Internet rather than accomplishing anything. Then I have to stay after school and do it anyway. I feel like I have no time at home and I work late at school and still have things to take home.

3) We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is. As teachers we work to build relationships with our coworkers and students. Describe a relational moment you had with someone recently.

Overall I feel like I am way more open and relational with my students this year. I can think of several moments in the past weeks where I told them stories from my life and we laughed together or when students have asked my advice on clothes or boys or asked me to look things up or give my opinions on the election and so on. One student has been confiding in me about relationships and I've been trying really hard to change her focus and build her confidence.

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and often have specific goals for things to work on throughout a year. What is a goal you have for the year?

Keep working on a better work/life balance. Continue asking good questions, asking students to notice similarities and differences, asking students to try a problem before they know what to do, asking for strategies, and doing number talks.

5) What else happened this month that you would like to share?

I've been posting some #teach180 photos and I've never done that before.

My day did not start out very positive. Nobody likes their Teacher Institute to start with the principal reading a 22 point packet out loud word for word of new rules and expectations.

But that is not what I came to write about.

We revamped our Back to School Night and I really enjoyed it so I wanted to share with you. It started at 5:00 where students get their schedules in the lobby and sign up for door prizes. Then they travel around to each classroom and have their teachers sign their schedule. Showing your schedule with all the teacher signatures earned you ice cream in the cafeteria.

Students were in the gym doing face painting and hosting sign up sheets for clubs. This was also the time for students to find their locker, test the lock, etc.

In the library there were videos from last school year playing on a loop.

At 6:30, everyone returns to the gym where the Principal speaks about announcements and updates.

Then names were pulled for door prizes and that wrapped up the night!

If only the air conditioning worked correctly...

I was surprised to see a large group of people in the lobby at 5:00 on the dot.

Only one student I talked to today told me they didn't like math!

Our community 4H group donated Back to School baskets for us- so thoughtful!



I went home feeling energized which is a lot better than the day began.

I can't explain the growth I've experienced since January...or why. But there has definitely been a shift. I have a lot of things to do and get ready still but I'm not overwhelmed. I'm going to take it a day at a time- and it's going to be fine! I'm doing good work. I'm also doing good work to sustain my energy levels. My students deserve the best Ms. Miller I can be right now- not the best Ms. Miller I will ever be.

My motto for the year is 'Add good things to the pile- no more starting over!"

9:00 AM Woke up....second to last day to sleep in. =(

10:15 AM Got to school to finish decorating my classroom. Tomorrow is a half day teacher institute from 1-5 and then Back to School Night from 5-7.

Things I accomplished today:

• Cleaned all 6 carts and drawers and put new labels on each drawer (120 drawers)
• Attached new labels inside plastic bins to put in the cart
• Took my pentaminoes, tangrams, and counters into ziplock bags for each cart
• Refilled the cart with supplies
• Finished my Instagram/Milligram bulletin board
• Decorated my door with my lovely chevron stickers
• Rehung my chevron borders around each whiteboard (I'm never taking them down again!)
• Cut out balloon and star shapes on our die cut machine for student birthdays
• Printed out my Plicker cards
• Took the chairs down
• Printed new number placards for each group of desks
• Took down streamers and paper lanterns that I didn't want anymore
• Finished hanging my 'custom' wall clock
• Changed three bags of trash
• Swept the floor