 Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to Apples and Tiara's. Today is Saturday, January 8th, and I am getting ready to head over to school. I know, I know. I don't usually go into work on a Saturday, but I go back to work Monday the 10th. And so I wanted to go in just today for a couple of hours to make sure that I have everything ready for Monday. I don't have to stress tomorrow. I don't have to stress Monday morning. Everything is done and ready to go. And of course, this car is pulling up right next to me. So anyway, I'm going to go into school today and do a couple of things. But before I go in, I do have to run a few errands. I'm going to go grab Starbucks. I need to grab a target pickup order, pick up the rats, and then head into school. You guys are so funny. Alright, you guys, so I'm here at school. I have the rats. I have a couple plants that I brought from my neighbor's house. Just to keep here at school. They're not doing so great being there. I love you, Sarah, but you are killing my plants. So I'm bringing them to school. Hopefully my school plants are okay. They've been here for three weeks. I did set them up with one of those like water bulbs that Mandy gave me. I don't know how well they've worked. So we'll see if they're dead. Oh well, hopefully I can bring them back to life. But otherwise, I'm here. I'm waiting for Mandy though because the alarm at our school really scares me. Like I know the code. I know how to work it, but it still freaks me out. So I'm waiting for Mandy to get here to do that with me because it freaks me out. Hi, teeny. I'm decided to let the rats out loose in the car. We'll see if this is a good idea or a bad idea. Good morning. Happy Monday. Today is January 10th. It is the first day back to school from winter break. Yes, I had three weeks off. They were glorious. Cash, please keep that down. Okay. Yes. Okay. If you guys are new here, my name is Charlotte Valdez and I am a fourth grade science and social studies teacher in the East Valley of Arizona. Welcome. Today I'm going to do my very best to vlog as much as possible, but it might be tough because it is the first day back from break. I have duty in about eight minutes and I have to take this guy to preschool. It's going to be crazy. I did come in over the weekend. I came in on Saturday and just got everything ready for my day so that when I walked in this morning, I didn't have to stress about prepping anything, especially because I do have cash with me this morning and that can get stressful because, you know, he's a little guy and he needs lots of attention. So anyway, I am changing today's date. I know that a lot of people have already been doing this whole back to school thing from break, but I get three weeks off and I freaking love that. My district is year round, so we do get two weeks for fall and spring break and then three weeks for winter break. So I'm happy about that. I can't believe it's 2022. That's insane. I'm trying to look around and just make sure that I have everything prepared for the day because I have duty this morning and then I don't come in until my kids are here. So I'm just gonna make sure that I've got like everything prepared, slides up on the board and all of the things that... Oh, I'm too close. It's like I forgot how to vlog and everything ready for when they walk in the door. So, gotta project my TV. I need to go print my new schedule. We have changed our daily schedule times. Our blocks have been shortened by 10 minutes each, but we are getting one more intervention period. So that is wonderful. Why is the screen black? Slide shell. No assembly today. I need to delete that. No assembly today. We were gonna have a schoolwide assembly today, but I think with all of the COVID and stuff over winter break, they have fully cancelled that, which I think is a good idea. Okay, so now I'm going to open a new window. Okay, so I stopped by salad and go this morning and got a cold brew and a salad for myself for lunch today. Definitely need that. I am back to Brightline Eating. If you guys aren't sure what that is, it's kind of this like eating system that I had been doing for quite a while and I lost about 15 pounds doing it. So I am definitely gonna be getting back on that train. I gained about four pounds, five pounds over break. You can't really tell what is four pounds, but I do want to do it again just to feel better about myself and, you know, make myself feel a little bit more confident. So I'm gonna do a quick outfit of the day because I know you guys love those. So I am wearing these Ida Wild jeans that I got from Boot Barn. These are some soda. They're like the knockoff brand little white booties from Amazon. And then I forget which brand this shirt is, but pretty much everything is from Boot Barn. That's the outfit of the day. I'm just opening up all of the different tabs. I generally have two windows open every day, one window for the kids to see and one window for me to see. So I'm just getting all those windows up and then I actually have two minutes and I have to take cash down to school and I will try to vlog as best I can throughout the day. Hey you guys, so I did not vlog at all today. My specials were taken because our art teacher was either gone or covering for another class and so I just took the class that I had at the time out to have an extra recess because it's like hot and stuffy in my classroom and the more they can be outside when the weather is super nice out here in Arizona, the better. So we were out there for about 30 minutes, let the kids play, and then the rest of the day was fine, but during lunch I sat down, I ate with my team and it was just super peaceful. So we didn't do a whole lot today. Basically just like going over procedures. We did a welcome back task card. I believe that's by Miss Fifth on Teacher's P. Teachers if you're interested in that. Really nice opportunity to get the kids practicing like working as a team, answering questions and complete sentences, and it's the first grade of the year or yeah of the year. So that is what we worked on today. Tomorrow I'm going to be playing a game with the kids and it's called toxic water. So I will attempt to explain the game to you guys tomorrow and it's really fun. It's just for team building and I like to play it during this quarter because a it's nice out and b the kids need to get used to working together again. So we will be playing that tomorrow. That'll be the majority of our class period. We will spend the morning like talking about the rules of the game, getting them into teams, and then we will actually go out and play the game tomorrow. So that'll be really fun. Some updates for you guys. My house is almost done and we get to move home on Friday, which I am so freaking excited about. I can't even tell you if you guys are new here or you don't know the story. My house flooded back in September and we've been living in a hotel since then. And so it's been really hard and we're just really excited to get to go home. So I will take you guys by the house today and show you some progress of how the house is doing. And then yeah, so that is it for today. I will see you guys tomorrow. Are you doing carpet angels? It's amazing. We have carpet. This is pretty much the exact same carpet we had before. New floor. But you want to go outside? Okay. We still have to dispose of all of the rugs. But it's looking really good. Okay, it's Tuesday and I want to let you guys in on a little secret. So Trader Joe's has healthy takis. Rolled corn, tortilla chips, chili and lime seasoned. These taste just like takis, but they don't have all the crap in them that takis have. There's no red 40. There's no artificial colors when they taste exactly the same as takis. All right, you guys. So it is Tuesday morning and I am here at school by myself quite early. We got here at like 645. Mandy just pulled in with her little crew too because we have a 715 IEP meeting and so I'm just gonna get myself set up for the day and I wanted to show you what I got for breakfast. I got a protein bowl from Salad and Go. It comes with a little ranch dressing. I am a little bit disappointed though that it doesn't come with a little bit more vegetables, but it's better than nothing. And I'm also the smell for the day is better homes and gardens, mahogany and sandalwood. This literally smells like evercrombie and fish. If you guys don't have a wax warmer in your classroom, then you've been living under a rock for too long and you need to go get one of those. I just got mine at Walmart and I get the smells from Walmart because I have found that the Sensi ones don't really work for a room of this size and the Sensi pots and neither do the Sensi scents. So I highly recommend these little cheapy ones from Walmart. They work the best. But anyway that is the smell for the day. Nothing super special today. So I'm just wearing my favorite black jeans from American Eagle. These are the boots that I wore yesterday. These are those cute little soda brand. These are like super trendy right now I feel like, or at least they were for the winter and fall. But I didn't jump on the train until recently and then this t-shirt is from Jane.com and the necklace is from Target. I believe the belt is from American Eagle too. But again just something super simple. It's not super cold here in Arizona, southern Arizona. During the wintertime anyway I think our high today is like 70. Let's see shall we? The high today is 71 degrees. So when I take my students out for recess this afternoon it will be nice and warm. Playing a little game of toxic water today with my fourthies. The object of the game is to get from one side of the basketball court to the other side of the basketball court. Those were untouched. Go back. Without touching the ground and without leaving their poly spots untouched for longer than three seconds. There is a safe zone in the middle of the court is a hula hoop. The kids can freely step in the hula hoop for as long as they need to as many children as they need. But anywhere else if they touch the ground they're out. Your team's out. Go back. Okay. They have to work together, communicate, focus, pay attention. We're gonna blur these kids out so you can watch them play a little bit. In this homeroom the other two homerooms nobody crossed the finish line in time. We're about to have three teams cross the finish line in this homeroom. So it is now Wednesday and I am just getting the time to sit here and talk to you. So as most of you are well aware the education system whole system right now is just kind of like in a giant knot and a cluster if you know what I mean. So I have not had a prep pretty much almost all week. Monday we didn't have a specials teacher so I didn't have a prep Monday. Yesterday I had a prep. But Monday, Tuesday I had bus duty at 7.30 and then this morning I had a team leadership meeting at 7.30 and our contract time is 7.30. So if I hadn't come earlier in the day I wouldn't have had a prep in the mornings. Luckily I do come early so I have extra time but my son is here so it makes it hard to do much. So and then today we have a meeting in about 15 minutes after school. So I'm kind of just like rushing around trying to get a lot of stuff done right now. I'm working on doing my students dojo request forms. So I just kind of write down what they're purchasing, how many points they're spending and their name on a note card and then I just hand them out. So that is one thing that I have on my to-do list for today. And then I also have to fill out a form for my student intern that was with me for a few weeks. I have to fill all of this out on paper and then scan it to my computer and send it to her supervisor. And then hopefully they give us time today after this training and before a PLC to just have a little time to prep. I do have a big hands-on activity going on tomorrow that I do want to share with you guys. But if I don't get the time to prep that we're gonna be in trouble. So hopefully I will have the time to prep that today. If not, I may have to stay after school, which just means that I will have cash with me. So that could get interesting. But I'm gonna try to stay positive. We have had, I don't think we have a whole ton of staff out this week. I know we do have two or three teachers that are out this week due to COVID or any other sickness. And then I am actually taking Friday off because I am moving home. And I have to be at the house to let the movers in as well as just kind of like monitor them, make sure that they put all the things in the right rooms, make sure they don't steal anything, you know, that kind of business. So Friday, I'm taking the day off. And whenever I take a day off, which is very uncommon for me, usually it's related to either I'm too sick to function or something like this. Like the only two days that I've taken off this year one was because we went on the Polar Express. And the other one was because I had to be there for the movers to take things out of the house. So yeah, I don't usually take days off. But when I do, I like to do virtual field trips. I think I may have mentioned this before, I just find them on teachers pay teachers. And they're super fun for the kids or engaging and they keep them busy. You can come back in. I'm finishing right now. Anyway, that is what I'm currently working on. And that is why I have not vlogged at all today. So but I did want to do a quick outfit of the day for you guys because I know that you guys like them. I see them in my comments all the time. And on Instagram. So here's today's outfit. So I'm just wearing a tool skirt that I got on Amazon. And then my t-shirt says it's not my fault. I was under a lot of pressure. And it's a fault line. And then I have on some leggings and these combat boots that I got from my fries or I guess Kroger depending on where you live. So that's outfit of the day. I'm gonna sit here and finish up my dojo tickets and then head down to my meeting. And if I do get time to myself, I will let you guys know. Hello, you guys. Happy Thursday. So it is my prep period. Yes, I actually have a prep today. But it's jam packed with a to-do list. And I haven't even written the to-do list yet. Today has been insane already. So we had a surprise lockdown drill right when block one started. So it took about 15 minutes of my block. And so the kids didn't get to actually finish their investigation that they were supposed to do today. So that's really annoying. Class ended like right before they were getting ready to do it. So they do have it all set up and ready to go. But they're not gonna be able to do it till Monday because I'm out tomorrow. So that sucks. Hopefully the other classes will get to do it. But I hate when like multiple classes are at different places. It just really bothers me. So hopefully the kids will get to it today. And if not, then they'll all be on the same page. So I have a lot to do during this prep. I need to finish dojo tickets. I need to complete my subplans, pick up printing. I need to do my quarter three standard plan, which is for my principle. I need to check on canvas. And then what else? That's it for now. So I'm gonna get to that to-do list. And then if I remember, I'll check in with you guys. Okay, so one thing that I do when I'm gonna have a substitute is I have a substitute binder. This obviously has the wrong years on it, but I don't really care because it doesn't matter. But in the substitute binder, I have a couple things. I have my subsheet. So this is going to give them any information that they need, classroom management, helpful students, how to contact admin, special duties, classroom rules, rewards, how the kids turn work in. And then like detailed information about like specials, lunch, fire drills, all that stuff. And then there's also the daily schedule over here. So whichever day that they're here, they're able to see like the official schedule, just in case I made a mistake in my plans. And then inside, I always put a copy of whatever it is that my students will be working on while I'm gone. I try really hard to whenever the whenever I have a substitute, I really don't want or I usually don't have the substitute teaching anything specific, I usually have the students working on some sort of asynchronous activity. And tomorrow, they'll be working on a virtual field trip to volcanoes around the world. We did just wrap up a whole unit on volcanoes. And so this I found on teachers pay teachers is just a virtual field trip. If you look up virtual field trip, you will find them. But it's really cool. It allows the kids to watch videos about different volcanoes reading about volcanoes. And then they have little questions that they fill out. And so I always print out whatever it is that the kids are going to be doing for the substitute just so that the sub kind of knows like what to expect if questions arise or anything like that. So I put a copy of that in there as well. And then all I do is I just leave this out on my desk so that when the substitute walks in, they know exactly what to do.