 to wash away. Good morning, you guys, and welcome to the first day of school where it's just gonna be me in here by myself. Oh, hey, you guys. So I'm here in my classroom. It is almost 7.30, and I am here. My first Google Meet, or I guess class time, is not until 8.50, so I figured I would sit and do some prepping for next week, and then tomorrow morning when I get here, I'm going to film some lessons for next week. So really quickly, let's do an outfit of the day. Okay, friends, so this is my first day of school outfit. I got a wet sink, so ignore that. Basically, the shirt is from Etsy. I will link it down below. It says fourth grade is magical, and it's a unicorn. And then I'm also wearing some black jeans. These are from American Eagle. I really like them. They have a button up the front, and then they have a ripped detail on the bottom, but they're still solid all the way down, no holes. And then the shoes that I'm wearing are from Walmart. I don't love these shoes. I love how they look on the bottom of my feet, but they pinch my leg fat if you get my drift. So I don't know. I really don't know how long I'll be actually wearing these today because I'm gonna be doing a lot of stuff just sitting over there. So I might end up kicking them off. Up, I'm wearing some earrings that are made by my friend Shannon at Teachingjoys on Etsy. I will also link her shop down below. And then my glasses are brand new, and I shared these with y'all on Instagram. These are from GlassesUSA, and I actually got three other pairs that I'm gonna show you real quick. So I got these from GlassesUSA. So GlassesUSA is an online prescription-based glasses shop. Basically, you provide your prescription by filling it out online, and then they send you the glasses with your prescription in them. You can choose the different types of lenses that you need, whether you're near-sighted, far-sighted, single vision, or you can do a progressive or bifocal. I also really like that you can adjust your prescription to have blue light blocking, UV protection, and the polarized or sunglass. You can also order blue light blocking glasses and non-prescription as well. So if you don't have a prescription but you need something to block the blue light, you can order those as well. I ordered these a few weeks ago, and then a few days ago, they actually came in the mail. So it takes a couple of weeks to get them, but I feel like that's pretty average for glasses. All you have to do is log in, find the frames that you like, put your prescription in, and you're set to go. So these frames that I got, this one, this pair is my absolute favorite. These are not blue light blocking, but these are my favorite ones. I forget which ones they are. I think they're the Dillion. I can't read without them. That's kind of the point. Dillion, I'm gonna put the name right here in this video, but I really like these. I've never had glasses like these before with the wire frames and the plastic rims. I really like them, and I like how they look on my face. So that is pair number one that I got. And then I should also mention that these come in a really nice case. This is when students would be allowed to come on campus, but they're not here. Anyway, so they come in this really cool hard case. So the next pair that I got, these are blue light blocking. These are the Style Muse. And the only problem I have with this pair is that they are a little bit big for my face. So I am gonna try to look for some sort of sizing tool, something I can slip on to keep them from falling off of my head. But they look like this. They kind of, like you guys can see, they're falling down. They kind of remind me of Ray Bands. They're also just kind of like goofily shaped. I don't know. I might have to, they don't stay on. But they're really cute. I think I ordered these in a size large and I should have probably got them in a medium. But these are really super cute. And again, blue light blocking. So these I planned on getting so that I could use them for like watching TV at night, working on the computer, editing blogs, making stuff for school. And so I really like this pair. It's just unfortunate that they're really big. Like you can see how wide those are when they should be like this, you know what I mean? So anyway, those are really cute. Those are the Muse pair. And then this next pair is blue light blocking as well. You guys saw these in my last vlog. These are my little pink ones. I love these. These ones I don't know the name of either. I'll put them down below for you. I really like these. They're very light, very fresh. They're very like light as far as weight goes. And I really like, usually I don't like super light colored glasses because I feel like the black just makes my eyes pop more, but that's fine. And then the last pair that I got is a pair of sunglasses. I have a pair that are similar to these, but they're not prescription. So when I saw this style, I immediately grabbed it because they remind me of my favorite pair of sunglasses, but now they're prescription. So I don't have to wear contacts underneath. Yes, I hate wearing contacts. They absolutely hurt my eyeballs, make me have headaches, all that stuff. So if I can get a pair of prescription sunglasses, then I am winning. So GlassesUSA was kind enough to provide me with a discount link. It's going to be down in the description box below. They are offering you guys 65% off of your first pair of glasses. And these are for the basic lens only. You can't do any upgrades, things like that. And any premium or marked frames are excluded, but still 65% off. That's really great. Anyway, that is my new glasses haul and let's get back into the vlog. Thank you GlassesUSA again for sending me these frames. I really, really love them and I hope you guys can find something really cute for yourselves. Also, I totally know that I mentioned that I was going to be planning on planbook.com, but I ended up going to Joanne's yesterday and I found myself a happy planner because I was noticing that when I was trying to plan and do all of this stuff for virtual teaching, I have so many windows open and I just need to be able to look away from my screen for a second and write something down. And I haven't been using my digital planner. Like I said, I was going to and I kinda knew I was gonna do this, but I ended up going and getting myself a happy planner. I actually took the cover off and flipped it inside out because I thought this cover was cuter. So I might put some vinyl on it, but I did get a happy planner. This is not a teacher happy planner though. This is a regular planner. And the reason I picked this one is because it has this layout where it has three squares per day. And I thought that's perfect because I have three periods per day and then I can put notes over here. And so I thought that would be super useful. So last night in my planner, I wrote down a couple of things that I need to make sure to have open before I even begin my first class. So I have Google Meet. That needs to be open, obviously. Google Classroom needs to be open. Nearpod, which is a really cool extension for Google Slides if you haven't heard about Nearpod. I will probably do another video some other day about Nearpod. Meet, my Meet the Teacher slideshow needs to be up and ready to go. My Welcome Song slide, which I actually embedded into my slideshow so that I don't have to try and click around to find it. And then my All About Me slide assignment. So what I plan on having the kids do for today, the first day of school, is just to start with introduction. So I'll introduce myself and I want each of them to introduce themselves and tell me something that they did over the summer, whether it was like play video games all day or maybe they went camping. I just want to know something that they did over the summer break. We're going to, I'm going to introduce my Welcome Song, which is a song that I learned from Get Your Teach On last year or the year before, I don't remember, but I love that song. It's, it goes to the tune All I Do is Win. So if you've been to Get Your Teach On, then you know this song. Anyway, so we're going to practice the morning song. And then I think this morning I want to film myself doing the morning song so that I can show that video and the kids can have it to practice with when they're not on Google Meet so that they kind of can learn it faster. And then we're going to go through the Meet the Teacher slideshow that I have prepared. And that just kind of goes through all of my like Google Classroom expectations, meeting expectations, grades, attendance, things like that. And then I'm going to get them started on their first homework assignment, which is an All About Me slide show for our whole class. So I made a slide show and I put students' names on the slide. So they just go in, they find their slide and then they get to edit slide. So I also have a video showing them how to edit the slide, how to put in pictures and text. And then they will have until Friday to finish that. Then if we have time, we will watch my full Meet the Teacher video because the one that they saw was only six minutes and the one I have is 16 minutes. So it does have like a classroom tour and like an explanation of how things are working a little bit more sentimental than the one that they got to see on our school's website. So that is how the day is going to go. I have three class meetings. I have one at 8.50, the next one is 11.45 and then 1.20. And then after that, I just have office hours. Throughout the day, I am going to be calling my homeroom families on the phone just to check in with them. As of right now, I only have about 13 of them signed into Google Classroom. And that was last night when I checked. This morning, I haven't checked yet. So that's what I'm planning on doing right now while I eat my breakfast. So this morning, I already have a few students asking me for information that I had previously sent in an email to their parents. So I am responding to those emails, getting them their Google codes that they're asking for. Everything was sent out in emails so they should have everything. Okay, my first Google Meet starts in 15 minutes. I'm not nervous about that. That's gonna be really fun. What I'm nervous and anxious about is the amount of emails that I've gotten from parents already this morning, not able to get into Google Classroom. They don't know where to find the codes. I sent an email on Monday. I'm trying to be real with you guys without picking at a certain group of individuals. I don't want parents to feel bad about this, but please be prepared. If you're a parent and you're watching this and you're not a teacher parent, when a teacher sends you the information, read it right then and there. Take some time that evening to get it out, look it up, write it down so that you're prepared because in 15 minutes, I'm not gonna be responding to emails anymore. I'm not gonna be answering your mind messages. I'm gonna be in the meet with kids. I'm not gonna be able to help them get logged in. So luckily, we have this time between 7.30 and 8.50 to answer questions, help the kids get in, but it's people, I'm trying to find the words to say this without insulting anybody. Please just do things ahead of time and don't wait till the last minute. So you teachers out there who are getting ready to go through this, if your administrators tell you to send the email out on a certain day, send it two days before that. We were not supposed to send out our information until yesterday, I sent it out two days early and I'm still getting an influx of people who waited until this morning to get everything set up and figured out. So send it way, way sooner so that they have more time because this is what happens. I mean, it's going to happen, it's fine, it's the first day, we'll figure it out, but it's very stressful. So I've had an influx, I've got like three more that just came in, deep breaths, we're gonna be fine. Also, this is my Google Meets set up. So I decided to do my Google Meets right here in the front of the room because this is the view that they get behind me. So I want them to be able to see their classroom. So this is where I'm setting up for this morning. And then depending on what I'm teaching or what I wanna cover, I can move it around the room, but that's why I love these tables because you can move them wherever you wanna go. Okay, I'm gonna get back to my emails and then I will check in with you guys after my first Google Meet is over and let you know how it went. Hey you guys, so my first class meeting was a huge success. I had 27 participants in it. Whether or not they were a kid or an administrator, I know I had 27 people at one point. There is an attendance add-on for Google Meets. I will show that to you when I get time, but I have about an hour and 45 minutes until my next Google Meet. So I'm gonna respond to the 30 emails that I have in my inbox until that Meet starts, but super fun. I highly recommend that you create some sort of signal for your students when you're in a Zoom or a Google Meet that is for them to show you they understand or that they don't. So when I went to get your teach on, they taught us this really cool hand signal that the kids can use with each other when each other is talking. And I always use it in my class. So when a kid is talking and another child agrees, like something they said, thinks that they're correct, they do this. And I call it a cheeky thumbs up. So throughout the Zoom meeting or the Meet, I ask my students, give me a cheeky thumbs up if you understand what I said, they do this. If they don't understand, they have a question or they disagree, they give a side wave. So as I'm asking questions going through this, I look at the student screens and if they're doing this, I know I'm good. If I see one doing that, I'll ask them to unmute and ask a question. It is tough with Google Meet because you can't scroll through the participants like you can on Zoom. So there are quite a few students that are off of my screen. So I told them, if you don't hear from me within a minute of raising your hand or doing this, put your question in the chat and then I can respond to it that way. Or if you're confused, put it in the chat and I'll ask you to unmute. So that worked really well. As far as everything else goes, I had a blast. These kids are amazing. They all came in, they muted themselves, they asked questions, they all stood up. My rule is if you're gonna speak and unmute yourself, you have to stand up because I want them to practice that for when we get back in the classroom. In my room, when the kids respond to something, answer a question, ask a question, they have to stand up to speak. So I wanted them to start practicing that on Google Meet so that they would have that procedure known when they come in the classroom. Okay, so I'm gonna go respond to my emails, go to the bathroom, eat a snack, and then I will have my second meeting of the day with my period two students. I'm already exhausted, but I feel a lot better getting that first one out of the way. My jitters are a little bit gone because what's cool about teaching departmentalized is that I teach the same thing three times a day. So by the third one, I'm solid. I got it. Okay, I'm gonna go. And just like that, the day is over. It's 208 and I just finished my last Google Meet. So for the rest of the day, I am to stay here and get prepped for the next couple of days. I'm gonna answer emails. I'm going to start prepping my Google Classroom for next week. I think I'm gonna film tomorrow any lessons that I need for next week. I'll come in early. Today was a whirlwind, you guys. We had not just me, but my teammates, and I'm sure all the other teachers, just a whirlwind of emails and messages and comments of people needing help, and that is completely expected and understandable. If you're a parent and you're not a teacher, I highly, highly recommend that as soon as you get an email from your child's teacher, practice getting logged in, ask your questions, get it all figured out before the first day of school because just keep in mind that as teachers, we have all of our families, all of our students to be balancing. And if we can have at least most of our families prepared and ready to go, it's gonna make things go a lot smoother. So I think I'm going to end the vlog here because I am exhausted. I'm just as tired today as I would have been on first day of school. The only problem is my legs aren't as tired. I did stand a lot though. I only sat down during this last meet because my feet were starting to hurt, but other than that, I stood up. So I do have quite a bit of work to do to prepare for next week. Everything for this week is done and ready to go. So anyway, if you guys liked this video, don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Follow me on Instagram, Apples and tiaras. And of course as always, I hope you guys have a splendid, splendid rest of your week. If you haven't started dipping your toes into the whole digital learning thing for the next school year, it's gonna be rough, but you can get through it. Stay calm, breathe, talk to your colleagues, talk to your friends, and when you leave for the day, turn everything off and enjoy yourself, take time for yourself. I'm gonna go and I will talk to you guys in the next one. Bye.